Forced Evictions

forced-evictions

Forced evictions are on the rise in several parts of India. Most development projects, at face value, seem aimed at improving the lives of people: a new dam will generate more electricity to power industry; a new shopping mall will create new businesses and therefore more jobs.

However, the reality for communities living near a project is often quite different. These projects often about result in destruction of communities, the loss of jobs, and the impoverishment of people. Each year an estimated 15 million people across the globe are forcibly uprooted from their homes, farmlands, fishing areas and forests to make way for dam reservoirs, irrigation projects, mines, plantations, highways, and tourist resorts. Urban slums are bulldozed to make way for luxury condominiums, sporting facilities and shopping centres. Human rights abuses do not end after a forced eviction. A community may not be formally resettled and often find themselves living without adequate housing and without access to water, work, schools and hospitals. A forced eviction exacerbates poverty, social unrest, environmental degradation and loss of cultural identity.  

Often, society accepts this collateral damage as the price the nation must pay for development. Yet it doesn’t have to be this way: it is possible to both safeguard people’s rights while also experiencing economic growth.

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State Repression Forces Adivasis Out of Their Land in Odisha

 
/ June 29, 2018

The PESA law makes it mandatory for village councils to be consulted before any land acquisition in the village, but it is being blatantly violated today.

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No End to Forced Evictions for Those Displaced by Sardar Sarovar

 
/ April 23, 2018

The Sardar Sarovar Dam has been in the news more than once for the large-scale displacement it has caused. But there is a lull in the media after rehabilitation is promised, says Community Correspondent Pawan Solanki, reporting on life after rehabilitation.

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Kol Adivasis’ Decade Long Battle for Land Rights

 
/ April 16, 2018

The Kol community, a Scheduled Tribe in most states, has had little in the name of land rights or even human rights and dignity. But not one to step back, they see some hope in the Forest Rights Act of 2006 even after 10 years of running back and forth...

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Corporate Greed for Coal Threatens to Displace Adivasis

 
/ January 8, 2018

In 14 villages under 8 Panchayats in Tamnar Block of Chhatisgarh, Adani is eyeing over 115 acres of land and forests to mine coal.

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Demolishing Dreams in Maximum City

 
/ January 5, 2018

Houses and shops razed by the municipality, led to families living on pavements in Mumbai's Ghatkopar.

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Expansion of Sanjay National Park, Madhya Pradesh Set to Displace 15000 indigenous Dwellers

 
/ June 19, 2017

7 villages are set to be evacuated for the expansion of the Sanjay National Park in Madhya Pradesh, ostensibly for wildlife conservation.

Mumbai-Nagpur Expressway Promises Prosperity, But Spells Misery for Nashik Farmers Forced to Give Up Land

 
/ June 9, 2017

“The officials told me this Mumbai-Nagpur Expressway is the chief minister’s dream project. I am very sad, he seeks to fulfil his dreams by crushing ours.”

Media-bias ignores the real story of the Jharkhand community protest at NTPC

 
/ November 22, 2016

On October 1, 2016, newspapers across India flashed the news that four civilians were killed protesting against National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC), along with dozens of others who were injured as police opened fire in Jharkhand near Hazaribaug. Most of these reports briefly mentioned that the people fired upon, were...