Land grabbing is going on in Bangladesh --BIG time -- with State (Military) complicity!
Please note the comments below by Dr. Walter Fernandes.
He gives important facts and figures. They may be pertaining to just of Wes tBengal, but please stretch your imagination ---- they could easily be those of Chittagong Hill Tracts.
Farida Majid
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I agree with much of what has been said. However, I feel that Guha gives very little importanc to the landless and CPR dependants. In West Bengal, we came to a total of 40 lakh acres of private land acquired for development projects 1947-2000 but could identify only 7 lakh acres of common property resources (CPRs). It means that the State does not keep proper records of the CPRs and does not even count their dependants as displaced. In a total of about 70 lakh persons physically displaced or deprived of their livelihood without physical relocation, 20 percent i.e. 14 lakhs are tribals (who are 6 percent of the population) most of them CPR dependants. 30 percent (21 lakhs) are Dalits and the caste-tribe of another 10 percent could not be identified. There are reasons to believe that about 5 lakhs of them are tribals but we could not be certain. Far from being compensated, they are not even counted in the official accounts. They do not exist according to the present individual-based land laws.
Displacement is a traumatic experience for all, much more so for the landless, CPR dependants and recent beneficiaries of land reforms. West Bengal has been the most successful State in India for land reforms. The Dalits have got its benefits. But the State seems to take away with one had what it gives with the other.
Compensation is very poor. In North Bengal in the 1980s it was around Rs 1,500 per acres and the displaced are expected to begin life anew with that paltry sum because rehabilitation is extremely poor. Fewer than 9 percent of the 36 lakh physically displaced persons have been resettled, most of them in the 1950s and the rest by the World Bank funded projects in the 1980s. Those who have been deprived of their sustenance but not physically relocated, have to be satisfied with the paltry compensation or none at all if they are CPR dependants or landless.
The situation is worse in Assam where the State acknowledges that 4 lakh persons have been displaced from 3.9 acres 1947-2000. The reality is 19 lakh persons from 14 lakh acres. Not surprisingly, more than 50 percent of them are tribals displaced from 10 lakh acres of CPRs. Most others are the poorest among the OBCs like fishing communities. Fewer than 10 projects have rehabilitated the displaced and that too only partially.
The situation may be slightly better but not substantially in other States. In Orissa we could study 60 percent of the projects 1951-1995. 60 percent of the 25 lakh acres used for them are CPRs and in Andhra it is 30 percent of the 25 lakh acres used. Not surprisingly, in Orissa 42 percent of the victims who could be counted are tribals and 20 percent are Dalits. In AP tribals are 28 percent of 32 lakhs. Similar is their proportion among the 42 lakhs in Gujarat 1947-2004.
Rehabilitation is much worse in Gujarat.
I am giving figures only from the States that are handing over much land to the private sector today. Studies on all displacement in 12 States and case studies from the rest bring one to around 60 millions displaced since independence, 40 percent of them tribals, 20 percent Dalits and around 20 percent of the poorest among the OBCs. That may also explain the middle class support to massive displacement. The poor pay the price of their development.
However, today middle level farmers are being displaced and that may change the scenario. We need to work together against this situation.
Walter Fernandes
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