Consulting the Development-Displaced Regarding their Resettlement: Is there a Way?

Abstract

Involuntary resettlement of people displaced by large dams, as by several other development projects, is largely considered a failure. Increasingly, researchers have shifted focus from trying to improve welfare outcomes for the affected to questioning the involuntariness of resettlement schemes. The idea of voluntary resettlement, under which the displaced are consulted regarding their resettlement, is often suggested as a preferred alternative. The problem of ‘incentive incompatibility’, however, suggests that, if asked for an evaluation of their losses, the affected have an incentive to exaggerate. In this paper the author explores the possibility of using the contingent valuation method—a method often used to make decisions about environmental issues—to consult the affected without capitulating to this problem. This experiment is carried out in nine villages affected by the construction of the Sardar Sarovar Project in the Narmada Valley.