Natural Resources FORUM PERGAMON Natural Resources Forum 23 (1999) 81-84 Note The Narmada Valley Project: displacement of local populations and impact on women Bipasha Baruah College of Science and Management, University of Northern British Columbia, Prince George, British Columbia, Canada V2N 4Z9 Introduction The development efforts in the Narmada River Valley in central and western India have been the focus of intense domestic and international debate over the past decade. The complex nature of the issues involved in the project as well as the well-organized resistance to it makes it an exceptional case study for exploring the political, economic and moral aspects of contemporary development efforts. The internal controversy over the project reveals conflict among and within many contemporary local, international, governmental and nongovernmental institutions not only over inherently complex and challenging issues related to development, but also sincere differences among wellintentioned groups over what actually constitutes development. While the general displacement and rehabilitation of primarily indigenous people that is inevitably necessitated by large scale projects has been the focus of much study and debate, relatively little discussion has been afforded to issues related to gender awareness and the issues related specifically to the displacement of women. Although planners have long been aware that the failure to incorporate gender sensitivity and awareness into development carry significant costs and repercussions, relatively little has been done to integrate gender into large development projects like those on the Narmada River. This paper will discuss aspects of the Sardar Sarovar Project (SSP) that will have serious impacts on the lives of the displaced women. It is hoped that the discussion will draw attention to the urgent need for consideration of such issues in other similar projects. The Sardar Sarovar project: expected gains vs costs A great deal of attention has been paid to the need to establish the right balance between the promised benefits of large dams, the interests of people adversely affected by the dams, and the environment. Increased public awareness has placed the burden of responsibility on development planners to assess accurately and compensate fairly for the social and environmental impacts of projects. This responsibility is enormous because techniques have not yet sufficiently advanced to provide for the precise prediction of social and environmental impacts. The SSP has been affected by these evolving standards, and the growing concerns about social and environmental issues associated with the project fuelled worldwide controversy about both the project and the World Bank's involvement with it. What is sustainable development? The proponents of the dam insist that sustainable development is compatible with large-scale, ambitious, and centrally controlled schemes. They are equally confident that such projects are capable of mitigating the effects of natural cata- 0165-0203/99/S19.00 © 1999 United Nations. Published by Elsevier Science Limited. All rights reserved. PIT: S0165-0203(98)00035-X strophes as well as meeting the increasing food, water and energy needs of a growing economy. The project was designed to alleviate and irrigation severe drought problems, and therefore lent itself well to the World Bank goal of increasing irrigated agriculture in India. The primary concern of the project planners was sustaining agricultural growth in Gujarat by using an available and previously untapped water resource. According to them, the Narmada runoff is a perennially renewed resource that currently goes to waste. Dam proponents argue that harnessing this untapped resource would enable Gujarat to 'sustain' its economic growth and the standard of living of its population. They argue that the increasing needs for water in droughtprone areas, for both agricultural growth and a growing economy, justify the projected means and the costs of damming the Narmada and relocating the people who are currently residing in the submergence area of the reservoir. Some supporters acknowledge that, while not all large dams in the world or in India can be justified, the SSP can because it uses a balanced sustainable strategy of generating and protecting water resources. Opposition to the project Critics of the SSP include not only some of those who will be directly displaced, but also academics, journalists, human rights and environmental activists. These individuals are part of B. Baruah / Natural Resources Forum 23 (1999) 81-84 a national coalition called the Narmada Bachao Andolan that espouses Gandhian nonviolent resistance techniques to stress their grassroots membership and goals. This group questions the portrayal of Sardar Sarovar as an example of sustainable development and sees it instead as another project that will overexploit the available resources to the detriment of the underprivileged and the benefit of the privileged. They argue that by any measure the project is unsustainable and unjust. These critics have serious reservations about the project alleviating drought in the most stricken areas. They are curious about alternative measures that may be viable. This group quite astutely notes that the size and complexity of schemes like Sardar Sarovar necessitate that they be initiated, financed and managed by the state as the guardian of the interests of the people. They stress that this necessity shatters the notion of sustainable development being bottom-up and not top-down and therefore fails outright to pass as sustainable development. They argue that for development to be sustainable it is vital that efforts be decentralized and that local people be involved at all stages of the design, appraisal, and implementation of projects. The resisters acknowledge the need to address the problems of the drought-prone areas, but at the same time they argue that sustainable development should be as concerned with justice and equity as it is with an ecologically sustainable use of resources. From their perspective, large scale, centrally controlled schemes are incompatible with sustainable development because the state's role as guarantor of national and international capital renders it incapable of protecting the interests of the poorest strata of society. They argue that large projects like Sardar Sarovar tend to benefit those who are able to make their interests heard at the state and national level. In their view, political pressure has encouraged the planners to expand the command area to be as large as possible and to use statistics that are more optimistic than would be justified by previous experience in irrigation projects in India. They stress that development is planned on the whims of the wealthiest portion of the population and call for models of development where the first priority is ensuring the minimum needs of the maximum number of people. Plight of the displaced In spite of such obvious shortcomings, conventional planning and planners have continued to justify the displacement of populations as an inevitable part of the development process. They have also continued to be unable, in most cases, to explain why the people who are dislocated are not the ones who derive the maximum benefits from the project. Thus it does not seem to be merely coincidental that a major proportion of the displaced are the poorest and the most powerless members of society. In India, these are predominantly the landless and small landholders. Statistics from India support this. According to government estimates, 40% of those displaced by development projects in India are indigenous people, referred to as tribal (Government of India, 1985). In its report on the Rehabilitation of Displaced Tribals, the Planning Commission's Working Group for the Development and Welfare of Scheduled Tribes notes that out of the 2 million people displaced by 100 projects, about 814 000 are tribal. Though other development projects have also led to displacements, dams are the single major source of displacement simply because they submerge large areas of land. Compensation In India, the ability of displaced persons to fight for their rights is most seriously impaired by the legal instruments that concern themselves with the acquisition of land and resettlement. The relevant Land Acquisition Act is such that once the government decides to appropriate a piece of land, there is very little the person whose land is acquired can do except perhaps ask for increased monetary compensation. The law does allow the person to object on the grounds that the purpose for acquisition is not 'public' but this option really only exists in theory because to be able to exercise it people need detailed information about the project. The low social position and very often, illiteracy of the people most frequently affected by displacements makes it almost impossible for them to gain access to this kind of information. Another major drawback of the Land Acquisition Act is that it only offers cash compensation for land. The resettlement and rehabilitation of displaced people does not fall within the scope of this act. Rehabilitation The situation with regard to rehabilitation is even more grim because there is no central law or even a central policy that governs rehabilitation or lays down guidelines. The resettlement of displaced people is governed either by the concerned state government's overall policies and rules or those formulated for a particular project, and the implementation is left to the project authorities and officials. Therefore, in the past resettlement has always been ad hoc and piecemeal. Formulation and implementation of rehabilitation plans for interstate projects is especially complicated and problematic. Lack of information Another crucial shortcoming of the rehabilitation exercise is the lack of adequate data. Project documents such as those published by the Central Water Commission and Irrigation and Power Board contain minimal information on the people affected by the project. Consequently, there are varying estimates even on the number of villages affected. The estimates of the number of people displaced vary from 60 000 to 150 000 (Human Rights Campaign on Narmada, 1993). Also, because no demographic projections are made, the estimates are based on B. Baruah / Natural Resources Forum 23 (1999) 81-84 old and outdated data that do not take into account the increase in population in the course of completion of the project. When one considers that the foundation stone of the project was laid in 1961, the construction work began in 1979 and the project is still nowhere near completion, it is fairly obvious that large changes in population must have occurred in the years in between! None of the policies, however, reflects these changes. Indirect effects Another major shortcoming is the lack of consideration accorded to those who will be indirectly affected due to changes in the land-use patterns as a consequence of the project. The official estimates completely exclude this section of the population that includes: those who have lost access to natural resources on which they traditionally depended such as fishermen; those who are affected because the people on whom they depended for their livelihood are no longer there, such as share croppers, artisans, tenants; and those who may be affected due to the environmental consequences resulting from the project such as earthquakes, floods, air, water and soil pollution. The subsistence of an unknown number of people will also be affected because of sedimentation at the upstream end of the reservoir. Impact on the landless In addition to these people, there is also a large sector of people who do not have legal access to the land that they have been cultivating for generations. These people have been categorized as "encroachers' because legally they have encroached upon the land they cultivate. This group of people have for generations practised shifting cultivation and continue to do so. They, along with those who work as agricultural labourers, will receive unequal treatment from state to state. For example, in Gujarat, both encroachers and the landless get the same treatment and are entitled to the same amount of land. The Maharashtra policy makes provision for a very nominal amount of less than an acre of land for the landless, and Madhya Pradesh on the other hand will only provide monetary compensation to its landless population. Thus, it appears that the landless will be the worst affected by the project because they are totally dependent on resources attached to the land. The same vulnerabilities render them more likely to become migrant labourers or encroachers upon available forest, or government land. The problems identified here are really only the tip of the iceberg. A plethora of other problems include: the unavailability of adequate and suitable land for rehabilitation; lack of attention given to requirements for fodder and fuel; shortages of housing and housing materials; the likelihood of multiple displacement of the same populations; and a division of interests and conflicts after relocation between the new settlers and the host population. All of this supports that the SSP is an extremely poorly planned, arrogant and unethical human experiment in development. Impact on women The largest group of marginalized people whose specific needs and interests have received minimum consideration is undoubtedly the women in the displaced populations. They are doubly disadvantaged because very little, if any, attention is paid to them both by the concerned authorities and the males in their own families. The Multiple Action Research Group (MARG) of India conducted meetings in the villages of Madhya Pradesh that were to be affected by the SSP. Dhagamwar, Thukral and Singh in their essay "The Sardar Sarovar Project: A Study in Sustainable Development' ' note that whenever the team members requested to speak to women, they were invariably asked, "Why do you want to talk to women? What do they know?" Yet upon speaking to the women in the villages, the team appre- 83 ciated how serious their problems were. It became obvious that the opinions of women were rarely sought and that they were just as rarely informed. Loss of access to water and forest resources In rural India, women are largely responsible for collecting food, fuel, fodder and water. Given the present conditions of environmental degradation and deforestation, these are arduous tasks even under ordinary circumstances. The women in the Narmada Valley were acutely worried about how their needs would be met after displacement. Past experiences confirm that their fears were not trivial. Women who had been previously displaced due to dam-related projects explain that although life prior to relocation was difficult, at least there had been enough river water and forest fuel and fodder available. Once the dam had monopolized the water, or mining operations had taken over the forest, it became difficult to fulfil even their very basic needs. After building on the dam had commenced, the women commented that even the remaining water in the wells became too polluted by coal, cement, dust and gravel to be used. Loss of access to the forest made women's lives even more complex because alternative toilet and sanitary facilities were rarely provided. Women who are currently being displaced due to the SSP will, in all likelihood, face the same problems since the lessons from previous resettlements have not been deemed important enough to deserve consideration in the rehabilitation planning of this project. Social impacts The breakdown of villages and social units affect women much more severely because Indian women are generally much less mobile than men. As a result, women are greatly concerned that they may be leaving relatives and friends behind, or that they may never again meet their daughters who are married into a B. Baruah / Natural Resources Forum 23 (1999) 81-1 village that will not be displaced. These issues cannot and should not be brushed aside in planning for such projects, but they find no mention in the grand scale of things. Indian land and property rights have always worked against women and consequently very few women in rural areas own property or have legal title in their name. Therefore, they are seldom entitled to compensation. It is the adult male who is considered to be the head of the family even in the case of joint holdings. Legal and social status of women however later amended by Maharashtra to entitle daughters of project-affected persons who were unmarried on 1 January, 1987 to receive one hectare of land (Tata Institute of Social Sciences, 1993; as cited by Vandana, Shiva 1991). The other two states of Gujarat and Maharashtra have no such provisions. Deserted women have not even been referred to in any of the state policies. Also, as things stand, widows, as mentioned earlier, will be entitled to compensation and rehabilitation only if widowed after 1980 and in Gujarat! It seems obvious that the planners did not want to accept that both men and women face displacement. It leaves one perplexed about how these policies fit in with the constitutional guarantees of equality. There is much being said in India about improving the status of women, so it is disappointing to discover that they are given so little consideration in the government scheme of things. Rehabilitation plans for the SSP have been found to be discriminatory toward women in an even more incisive manner. The definition of a family as laid down in the Tribunal Award is that "a 'family' shall include 'husband,' wife and minor children and other persons dependent upon the head of the family, e.g. 'widowed mother"' (Narmada Water Disputes Tribunal 1978; as cited by Fisher, Conclusion 1995). It also specifies that each major son will be treated as a separate While it is fairly obvious to underfamily. This definition does not stand why displacement is especially consider women as separate entities difficult for women, it is important to but as mere dependents. According to acknowledge that it has been known to the definition of the family as interlead to the breakdown of traditional preted and laid down in the policies social relations and physical and of Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra, psychological stress at the community a widow is to be treated as a dependent level. It also leads to economic disrupon the head of the family. A widow's tion resulting in impoverishment and right to the allocated land ceases to insecurity. In past dislocation exist as the alternate land is allotted programs, the affected persons have to the head of the family, i.e. her often been left in a state of poverty. adult son. In as late as 1990, the Because most of the displaced are Gujarat government did decide to unskilled and illiterate and have no recognize a woman who became a alternatives offered to them, they are forced to join the large forces of widow after 1980 as being entitled to migrant wage labourers, or even fall a separate package although she into bonded labour. Fallout in the remains a dependent if widowed form of gambling and prostitution is before 1980! also not unknown. Until recently, none of the three states On the optimistic side, the concept involved in the S SP gave the same beneof sustainable development may fits to an unmarried adult daughter as to contribute to our knowledge by forcing an adult son. In fact, in 1989, the policy us to examine the paradigm within for people who were to be displaced specific cultural systems. Although from Maharashtra clearly stated that our ability to devise alternatives to adult daughters were not to be considthe dominant development paradigm ered as separate families and were thereremains to be ascertained, there is fore not entitled to land. The policy was plenty of room for hope. The acceptance and integration of the concept of 'sustainable development' into the development industry is also commendable because it calls for increased attention to the environment, local problems and cultural sensitivity. Awareness of problems emerging from the attempt to assimilate marginal and disempowered people who very often adhere to non-dominant cultures and ways of life into dominant socioeconomic systems may create new and more holistic paradigms. It may provide an opportunity for significant reform. On the other hand, it may simply serve to recycle old ideas about development. Through conflict and struggle, the debate over the Narmada contributes to the movement towards an emerging paradigm of sustainable development. The solution will probably lie not in more rigid and fixed definitions, but in a more open process of questioning and evaluation. A critique of current models of development may suggest the rejection of development in its entirety. However, it must be remembered that even though development sometimes displaces local people and causes environmental destruction and social stresses, the complete lack of appropriate development can also affect people adversely. The search for the right balance between inappropriate and appropriate development will perhaps be endless. It will be productive if sustainable development is not treated as the answer, but rather as the larger area in which the searching must be done. References Fisher, W. (ed.), 1995. Toward Sustainable development? Struggling over India's Normada River. New York: M.E. Sharpe, Inc. Government of India, 1985 Report on the Rehabilitation of Displaced Tribals. Author please insert details. Human Rights campaign on Narmada, 1993. Author please insert details. Vandana Shiva, 1991. Ecology and the politics of survival: conflicts over natural resources in India. New Delhi: Sage publications Pvt Ltd.