Development-Induced Displacement in India: An Indigenous Perspective

Abstract

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.

Headnote

Abstract

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.

Keywords: Development, Displacement, Resettlement and Rehabilitation issues, Indigenous People, India

Introduction

Development means the development of a society as a whole and includes not only economic and political system but also the nature of social institution, the structure of social relationship, pattern of culture, nature of values and way of life based on certain coordinal principles and ideals as the goals of human life as well as the society (Farooqui, 2009). Economic development is regarded as indispensable for the progress and prosperity of any country. Since, without development, there can be no progress and growth. It raises the living standards of people so that they are better off from their previous state. It necessarily involves creation of basic infrastructure like railways, dams, roads, shipping, power station, irrigation facilities, and established industries. Such projects are invariably required as they improve lives of people, provide employment to them and supply them better services (Kaushal, 2009). The fact is that economic development not only generates positive consequences but also give rise to negative consequences in the form of forced displacement and involuntary resettlement of affected people (Ibid).

Post-Independence, Indian government mainly focused on economic development which was in the shape of dams, mega dams, mining, factories and irrigations projects. All this resulting in increasing the Gross National Product (GDP) of the country, but at the same time created in involuntary displacement. The main focused of the government was development through various Five Year Plans (Mohanty, 2005). With the passage of time India began to invest more and more in heavy infrastructure development that lead towards national development and began to be considered as symbols of technological advancement (Fernandes and Raj, 1992). In Independent India, the hydropower project was considered a temple of modern India by the first generation leader. Displaced people were given only monetary compensation (Judge 1997). It is evident that the economic development strategy in India is largely nurtured at the costs of the Dalits, a large section of the victims being tribals and lower castes (Advani, 2009). People are forcibly displaced by the dam projects from their ancestral land, ancestral property, and disrupted their social relation, family structure and kinship structure (Kaushal, 2009). They are alienated from their traditional ancestral shrines, holy rivers, mountain, forests and traditional place of worship (Mishra 2002). Displacement, resettlement and rehabilitation have been serious concern for all developing countries including India. Since, last 60 years large numbers of hydropower projects has been constructed and more than 50 million people have been displaced and only 25% of displaced people were rehabilitated (Saxena, 2008). It has been seen that large number of development projects have been poorly constructed and not properly implemented resulting in an undesirable impact on environment affecting the quality of people's lives (Ibid). Development- induced displacement resulted in landlessness, homelessness, joblessness, marginalization, poor food insecurity, increased morbidity, loss of common property resources and social disarticulation (Cernea, 1990).

Magnitude of Displacement

Displacement has become a serious issue across the globe. Since independence millions of people have been forcibly displaced from their native place by the various development projects. It has been found that there is no reliable data exist on the displacement, resettlement and rehabilitation. Some studies were reported that the official sources are underestimating the displaced people by the dam project (Mohanty, 2005). Every year, more than one crore of people are displaced across the globe by different type of projects such as coal mining, dam projects, roads, defence, irrigations and majority of belong to marginalized section of the society (Kumaran, 2013)

From the Table 1 (see next page), it is clearly seen that millions of people were displaced through different kinds of projects in India and very less were rehabilitated. Resettlement and rehabilitation has become a one of the biggest issues among the displaced people and for the government authority. Till 1990, more than two crores people were forcibly displaced by dam's projects in India. Majority of them was tribal community and only 24.9% have been rehabilitated and a staggering 75.1% still await rehabilitation (Mishra 2002). According to Fernandes (2007) since independence as many as 60 million persons have been displaced, of whom a large majority have not been properly rehabilitated as yet. It has been seen that people have displaced multiple times throughout their life. According to Ray (2000) in Madhya Pradesh people were displaced four times since last 30 years by development projects such as Rihand Dams project. He further argued that in Karnataka, the Soliga tribals were also displaced two times by Kabini dam projects and also by Rajiv Gandhi National Park.

Mohanty (2009) stated that in tribal region, Industrialization become a biggest cause of tribal displacement. He further reported that in tribal region 3.13 lakh people have been forcibly displaced due to mining projects and 13.3 lakhs tribal have been displaced directly from their ancestral land. He also adds that beside the direct displacement, mining projects have also affected their livelihood of displaced people and put additional pressure on tribal families for their survival. Walter and Paranjpye (1997) stated that 25.5 lakh people have been displaced by mines, 12.5 lakh by industries, and 164 lakh by large and medium dams, 6 lakh by park and wildlife operations and 5 lakh by other projects.

Gender Issues in Development Projects

Gender issues are directly influential in development -induced displacement studies. Displacement has inherent concern with the compensation issues, rehabilitation problems and social issues. Policies are supposed to be meant for the benefit of displaced people, but in some way they are working in the other way. The current study attempts to examine the policy out come from displacement and resettlement. The study is focused on gender issues through various projects in India. Gender issues has become a big problems for development projects, because in India, there is no such policy in which the displaced women can get benefits from the government. There is a large debate around displacement and resettlement in India, but the existing literature has shown that minimal work has been done on the impact on displaced women. In Indian patriarchal society, women have are not given their due rights in the form of compensation on the resettlement package by the respective government. Nowhere, the land is registered in the name of women and as such they are totally neglected. Even the women head household and widow do not get any compensation after being displaced. Men are the recognised heads of household; therefore, compensation is often paid only to them (Asthana 2012).

In the traditional Indian family system, even though the widow, adult girls, deserted and divorced women living in the same household still then they are not entitled to receive any compensation. The irony is that the sons and adult male member of the displaced family are treated as one family but not for adult females (Pervez, 2008). From the ages due to patriarchal nature of the Indian society women have been neglected on all the cases. Even displaced women have to face discrimination with regard to compensation and rehabilitation package. The Indian law and government policies also do not provide any relief to the displaced women. The gender inequality exists in all section of the Indian society, whether it may be in jobs, families or in the matter of land rights or in compensation issues (Hemadari, et al. 1999).

These gender inequalities are clearly seen in mountain regions where women are the backbone of the hill economy and most men migrate to the plains in search of jobs (Nathan 2009). Women are not given their due share in the compensation package as all the compensation whether in the form of land, and money is issued in their name of male member of the family and not jointly (Thukral, 1996). The ownership of landed property is an essential condition before one could claim compensation. Those who do not have property or those who are indirectly dependent on it could not claim compensation (Advani, 2009). It has been observed that gender bias and discrimination can be seen in the Land Acquisition Act 1984 with regard to land ownership and other issues (Thukral, 1995). Mirdula Singh and et al. (1992) observed that in the case of giving compensation the adult women, widow, daughter, divorced women are not treated as separate entity. But these are regarded as dependent up on male members of the displaced family. The policy for displaced people from Maharashtra clearly mentioned that adult women would not be entitled to any land. It has been seen that after the Independent India, there are large numbers of dam projects constructed for the economic growth, but none of the policy makers paid adequate attention towards gender issues, their policies and problems. The gender issues remain silent since India's independence.

Rehabilitation and Resettlement Issues in India

In India, post-independence economic development is based on large dam projects and big industries such as coal mines roads power plants which has been accompanied by widespread displacement (Pervez 2008). Majority of development projects have resulted changes in the land use pattern, water and natural resources and displacement of a large number of people from their original places of habitation (Pandey 1998). It is evident, that large numbers of developmental projects were constructed without any resettlement and rehabilitation policy. In the absence of a national Rehabilitation and Resettlement (R&R) policy, state government or even specific project authorities introduced their own principles and handled the R&R of the displaced by way of ad hoc plans ( Pandey and Rout 2004). Rehabilitation measures and policies adopted by most state governments based on the LAA of 1984 embraced a very narrow approach to compensation (Dreze et al. 1997). It has been found that from 1950s to 1980s there was no such policy for displaced people. The resistance of the displaced people and civil society against the unjust rehabilitation started in 1946 with Hirakud dam in Odisha, But resistance gained momentum in the late 1970s in Narmada dam which later came to be known as the AntiDam movement, played a major role in forcing the state to amend their resettlement and rehabilitation policy. It also put huge pressure on the India government to formulate a national policy for resettlement and rehabilitation policy (Pervez, 2008).

The Rehabilitation and Resettlement policy was first introduced in 1985 by a committee of Ministry of Welfare. It took lot of time, and there were discussions for nearly two decades over various draft policies. The National Policy on Resettlement and Rehabilitation (R&R) for displaced families in 2003 came into force in 2004. But, there was a need to make this policy more participatory and transparent and to reduce the adverse impact of displacement. Hence, the national policy of R&R was revised and the R&R bill came out in 2007. But, this policy again failed because gender factor was ignored. The resettlement and rehabilitation policy is still open for discussion since 1985 (Pervez 2008).In India, another issue in resettlement and rehabilitation policy is lack of transparency, if we look at the existing literature we find that government authorities, NGOs, and researchers provide different data about the displaced people. Though involuntary resettlement is a very sensitive issue still the government authorities do not pay adequate attention towards resettlement and rehabilitation policy. There are data which shows how figures are under represented by government authorities Viegas (1992) revealed that the numbers of person displaced by the Hirakud dam was 1.6 lakh and while government official figures was only 1.1 lakh. Patnaik Das and Mishra (1987) stated in the case of Bargi dam on Narmada River in western MP, the project authorities said that 101 villages will be submerged. However when the reservoir was filled the number of villages submerged were 162 villages.

It has also been observed that in the absence of land for land as compensation was a great blow to the displaced people and it was very difficult to buy a piece of land elsewhere with the meagre compensations they received. Therefore, the displaced people who were cultivating the forest land suffer more as the government refused to give them compensation either in the form of land or money. Since, the land they were cultivating was declared as state land by the government. It was huge burden on the resettled, who were already undergoing severe hardships (Nayak, 2013).

Policy on Paper and on Ground

Lack of proper national policy and lacunas in the existing policy documents is a major problem. Apart from that, there are serious problems at the level of implementation as well. In most cases, there is a wide gap between the framed policy on paper and what gets translated in reality. Most state level policies or the national policies in the making, have provisions for land for land compensation. But due to several loopholes, affected people, in many cases, are just given arbitrary cash compensation (Banerjee 1997). In Sardar Sarovar dam, Gujarat has one of the most progressive rehabilitation packages, but resettling 25% of the families displaced by the reservoir has taken 15 years and there is a wide gap between the tall promises and the ground reality (Bhatia, 1997).

Nathan (2009) stated that the insufficient compensation received by displaced people resulted in impoverishment. The government or project authority did not provide sufficient amount to displaced people so that they could rebuild their social life resulting in hardship and misery for them. Compensation is based on the value of the land at the time of notification, which may be much less than its value at the time of dispossession. He further adds that bureaucratic corruption means that the amount of money that reaches the people is substantially less than the price of replacement land. Sarkar (2007) study was based on land acquisition in West Bengal. He found that how the government misguided the displaced people. He says that earlier registered farmers were promised by the government that they would get a share of 75% of produce and they would be never evicted from their land. But later on the Left Government did not fulfil its promise. The farmers were paid only 25% of the share and were also evicted from their land. He further adds that the unregistered farmers and landless labor were given nothing from the compensation.

Mander (2005) focused on delayed payment of compensation. He studied Indira Sagar Pariyojana where he found that out of 91 villages only 20 villages were compensated and rest of the villages were waiting for compensation. The study further stated that the project authority misled the displaced people. In fact, in Narmada, authorities reported that they have given land for land package. But in reality there was no such package. People were given only compensation which was inadequate.

Problem of Inter-state Dam Projects

In India, there are number of interstate dam projects which create conflict between two states. For example: Narmada dam, Tehri dam, Aliyar dam, Almati. Even the Polavaram conflict that Odisha is fighting with Andhra Pradesh is due to construction of a large dam (The wire.in/ environment). But it has been seen that when dam projects were constructed between the two states then the issue emerged regarding resettlement and rehabilitations none of the state were ready to take any kind of responsibility of resettlement and rehabilitation.

Thukral and Singh (1988) observed that there is a lack of coordination between two States. If the projects involves more than one state, an entirely new set of problems arises with regard to the distribution of benefits and costs of rehabilitation of the displaced people. For example, in Pong dam, Rajasthan being the prime beneficiary was entrusted with the responsibility of settling the displaced people. But out of 30,330 families displaced by it only 16000 families were found eligible for compensation under the colonization rules of the Rajasthan government. The displaced people belonged to Himachal Pradesh. The Rajasthan Government provided land for resettlement in Pakistan border without basic facility. But the Rajasthan government did not provide any legal title to displaced people where they were resettled. After 10 years the displaced people came back to native State and started living in hilly areas.

From the above discussion, it apparent that development- induced displacement creates lots of problems among displaced people. The land acquisition act, gender issues and rehabilitation issues and lack of transparency become challenges for the Indian government. In interstate dam projects since, two states are involved the displaced people suffer more as both the state refuse to accept their responsibility and keep on blaming each other for compensation and resettlement issues. It has been observed that in India, there are no uniform resettlement and rehabilitation policies for displaced people.

Compensation Issues

Compensation is one of the issues for development projects in India. People who are displaced from their native home land are given compensation in terms of money. In India, compensation has been given under Land Acquisition Act 1894 (amended in 1994). Under this act, most of the displaced people are not eligible to get compensation, particularly tribal and weaker sections of the society. Every state has its own resettlement and rehabilitation policy. In India, there is no uniform resettlement and rehabilitation policy for displaced people. That is why the compensation issues are bigger challenges for the policy makers as well as the state government. The displaced people have been given meagre compensation. It is very difficult for displaced people to buy a piece of land for resettlement. It has been seen that in the absence of land for land compensation, displaced people always faced hurdles in their lives. There is hardly any policy in development projects in which the affected people have been given land for land compensation. From the 1950s, onwards large numbers of dam projects are constructed but none of the policy makers paid adequate attention to compensation issues except monetary compensation in term of money.

It is evident, that in the process of resettlement the displaced people are given only monetary compensation in the form of money in exchanges loss of land, house, and other assets (Nayak, 2013). In India, it is a fact that people living in hilly areas are forest dwellers and totally depended on natural resources for their survival. Most of these do not have any legal rights on the land they use. As such these people suffer the most due to forced displacement. They do not get any compensation for their land and are forced to work as daily wagers at the new site (Agnihorti, 1996).

It has also been found that even though the displaced people are given land for land compensation by the government, but still they are not given legal ownership of that land. All this results in increasing the miseries of displaced people rather than reducing them (Nayak, 2013). He further added that the government provides loan to displaced people for their agriculture and other activities at nominal rates but some corrupt officials in the loan providing agencies discourages these people from taking government loan. Hence, all the government initiatives to reduce the problems of the displaced people have failed and have in turn resulted in increasing their problems rather than reducing them. Forced displacement has in no way been a joy full experience for the displaced people. It has increased their miseries many fold. It has been argued that unavailability of proper land, lack of proper land strategy, lack of political will have resulted in unsuccessful resettlement and rehabilitation of the displaced people (Ibid). It has also been observed that the displaced people have to spend 4 -5 years of their life to get their compensation and even after they get it, they have to get huge amount of their compensation money as a bribes to the government officials in exchanges of compensation they receives. Rest of the compensation amount is paid to the money lenders to clear off their debts (Mallavarapu, 2008).

From the above discussion it has clearly observed that in the compensation process displaced people always face plenty of problems such as land entitlement, court case for land entitlement, lack of proper documents, hostile attitude of authorities, and gender issues. Most of the displaced people misuse the compensation and depend upon daily wages. It has been seen that due to the lack of proper documents of land title, the compensation issues become a difficult among family members. These incidents have been seen among the tribal, because they have common land and they do not get any compensation.

Consequences of Displacement

India is one of the largest dam building nations in the world. There are 4291 dams in India. 3596 dams have been built and 695 dams are under construction (Patwardhan, 2000). Displacement is often regarded as a onetime phenomenon by which a person is forced to leave his/ her original place and go elsewhere (Ibid). It has been seen that a person whose land or other means of livelihood are destroyed in the process of displacement, is entitled to get just cash compensation under the land acquisition act (Kothari 1996). According to World Bank report, dam cause the largest dislocation. Approximately 66% population are displaced by dams and it submerges vast areas of agricultural lands. It tigers un-employment and hence, leads to social pressure among the oustees in villages (Das and Tewari, 2014). It has also been observed that displacement of human population has always been traumatic, dismantling the agricultural production system, loss of employment, disorganisation of social systems and breakdown of associations (Ibid). The current study attempt to highlight some displacement related issues.

The New Social Environment

Forced displacement has become a major challenged for displaced people. It affects the social economic, cultural, and political lives of people. When people are displaced they face lot of problems at new resettlement site and they are forced to adopt new social environment. It has been seen that it is very difficult for displaced people to adjust to new environment with socioeconomic disturbance. People are forcibly resettled without psychological and cultural preparation. As a result they always lived under depressed conditions. In the new social environment, the displaced people face problems such as cultural crises, and adjustment problems, particularly women, children's, and elder people. The kinship relation gets totally disturbed and all the relatives, kith and kin started living in scattered places. The younger generation find it's difficult to cope up with the old and new cultural identity.

Verma (2004) stated that displacement in Singrauli region tore apart the social network of the displaced tribal. Before displacement the tribal were living a simple and honest life without any greed. But implementation of various developmental projects in the region resulted and creating a greed and hunger for money among the otherwise simple and honest tribal and backward people. In the new environment, people lost their traditional family values and cultural ethos, respect of elders and started quarrelling about trivial money matter, resulting in breakdown of family norms. He further observed that the elderly people were the most seriously affected one. Most of them lost their life as they could not adjust the new environment and culture. On the whole, the region became victim of social evils.

In the new social environment, many of the displaced people changed their living arrangement, attitude, culture, and way of life. Sawhney and Malhotra (2013) highlighted the positive change among displaced women. The study found that the position of women with in family and kinship networks is subject to change as with the new living arrangement in the within host community, the relationship of women with the wider society is bound to change. The study further, mentioned that earlier women could not venture out freely because of family obligations, but after displacement women got greater opportunities to participate in the work sphere and outer society. Forced displacement caused both positive and negative consequences. But most of the studies have focused on negative aspects. Sawhney and Malhotra (2013) observed that most of the displaced women faced lot of social problems at new location. Thermal (1992) stated that displacement in village along Narmada created a new problems among the displaced women as they were unable to find suitable alliance for their daughters with in the locality. They did not want their daughter to get married outside their locality as they were afraid that they may not be able to see them again. Displacement created a new social stigma among the displaced family especially women.

Singh (1999) stated that in the new location, women face additional burden of workload as they loss their livelihood, breakdown of community network create problems of marriage of daughters, rise in alcoholism and increased in domestic violence. Rawat (2012) also discussed on the effects on displaced people due to change from old to new setting. She stated that in native place the women were very happy in performing their daily task such as collecting water, fodder for livestock, household chores and agriculture activities. But in the new social setting they are quite unhappy as they have to live under constant fear of thieves, looters, and molesters. This problem is quite evident among the displaced families where the men are working outside. In such situations, the displaced women feel alienated from their close kin, friends and close neighbours. It has also been found that displacement has caused several social problems in resettlement site. It increases instances of social disturbance like alcoholism, gambling, theft, prostitution, domestic violence and wife beating. These directly affect the lives of women. In Sardar Sarovar dam resettlement sites, increased tendency of alcoholism augmented rate of domestic violence. As men become powerless, their scape goats are women and children (Kaushal 2009).

Fernandes and Raj (1992) pointed out similar kind of problems at rehabilitation colony in Odisha. They found that among displaced family, drinking and domestic violence increased after displacement. Displaced people were living in a state of trauma and most of them took to drinking to deal with trauma. Singh (1992) studied two dam projects Sardar Sarovar and Tehri dam. He stated that transitional phase is one of the crucial phase in the lives of displaced people. He further added that displaced people can lives happily if they are able to overcome the hurdles in the alien area. But due to inadequate planning the displaced people are left to struggle for years together. Verma (2004) highlighted another issues in new location. He found that in the new place caste conflicts have taken a new shape. Judge (2000) also found similar kind of problems at rehabilitation site. He found that if the same caste were found at a new location then the displaced persons do not face many problems. But if the host community belonged to caste groups different that of the displaced persons, than the conflict would invariably, start for sharing their natural resources.

Nayak (2013) pointed out that the involuntary displacement created conflicts between the host community and displaced people. Displacement resulted in competition over the use of natural resources and employment opportunities. The inclusion of new community in the host community resulted in creating various problems over the issues of caste, religion, ethnicity, cultural clashes, social problems, political problems and demographic imbalances. In most extreme cases it also resulted in caste conflicts and communal rights.

It has been seen that in the new social environment, these kind of problems always emerged and it is very difficult for the displaced people to settle in that situation. Another study also highlighted the similar kind of problems in resettlement site. Ayyar (2013) stated that in the resettlement site, people from different castes and religions live at one place and in most cases they fought with each other, accusing one another of invading their privacy and resources. They are always conflicts between the host community and displaced people. In most of the resettlement site, displaced people from different castes do not interact with each other except on rare occasion of community gatherings. Their social and religious lives mainly around their own families and neighbouring belong to their own background. It has been seen that displaced people lose their social status and are treated as development refugees by the state where as they are treated as destitute by the host community which they consider as a lifelong stigma imprinted on them. In the unfamiliar environment in rehabilitated colonies they are ill-treated and seen as encroachers and unnecessary nuisance is created by the host community (Mohanty, 2005). From the above studies it has been observed that in the new social environment, displaced people faced multiple problems such as domestic violence, family conflicts, health issues, marriage issues, adjustment problems with host community etc. It has also been seen that at the resettlement site majority of displaced people are living without basic amenities and they always face multiple problems though out their life.

Conclusion

India is a developing country and every year, a large number of developmental projects are being undertaken. Displacement especially involuntary result in forcibly displacing millions of people from their ancestral land. Inadequate planning and implementation of various developmental project often leads to various environmental problems which is turn result in deteriorating the lives of millions of people. Displacement is a disruption in social life which results in landlessness, homelessness, joblessness marginalization, poverty and food scarcity, increased morbidity, and loss of access to common property resources and social disarticulation. Most displaced and project affected persons belong to the marginalized and powerless classes, or to landless labourers and small marginal farmers with no assets. As per many independent assessments displacement has made the lives of displaced people very worst, by deteriorating their standard of living to the lowest.

It has been seen that in India there is gender discrimination among displaced men and women. After the 1950's large number of projects were constructed for the economic growth in India but none of the policy makers paid adequate attention towards gender issues and their policies. In Land Acquisition Act 1984, millions of lands in hectares have been acquired for development purpose, and people have been given only monetary compensation. Under this act, displaced women do not find any place for compensation. Compensation is generally transferred to male members and women are totally ignored in term of compensation and other activities. It has also been observed that most of the development victims belong to the poor sections of the society like Dalits, tribals, women and other backward classes. Women are the worst victims of development and displacement. Research show that that number of social problems arise among displaced women such as increased domestic violence (because the availability of cash received in compensation has led to increase in alcohol intake by men resulting in violence against women such as wife beating). Feeling of insecurity at new sites, weakness in kinship bond, breakdown of familial relationship, and conflict among family members, loss of income resources, and additional burden on women, increased in dowry demand are some of the offshoots of forced displacement.

The displaced women face multiple problems such as economic, social, and financial and health issues. It has been found that the women are the most affected one due to displacement. They do not receive any compensation since, they do not hold the legal rights of the land. Due to patriarchal nature of the society women are not treated apart with men in various jobs under resettlement and rehabilitation policies. In India, there is an absence of uniform national resettlement and rehabilitation policy. Whatever policies are there for the displaced people in the country they are not properly implemented. Large numbers of dam projects are constructed without any proper policy. The policy makers do not pay adequate attention towards the displaced people. Displaced people have given monetary compensation and left them alone. Hence, there is a need for a policy and law, which could integrate social and occupational issues related to land. The land Acquisition Act (1894), even after the amendment of 1984, does not recognize the right of land losers about their rehabilitation. It disperses them by paying monetary compensation only. Major changes are required in the Act and in the policies dealing with land acquisition so as to make them welfare oriented.

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