Tribal displacement

 Development projects every year involuntarily displace one million people in the developing countries from their land and homes. Development and displacement have direct link with Scheduled Tribe population. The question becomes more relevant when it concerns the tribals because they often adversely affect the environment making the life of the tribals more difficult and responsible for tribal migration. Even the health, food and nutrition of the tribals are also adversely affected.

Development projects, particularly dams, have always generated serious controversy in India as they are the major source of tribal displacement. Estimates of national resettlement forced by development projects shows that during 1950-90 the number of people affected were 18.5 million. According to the Central Water Commission, over 3,300 dams have been built since independence and some 1,000 more are under construction. In order to achieve rapid economic growth, India has invested in industrial projects, dams, roads, mines, power plants and new cities. According to the data of Indian Social Institute, government acquired massive land and subsequently displaced 21.3 million people.

The Sardar Sarovar dam across the Narmada River in Gujarat State displaced more than 41,000 families (over 200,000 people) in the three states of Gujarat, Maharashtra, and Madhya Pradesh. Over 56 per cent of the people affected by the Sardar Sarovar dam are tribals. The indigenous tribal communities displaced by in the 1950s and 1960s by the Hirakud dam in Odisha, Bhakhra dam in Himachal Pradesh and other projects still struggle to get the paltry compensation promised to them at that time.

The development process pushes tribals from an informal to a formal economy that is new to them without any preparation. They had depended on agricultural land and forests, both of which they lose to the development projects. When they receive compensation it is monetary with which most tribal communities living in the informal economy are not familiar and in most cases the Common Property Resources (CPRs) are not compensated.

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