More displaced than others

Published : May 05, 2006 00:00 IST

During a demolition drive at a slum in New Delhi on March 30. -

During a demolition drive at a slum in New Delhi on March 30. -

Displaced slum-dwellers have not got as much media and political attention as the Narmada dam oustees have in recent times.

IT is difficult to comprehend the reason for the anger of Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi at the recommendation that the height of the Sardar Sarovar dam be raised only after those displaced by the increased height are rehabilitated. From what one has been able to gather there was no decision or, indeed, any recommendation, not to raise the height of the dam at all. It was only being suggested that the people who would lose their homes and land because of the rise in the level of the water behind the dam be resettled first and then the dam could be raised to the recommended height of 121.92 metres.

That would certainly delay the benefits accruing from raising the height of the dam, and, to that extent, the population in downstream areas in Gujarat waiting for more water will have to wait for a while longer. But they have been waiting for decades for some relief; that relief is clearly coming, even if it comes a little later than expected. That will surely not increase their hardship even if it does not lessen it; and that extra time will mean that a large number of persons who are losing their land and homes will get somewhere to stay, and some land to cultivate.

That cannot be said to constitute injustice to the farmers of Gujarat. They will benefit, but when they do, it will not be at the cost of people who are going to lose their lands and homes. Therefore, it is a benefit that is truly one that can be welcomed by everyone. Modi, however, seems unable to see it in those terms.

The point here, though, is not the resettlement of those displaced by the rising waters of the dam. It is about the resettlement of persons affected by developmental work, and of those who are removed from illegal encroachments such as slums. The latter may be, if one is being very literal, violators of the law and therefore not deserving any sympathy; but they are people whose homes are destroyed and in the process often lose their livelihood as well.

A great deal is being made of the manner in which the resettlement of those affected is being done. Not so long ago a team of three Ministers visited the region to see for themselves how effective the resettlement measures were; and this is owing, almost wholly, to the crusade by the indomitable Medha Patkar who, at the time this is being written, lies seriously ill in the All India Institute of Medical Sciences hospital, refusing to break her fast. At the same time, however, large numbers of slum-dwellers in the capital have had their homes bulldozed and are being removed to some alternative resettlement areas. As one has said, these people are illegal occupants of land and therefore deserve less sympathy than those affected by the waters of the Sardar Sarovar; it is, nonetheless, difficult not to want to know just where they are being taken, and what is offered to them as an alternative home.

That, however, does not appear to be of much concern either to the media or the leaders of various parties and organisations such as those that are now demanding that the Sardar Sarovar Dam not be raised any higher. Similar removals have taken place in Mumbai - slums have been demolished in areas near the airport and along the choked Mithi river. Again, it is not clear where the families affected have been taken and what they have been provided with in terms of alternative homes.

It will not do to treat the issue merely as one of removing illegal encroachments and `cleaning up' the area. It is basically one of how people - families - are handled by authorities. Living in slums cannot be a very attractive prospect; those who do so live there because the alternatives are much worse. But then over time they become, in a way that one can recognise, homes for those who stay there, with elements of what constitutes a home: security, familiarity and the discernible comfort familiarity brings. Children are born there, there is enjoyment and sorrow, quarrels and good fellowship. A bulldozer takes all that away; what is a matter of some concern is what is offered in its place. Invariably it is described in terms of statistics and data - building plots measuring so much, or a single or two room tenement of so many square feet and so on.

It is what is unsaid that is worrying. Whether, for example, there is enough water; just how far away is it from places where the displaced can find work of some kind, work they are used to. A family of washermen, for example, will look for work near residential areas; it is of little use putting them somewhere near factories. And just as one agrees that such meticulously planning is impossible, one does need to assert that it does not, therefore, absolve those responsible for rehabilitating these families of looking at the basic problem of displacement in terms that are human, as a problem understood and realised from the inside, if you will, not just as a given problem that needs to be resolved in any way that seems enough to the authorities themselves.

If Medha Patkar and the Narmada Bachao Andolan (NBA) have been able to focus media attention on rehabilitation, something similar is needed for those whose problems have not received that kind of attention from activists or anyone else. Moving families is not a lesser catastrophe because those moved are poor; and yet that is the inevitable conclusion one reaches when the problem is looked at. The attempt to relocate persons in Ulhasnagar, on the outskirts of Mumbai, resulted in a swiftly promulgated ordinance regularising all the buildings in that suburb; that may not be possible for the slum-dwellers in Mumbai or Delhi, but they can surely be afforded rehabilitation that takes into consideration their occupations, and such domestic concerns as schools, medical facilities and shops for everyday necessities.

In many cases, reports will show that schools exist, there are medical clinics or health centres, the new residents do have access to shops, and so on. The story on the ground may not be quite what reports say. This is the crux of the demand being made for those displaced by the Sardar Sarovar Dam; the rehabilitation measures may exist only on paper or in a manner that amounts to their not being there at all - schools with no facilities or teachers, or health centres that either have no staff or no medicines or neither. Land given may be harsh, infertile; water may be available only in small amounts or very far away.

This may or may not be the case; as it may or may not be true of the measures provided to those relocated from slums. What one is saying is that it is necessary, and very important, that these measures be looked at by a responsible body that can remedy any shortcomings. And that is something that presupposes a degree of serious concern, not the kind of official concern that is usually contained in files and reports.

A team of three Ministers went to see how the rehabilitation of people displaced by the Sardar Sarovar Dam had been taken up. There do not appear to be any such teams for those removed from slums. They go into an oblivion few seem really to be very bothered about.

As Napoleon, the pig who took charge of the animals in Orwell's Animal Farm, decreed: "All animals are created equal but some are more equal than others."

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