Displacement In India Research Articles

Developing Screening Guidelines for DDH and CP Hip Displacement in India

Developing Screening Guidelines for DDH and CP Hip Displacement in India

A Legal History of Land Acquisition in India

Development-induced displacement (DID) significantly dominates the problem of internal displacement in India. It occurs when people are forced to leave their habitat to implement large-scale infrastructural projects. Some 10 million people worldwide are displaced or resettled every year due to development projects, with the largest share of displacement due to the construction of dams, urbanization and mining. It has been regarded as ‘the youngest type of involuntary migration.’
 In India, the problem of development-induced displacement is quite historical. However, it was only during the British period that the development-induced displacement started gaining attention. This paper seeks to discover the roots of development-induced displacement in India in its pre and post-independent periods. It also discusses the development of various acts of land appropriation since the Company Raj till the present day to understand the patterns and nature of land acquisition and displacement.

Development-Induced Displacement in India and the Tribal Rights: A Quest for Social Justice

Human population displacement from natural environments has a variety of socio-economic consequences. Displacement induced by larger projects has resulted in a transfer of resources from the marginalized to the more privileged sections of society in India’s development paradigm. Mega Projects like dams, Infrastructure, and Industries, in particular, subject certain sections of society and make them sufferers of development, primarily tribals who never receive the benefits of this kind of economic development. It would be apt to generalize that the size of the development project is directly proportional to its impact on tribals. Development initiatives have disproportionately impacted tribal people. This article aims to delve deeper into the impact of displacement on tribal communities’ livelihoods. It will identify the most pressing issues they confront due to development-induced displacement and rehabilitation. A study by the Centre for Policy Research concerning land rights reflects that nearly 55% of people have been displaced, citing reasons for developing industrial projects and dam building since independence. A detailed literature review was done by using major database like Scopus, Web of Science, and Google Scholar.

No city for Khori Gaon residents: Forced eviction during a pandemic in the name of forest conservation

In the last decade, conservation-led displacements have intensified in India’s peri-urban areas, especially in the Delhi NCR (National Capital Region). While global academic discourses on urban informality and poverty have transcended the hegemonic ways of thinking about informal settlements as a lack of development, within the legal and public domains in India, the debates that informal settlement residents are ‘free-loaders,’ ‘encroachers’ and ‘land-grabbers’ are still dominant. Courts and most state governments have blamed the urban poor for environmental degradation while forests are regularly being handed over for mining, infrastructure projects and real estate developments. This article explores a recent case of conservation-led displacement in India. Khori Gaon, a 50-year-old settlement of more than 100,000 residents, was demolished following a Supreme Court order declaring they were forest encroachers during the pandemic. I argue that the settlement’s forced eviction follows a distinct pattern within displacement mechanisms driven by a revanchist ideology and advanced through a process of criminalization and dehumanization of the urban poor, leading to a degradation of human rights.

The BJP Government and the Kashmiri Pandits: Managing the Politics of Displacement in India

ABSTRACT After the Kashmiri Pandits were driven from their homes by a violent insurgency in the 1990s, the issue of their displacement and potential rehabilitation has featured prominently in mainstream Indian political discourse, and particularly in the messaging of the Hindu-nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). The BJP subsequently became the leading political force in India and as the governing party has had ample opportunity to respond to the Pandits’ plight. The displacement and possible rehabilitation of the Pandits is thus an appropriate case study to consider how the BJP in government has managed a grievance-based issue that served the party well while it was building its political base. In this article, I apply a critical discourse analysis methodology to the BJP’s handling of the plight of the Kashmiri Pandits. I argue that the government has used the plight of the Pandits for electoral advantage while doing little to resolve the issue and failing to create favourable conditions for the community’s rehabilitation. The BJP’s approach, and the consequent exacerbation of regional and religious polarisation, has instead led to further insecurity for the displaced Pandits.

Neoliberal capitalism and misery of small peasantry and agricultural labourers in India

This article argues that, till date, a single paradigm dominates the discourse on agrarian crisis and farmers’ movement against the anti-farmer dictates of the Indian state. There is a pressing need for the organic intellectuals of the masses to build an alternative discourse to examine the agrarian crisis and its roots. To this end, the present article reasons that the neoliberal resolution of the agrarian crisis that the authoritarian-corporate nexus has imposed on the farming community will produce mass dispossession and displacement in India. It exposes the misery of traditional consciousness that rules over the current farmers’ movement in India. The article concludes that the agrarian crisis which is actually a crisis of small farmers and agricultural labourers requires modern consciousness for egalitarian and long-term resolution.

Disaster-Induced Internal Displacement in India: Denial, Protection and Policy

Disaster-Induced Internal Displacement in India: Denial, Protection and Policy

OUP accepted manuscript

The article explores internal displacement from biological disasters such as epidemics and pandemics. The article analyses displacement in India from the coronavirus outbreak of 2019 and claims that the group of internal migrants who were unable to return to their homes and stranded in various parts of the country because of the national lockdown exhibits the characteristics of disaster-driven IDPs, and should, therefore, be treated so. This analysis reveals three main aspects leading up to a practical recommendation: the inconsistencies in the current Indian legal response can be attributed to the group’s non-recognition as internally displaced; the acknowledgment of the Disaster Management Act, 2005 as the appropriate national law to extend such protection; with the recommendation to explicitly integrate such persons as internally displaced under the Disaster Management Act. The article’s wider contribution is towards developing the corpus of protection to persons displaced by disasters under disaster management laws of countries.

Insecurities and Human Rights Issues of People Affected by Development-Induced Displacement

Development and displacement seem to be directly related to each other. As India is a densely populated country, any development project leads to the displacement of lakhs of people. Displacement is not just the physical relocation of displaced people but is also associated with social and economic consequences that disrupt the lives of people. The insecurities resulting from the same are manifold. They include human insecurity, social insecurity, economic insecurity, food insecurity, health insecurity, and gender-based insecurity. This paper briefly analyses the situation of displacement in India and reflects on the insecurities faced by the people displaced due to development projects.

Development and tribal displacement in India : A human rights perspective

Development is an integral and even nonnegotiable part of the modernizing agenda of any nation. Many projects are taken up in areas that are rich in natural resources like water, minerals and ores, and forests. If we have a look upon these areas, they are generally occupied by tribal people. Undoubtedly, these projects serve the broad economic interests of the country and so maximize the well-being of all its citizens. But, there is also a negative aspect about these projects. They have brought adverse social, economic, environmental, and cultural effects in the form of displacement of people especially tribal people, from their original place of habitation due to large-scale land acquisition. The impacts of the displacement process are massive. In this regard, Michael Cernea, a sociologist, proposes in his impoverishment risk and reconstruction model that ‘the onset of impoverishment can be represented through a model of eight interlinked potential risks intrinsic to displacement’. These are landlessness, joblessness, homelessness, marginalization, food insecurity, morbidity, loss of access to common property resources, and community disarticulation. To combat these issues, certain regulatory frameworks are introduced by the government at the national as well as the international level which focus on compensation and the procedure of rehabilitation and resettlement aspect. Apart from this, the Indian Judiciary has always participated a crucial and active role in the complex issues of land acquisition, displaced persons, and their rights as well.

What the Tribal Peoples Displaced by Development in India Can Learn from the Resilience of the Winnebago Tribe in Nebraska

The principle of the greater good for the greatest number is cited in arguments supporting the human displacements caused by development. A large number of risks associated with displacement can generate new forms of poverty for indigenous peoples affected by development, if these risks are not mitigated. While tribal displacement in India is quite problematic, tribal peoples such as the Winnebago in Nebraska (one of the states in the USA) have largely succeeded in reestablishing themselves following displacement. Based upon the use of qualitative methods involving archival research and key informant interviews, this article examines the Winnebago case of reestablishment with a view to its relevance to endangered tribal peoples in India.

Development-Induced Displacement in India: An Indigenous Perspective

India focused on various developmental projects as well as dam construction after independence. These were regarded as symbol of modern India, though all these helped a lot in developing India. But these mega projects also resulted in displacing millions of people from their ancestral land. The inadequate planning and implementation of various resettlement and rehabilitation policy made lives of displaced people even worse. Once they were rehabilitated no one from the respective government inquired about their wellbeing. They were totally left out the mercy of almighty. This paper is based on secondary sources, and tries to examine various issues among displaced families and their problems they faced. In this paper, it has been seen that the displaced people have faced number of problems, because the state government has not taken seriously their problems. Women and children are the worst victims as they are not considered in the resettlement and rehabilitation policies. Women have hardly any property rights on the land so they are not entitled to compensation. In the name of development, most of the people are affected who belonged to weaker section of the society.

Assessing economic impacts of forced land acquisition and displacement: a qualitative rapid research framework

This paper sets out a qualitative rapid research framework for designing and conducting field-based studies of the livelihood risks and opportunities (LRO) arising from involuntary displacement and resettlement. The ‘livelihood risks and opportunities’ framework combines insights from the ‘impoverishment risks and returns’ framework and the ‘sustainable livelihoods’ approach. This paper discusses the advantages of the LRO framework over other currently used qualitative and rapid research methods, and demonstrates its application through case studies of conservation-induced displacement in India.

Development Induced Displacement in India

The doctrine of Eminent domain, that is inherent in the idea that the State can take away any property for the greater public good, is the idea that supports development-induced displacement. This doctrine can be debated against the worth of individual rights versus the power of State. The very idea that all the land and property belong solely to the Ruler of the land, so as to he can only give as well as take away property rights from the citizens, is archaic and feudal. The existence of the doctrine of Eminent domain is a mere polished version of the same archaic idea that an individual’s right to property is dilutable by the government in case of any acquisition.

Mining-Induced Displacement and Resettlement: Social Problem and Human Rights Issue (a Global Perspective)

The object of this paper is to present mining-induced displacement and resettlement (MIDR) as a highly diverse global socioeconomic issue occurring in all regions of the world, as a human rights issue, and as a source of challenges to public international law and and institutions providing humanitarian assistance. Development-induced displacement is primarily an socioeconomic issue associated with loss or significant reduction of access to basic resources on which communities depend. Physical abandonment of the existing residence shall therefore secondary to the loss of access to material resources such as land, pastures, forests and clean water as well as intangible resources such as socio-economic ties. More in-depth analysis has been preceded by an introduction which draws attention to the specific nature of MIDR as one of the categories of internal displacement. Mining-induced displacement is currently not a statistically significant category of development-induced displacement and resettlement (DIDR). Nevertheless, the social costs of exploitation are great, and that is why the topic is worthy of a wider and more profound scientific analysis. The first displacement caused by mining dates back to the late nineteenth century. As pointed out by Walter Fernandes, in India alone, mining has led to the displacement of more than 1,5 million people over the last fifty years (particularly in Jharkhand region). Other sources estimated the scale of mining-caused displacement in India at more than 2,55 million people between 1950 and 1990. Contrary to the opinions of some specialists, the problem of mining-induced displacement and resettlement is a global problem, occurring on all continents. Countries with particularly large-scale MIDR include: India, China, many African countries (e.g. Ghana, Mali, Zimbabwe) and even Indonesia and Papua New Guinea. The problem of compulsory resettlement is also a consequence of open pit coal mining in European countries like Germany and Poland. Although mining-induced displacement is a global phenomenon, problems experienced by the displacees in many parts of the world differ greatly. The largest portion of the displacement is caused by open-pit mining (associated with the extraction of gold, copper, iron, lignite, and diamonds).

Development and Displacement in India: Reforming the Economy towards Sustainability

Displacement of human populations from the natural habitats results in a host of socio-economic impacts. This study will focus on mainly farmers and tribal communities in India and how the modernisation process has affected these communities especially since the adoption of neoliberal economic reforms. For the rural people the displacement is a traumatic both in terms livelihoods and cultural point of view. The paper will analyse the issues of displacement of the villages that have been relatively isolated from the outside world. The development induced displacement becomes important due to its impact on the rural communities through land alienation in the form of protests by the affected communities. I find that not even a single study shows the socio-economic and environmental effects of these policies on the rural poor. Analysis of the reasons for these changes point in many directions. Displacement, the loss of traditional livelihoods of the rural communities and environmental destruction are the most prominent among them.

Changing Facets of Involuntary Displacement and Resettlement in India

Among several issues that Indian society confronts today, involuntary displacement of people by government due to taking away of their agricultural lands and other assets (homestead etc.) for development projects—both in public or private sectors—has emerged as one of the highly debated and disputed issue. Several of these development projects have faced stiff resistance and even violent agitations against the appropriation of affected people’s assets under the compulsive Land Acquisition Act, 1894. In the earlier decades (since India’s independence in 1947), government succeeded in acquiring vast lands from people for creating such infrastructure, irrigation, mining and heavy industry projects, mostly in the public sector, due to people’s ignorance of their rights, and also their faith in the political system. However, with the growing intensity of involuntary displacement and eroding ‘public interest’ in pushing industrial/mining projects by government, the affected people and civil society groups started challenging the ‘eminent domain’ used by a sovereign state in imposing developmentalism, without restoring meagre sources of sustenance of the affected people. This is now more relevant in the context of market-driven Indian economy, where government’s decision of approving over 400 ‘special economic zones’ (SEZs) has resulted in direct confrontation between the ‘shining India’ and highly vulnerable agrarian communities. The present article presents a critique of over five decades of such involuntary displacement in India with its possible fallout on the role of state for ‘public cause’.

Pragmatism and Development: The Prospects for Pluralist Transformation in the Third World. By Murray J. Leaf. Westport, Conn.: Bergin and Garvey, 1998. xiv, 229 pp. $59.95 (cloth). - The Development Dilemma: Displacement in India. By S. Parasuraman. With an Introductory Study by Michael M. Cernea. New York: St Martin's Press, 1999. In association with the Institute of Social Studies, The

Pragmatism and Development: The Prospects for Pluralist Transformation in the Third World. By Murray J. Leaf. Westport, Conn.: Bergin and Garvey, 1998. xiv, 229 pp. $59.95 (cloth). - The Development Dilemma: Displacement in India. By S. Parasuraman. With an Introductory Study by Michael M. Cernea. New York: St Martin's Press, 1999. In association with the Institute of Social Studies, The

The Green Revolution: Socioeconomic Insecurity and Agricultural Displacement in India

This article discusses the Green Revolution, ostensibly implemented to address food insecurity in India. Instead, it deepened transitory food insecurity as well as systematically compounded exploitative systems of labour, landholding and capital distribution to the detriment of peasant and landless agriculturalists. The project increased the economic risk of agricultural labour and the instability of the sector as a whole. For these reasons, issues surrounding the impact of the Green Revolution inherently involve economic, social and ecological displacement and migration to urban and food-surplus areas. A secondary displacement effect involved the impact of the Green Revolution on forests. Irrigation to support it required dams and canals that displaced people outside the market oriented agricultural sector. The Green Revolution is thus shown to have had both primary and secondary displacement effects.