Resettlement and Rehabilitation: Indian Scenario.
Authors: Clare Lizamit Samling (Centre for Environment & Developoment), Asish K. Ghosh (Centre for Environment & Developent ), Sugata Hazra (Jadavpur University).
Summary: Displacement of people in India, is largely triggered by factors such as, development projects, political conflict, setting up Protected Area Networks and Conservation areas and natural disasters, amongst others. The International Displacement Monitoring Centre in 2007 reveal that about 50 million people in India had been displaced due to development projects in over 50 years. A study conducted in six states estimated the figure at around 60 million between 1947-2000 (Fernandes, 2007; Negi &Ganguly, 2011). The latest data in the website of Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (IDMC) show that at least 616,140 have been internally displaced in India due to various conflicts as of April, 2015. The figure for people displaced due to disasters is at least 3,428,000 and there are about 11,042 political refugees originating from the country as of January, 2014 Although, these approximate figures for displacement in India may be staggering, there remains no reliable data on the total number of people actually displaced nor the number of people that have been resettled and rehabilitated. This review highlights issues relating to resettlement and rehabilitation, majorly focusing on the following causes, political/ethnic conflict, and developmental projects.