Ahmedabad riverfront: Displaced slumdwellers a boon for realtors, says experts panel
A panel discussion with the participation of several senior experts, including Prof Navdeep Mathur from Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad, Dr Renu Desai from the Centre for Environmental Planning and Technology (CEPT) University, Ahmedabad, well-known sociologist Prof Ghanshyam Shah and Bina Jadav has come to the drastic conclusion that realtors are all set to make a big money in the first stretch of the ambitious riverfront development, being launched in Ahmedabad. “Realtors are preparing to tap a business opportunity in it, amidst discontentment among thousands of poor residents, displaced by the long-delayed project, who are yet to be resettled”, a note issued on the discussion said.
The note, issued by Act Now for Harmony and Democracy (ANHAD), which organised the discussion followed by a documentary showing that the state of the displaced, says that the cost of the project is Rs. 1,500 crore, and the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC) aims to raise the money by selling 14 per cent of the total 200 hectares of the reclaimed land, which has become the main reason for the displacement.
“The Gujarat High Court directed the Ahmedabad civic body to provide basic amenities with transportation to displaced families. According to the High Court orders, at least 11,000 affected families were to be rehabilitated and resettled by the municipal corporation, but that hasn’t happened, and a demolition drive has been under way”, it says.
“Close to 3,000 people have moved to the vicinity of Ganesh Nagar on the outskirts of Ahmedabad in the last two weeks, around 2,000 of these people are those whose houses and hutments have been demolished in the riverfront area. Out of these 1,600 families are living in the open in Piplaj in makeshift shanties”, it underlines.
“People have made temporary roofs on their own from whatever little money they had. The winter has started and close to 1600 families have been dumped in open plots on a makeshift basis, without basic civic amenities”, it informs, adding, “This site is flanked by a large solid-waste processing facility, electricity towers and high-tension wires”, it adds.
The High Court had appointed a committee headed by retired judge D.P. Buch in May 2010 to examine the claims of the hutment dwellers affected by the Sabarmati riverfront development. From mid-February 2011 till 30 June 2011, the committee received as many as 7,500 applications from hutment dwellers whose homes had been affected by the riverfront project. They had raised concerns about their resettlement and rehabilitation.
“As many as 5,000 applicants have claimed before the Buch committee that their names have not appeared in any lists accepted by the court for providing alternative accommodation”, the ANHAD note claims, adding, “Not a single livelihood survey has been carried out in the last 14 years to document all the different kinds of economically productive activity undertaken by vast numbers of mostly poor people.”
Meanwhile, various NGOs, including ANHAD, are pitching in to provide the basic relief to the families as the state has not done anything. Blankets and basic food items, utensils are being provided by NGOs.
A documentary on the conditions of the victims, “Caught Between Existence and Denial’, produced by ANHAD and made by young film graduate Arma Ansari, was screened at the Behavioral Science Centre, Ahmedabad. The film was followed by the panel discussion, which reached the following conclusions:
* Infrastructure development projects are intended to further the agenda of economic growth. However, they lead to the involuntary displacement of communities who reside on the land allocated for these projects. These communities, who, more often than not, fall within the lower strata of the social hierarchy such as Tribals, Dalits and urban slum dwellers, are often not compensated.
* Even if monetarily compensated, little thought is given to the broader issues of providing rehabilitative support for their livelihood and re-settlement in terms of appropriate recovery management. Forced displacement, where the rights of some are sacrificed for the presumed broader good of others, raise new issues of social injustice, economic inequality and the further disenfranchisement of the already marginalized groups.
* The key issue from a humanitarian and ethical policy is that if these involuntarily displaced communities are not properly resettled, then it is a violation of their human rights. In the long run, this scenario will paradoxically nullify the effects of the very vision of development driving these infrastructure development programs with the result that the poor and marginalized experience even greater poverty and marginalization.
* In addition to the economic consequences, displacement also has a detrimental effect on communities, including their common assets and socially-created resources such as safety, childcare, income support, health support etc.. The re-creation of social and community assets require rehabilitation planning and rehabilitation finance and budgeting, public scrutiny and community participation. These elements are of crucial importance, and without these development projects will continue to place burdens of sacrifice on the poor and the marginalized. Until this understanding is embedded and practiced in policymaking institutions, a moratorium on displacement in the name of ‘development’ would be a more appropriate strategy.
The film, exposing the real story and myth of development, was sent to the Planning Commission of India. ANHAD’s Shabnam Hashmi, who is also a member of the Assessment and Monitoring Authority, Planning Commission, assured the panel that she will personally take up the issue of the displaced families at the centre.
