Interface Between Involuntary Displacement and Human Rights: Critical Issues for the Indigenous People of Gujarat State, India

Abstract

This thesis examines the impact of the Narmada Dam Project on the socio-economic and cultural well-being of the displaced indigenous tribal people living in the state of Gujarat, India. The impact of relocation is discussed in terms of policy making, the institutional framework, human rights violations, and planning and execution. In order to analyze the impact of government policy and its implementation, elements studied include rehabilitation, resettlement, land alienation, education, health, security, basic amenities and gender issues. The study is based on a review of the official documentation together with the governments' policies, followed by an anthropological survey of the people concerned. Interviews were conducted with a sample of the affected families in the displaced communities living in their new villages, who had been settled there for some twenty years after their relocation. The researcher visited a sample of sixteen villages resettled as a consequence of the Narmada Dam and situated in the Vadodara district of Gujarat State during the period September 2010 to February 2011. She toured the villages and their facilities and interviewed affected people, government officials and NGO personnel, as well as organizing focus groups. The results of the field research show that rehabilitation and resettlement has not been provided adequately or according to the existing policy norms. The displaced tribal people are not satisfied with the compensation provided to them because it did not help them to improve or restore their pre-displacement status. On balance, the results of this study suggest that the planning and administration of the resettlement programme were both poor. Overall findings indicate that the uprooting of indigenous people from their homeland not only disrupts their way of life but also erodes and eventually destroys their social, cultural, religious and economic traditions. Based on the findings from Gujarat State, displaced people require a planned approach to rehabilitation in order to minimize their hardships in resettling. Accordingly, some suggested measures for systematic planned rehabilitation of displaced tribal people are outlined.