The Hindu : National / Maharashtra : Rehabilitation policy to be amended

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Sunday, Jan 02, 2005

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National - Maharashtra

Rehabilitation policy to be amended

By Our Special Correspondent

MUMBAI, JAN. 1. The existing National Rehabilitation Policy is being amended to make it an effective means of ensuring social justice to the large numbers of people displaced by development projects in the country.

Some members of the National Advisory Council (NAC) had initiated the move to amend the existing policy which was highly unsatisfactory, said N. C. Saxena, former Secretary, Planning Commission and member of the NAC. He told The Hindu that he had prepared a draft rehabilitation policy way back in 1997-98 but what the National Democratic Alliance Government notified in February 2004 was weak and did not fulfil the needs of displaced people.

The NDA Government's national policy on resettlement and rehabilitation for project-affected families was widely criticised. Mr. Saxena said the policy did not provide for transparency or any consultative process and only proposed paying people cash instead of giving land for land.

Activists felt that the policy did not deal adequately with critical issues related to land use and did not examine alternatives to a particular project. It also did not specify a time frame for rehabilitation. The policy was not circulated or discussed before it was notified. The new draft which has the involvement of Mr. Saxena, economist Jean Dreze and Aruna Roy (both are also NAC members), apart from Medha Patkar, Dr. B D Sharma, Harsh Mander, Shekhar Singh, Pradip Prabhu and Chittaroopa Palit, is trying to incorporate elements of transparency, a consultative process with the people, and socially just rehabilitation.

After a debate on the proposed amendments to the policy in New Delhi in November, a two-day meeting held at the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS), Mumbai, on December 28-29, 2004, tried to broaden the discussion by inviting various sections of people working in forest areas.

However, several questions remain on urban areas, forests and mining which need a wider consultation, according to Dr. S Parasuraman, director of the Tata Institute of Social Sciences. The need for a proper policy was acute, he said, as it afforded a framework in terms of planning, general principles behind rehabilitation and institutional structures.

It was also time for the development mechanism to reconcile private interests and people's concerns, apart from past injustices to the displaced people.

An estimated 40 million people have been displaced since 1950 due to development projects, 40 per cent of which are Adivasis.

Of these, less than 40 per cent have been rehabilitated. Even as amendments to the policy are under discussion, massive demolitions of slums have been undertaken in Mumbai and at various places in the country; land is being acquired for projects, leaving people with no proper rehabilitation.

In Orissa notably, the target of much "development", Saroj, an activist from Kashipur, pointed out that people who were displaced for a bauxite mining project were being forced to accept the rehabilitation package. The State and the company had joined hands to make sure all opposition to the project was suppressed, she said.

At the Mumbai meet, Ms. Patkar, leader of the Narmada Bachao Andolan, said development must be seen as part of the overall planning policy. The oustee is not a displaced person but someone who will share the investment process. Displacement must not result in the loss of dignity, said Dr. B. D. Sharma, who has worked closely with marginalised communities.

Mining activity was a physical loot of the resources and the experience in the backward areas was disastrous.

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