Ganancia de calor en recintos

Abstract

The hijras and other members of transgender community face discrimination and harassment and exclusion in the mainstream and male stream society just because of the fact that they do not conform to the traditional social norms about gender in society. This exclusion has been visualized to contribute to keeping non-normative sexual and gendered minorities at bay - invisible and bereft of power, a process that can be referred to as symbolic annihilation. The projection of the hijras in social media generates a ‘worldview’ that needs a lot of scrutiny, dissection and social work interventions. Based on review of available literature, this paper tries to delve deep into these issues.

Keywords: displacement, development-induced displacement, marginalization, impoverishment risks, intervention

Introduction

The development paradigm today considers mega projects and large dams as the inevitable way for the so called development and being used as synonymous of development. The last few decades have witnessed rapid economic growth in the country which is manifested in the setting up of large scale projects in power generation, mining, infrastructure development, irrigation and even in creating new urban settlements. This entails large scale land acquisition and even demolition of homesteads. The snatching away of land and common property resources (CPR) (D’Souza and Raj, 1992) from the people living in the interior parts of the country severely affects and dismantles the life and livelihood of the people who are adversely affected by these projects. These big projects are embedded with huge social cost which is very often get neglected in the face of present state of development paradigm. One of the major concerns with such development projects has been that very few amongst those displaced were resettled. With whatever rehabilitation plans the projects had for the benefit of project affected persons, however in most cases the approaches adopted for resettlement have been found to be ineffective and in such process of development, the strong (high caste, upper class families) become stronger whiles the weak and vulnerable (the poor, the tribals, low

* _{Lecturer, Department of Social Work, Sambalpur University, Odisha, India, E-mail:}

[email protected]

castes, particularly women among them) get weaker and further marginalized. Article-21 of the Indian Constitution guarantees to every Indian citizen the right to life (Verma, 1996) with dignity. The development projects deprive those affected of this basic right by affecting their livelihoods and sources of sustenance.

However, large dams are the single largest cause of displacement in India and particularly in Odisha since independence. According to Das, Fernandes & Rao (1988) people displaced by dam projects numbered 21 million. Based on a survey of 54 projects Roy (1999) estimated that the people displaced by large dams in last 50 years to be 33 million. The average of these 140 dams thus comes to 31340 persons per dam. Prof. M. Cernea has estimated the number of the displaced people of different projects in India to be 20 million since 1947 and it is also estimated that 75 percent of them have been impoverished due to development projects (Cernea, 2000).

Table No. 1: A few cases of displacement situation of Western Odisha Total land No of No of No of Name of Project Acquired Villages families People

in Acre Affected Affected displaced

Hirakud Dam 167,377 249 22,144 160,000

Rengali Dam 102,672 263 11,289 46,570

Rourkela Steel Plant 19,277 30 4251 23,400

Bhusan Steel 1315 13 164 854

IB Thermal Power Station 487 03 147 748 Ib Valley Open Coal mine 4500 18 110 495

Sources: Reddy, 1993; B. Pandey, 1998; Sabar, 2010; Pradhan, 2017.

The above table shows cases of displacement & amount of land acquisition for a few selected public sector projects and private industries established during the pre and post reform periods. The Hirakud reservoir project has a total of the acquisition of 1, 67,377 acre of land but it lost 1, 15,128 acre of good quality land forever in the reservoir. According to latest information 10,226.437 hectares of forest land have been diverted for mines, industries and infrastructure projects in the state. Out of which the share of forest land diverted for such purposes in west Odisha is 3718.281 hectares (Dharitri; 9th Jan. 2012). This forest land is usually the home for the tribals.

Development Projects and the Tribals

Many of the big development projects have been set up in tribal areas and on the lands owned by tribals. Tribals are by and large very simple people and attached to their life style, customs and tradition. Displacement of these people means disturbance of their way of life, which automatically leads to destruction of their social, cultural, religious and economic traditions. These are the groups that have traditionally depended on the common property resource basically on forestland for their survival. There are a large number of tribal people and other forest dwellers who come under the forest laws that do not give any right of ownership to the cultivators even after several generations of occupancy and cultivation (Fernandes and Thukral, 1989). Hence, in the name of development, there is a difference between the class that benefits from the project and those who pay the price (Mahapatra, 1991). Again only compensation for their homestead does not in any way compensate for the loss of their livelihood since the village is dispersed and is not rebuilt as a unit. The Working Group on Development and Welfare of Schedule Tribes during Eighth Five Year Plan (1990-95) reports that out of the 16.94 lakh persons displaced by 110 projects studied, 8.14 lakh were tribal (Thukral, 1992). Till 1990 Fernandes (1994) estimates that 2,13,00,000 people were displaced by development projects in India. A vast numbers of them are tribals. Out of a total of 74,10,000 tribal people displaced, only 24.9% have been rehabilitated and a staggering 75.1% still await rehabilitation (Fernandes, 1991). Research Methodology

The present study is based on certain research questions such as what is the magnitude of displacement, how the displaced people or families have been resettled and rehabilitated, what issues they have in relation to the displacement etc. with special reference to tribal people in western Odisha. The paper discusses plight of those displaced by major irrigation projects in the area and tries to identify possible remedies and the role of social workers in bridging the gaps in the development process. For data collection, interviews, informal discussions, case studies, focus group discussion, and secondary data have been used for the study in some villages of the two (randomly selected) panchayats namely, Meghapal of Jujumura block & Nuatihora of Maneswar block of the district. In Meghpal, oustees of the Rengali dam project have been resettled & in Nuatihura, oustees of the Hirakud dam project have been displaced.

The Hirakud River Vally Project

Hirakud Dam is the largest multipurpose river valley project in Odisha (Government of Orissa, 1968) which is constructed on the Mahanadi River. The project was primarily conceived as a flood control measure and thus the Swagatika Samal

stored water could also be used for irrigation and power generation. Originating in Chhattisgarh state, the Mahanadi flows in the south-eastern direction through the districts of Sambalpur, Boud, Dhenkanal and Cuttack and finally falls into the Bay of Bengal (Government of Orissa, 1968). This is the largest dam in Asia with the main dam being 5 km in length. The reservoir formed by the dam is 743 square km covering parts of Sambalpur and Raigarh district. The dam has two canals- the Bargarh canal and the Sason canal. The canals have spread over 10 community development blocks in Sambalpur district and 03 community development blocks in Bolangir district. Out of these 13 blocks, 09 are intensively irrigated and 04 are partly irrigated. The whole Hirakud Canal system irrigates 611 villages (partly or fully) in Sambalpur and Bolangir districts and the gross command area is 3,20,000 acres and 2,20,000 acres in Sambalpur and Bolangir districts respectively (Government of Orissa, 1968). This giant project has acquired large scale cultivable as well as forest land and caused large scale displacement of population mainly the tribal population for the sake of national development. The construction of the dam greatly affected the native of western part of Odisha. For the project, under the Land Acquisition Act of 1894, (Asif, 1999) the land for the reservoir was acquired in which land was acquired against the owners’ wishes for the so called ‘public purpose’ projects (Asif, 1999). Covering a vast area of 743 square km, the Hirakud reservoir submerged 249 villages in Sambalpur district alone and 36 villages were submerged in the adjoining Raigarh district of the then Madhya Pradesh state and presently the Chhattisgarh state (Government of Orissa, 1968). Out of total 1,67,376,83 acres of submerged land in this project, according to the report of the state government, 1,15,127.97 acres was good agricultural land (Government of Orissa, 1968). Further a total of 22,144 families were affected by the project i.e. about 1.1 lakh population out of which 18.34 per cent i.e. 1636 families were the STs (Das, Fernandes and Rao, 1988).

Compensation and the Rehabilitation Procedures

Compensation for the project was mainly given in cash payments. Thus, the land acquired from private landowners was compensated in cash payments. The acquired land was classified into 22 different types on the basis of rental and market value and accordingly compensation amount was made fixed. The rental value was calculated as 192 times the deduced rent of each class of land and the market value was calculated by sending officials to each area to assess the prevalent local price on land (Viegas, 1992). Irony was that the uniformity of the process of evaluation was not maintained properly. In the original estimate, an amount of Rs. 120 million was provided for payment of compensation to the affected people. After revision, the amount was reduced to Rs. 95 million and the total compensation paid to the people was, in reality,

only Rs. 33.2 million. Due to lack of a proactive rehabilitation policy with the Orissa government that time serious rehabilitation issues and problems emerged. A large number of families were evacuated from their hearth and homes without compensation and there is dearth of records on the exact number of population dislocated for the dam project and where did they go. Today more than 50 years later, approximately Rs. 6 crore compensation amount out of the assessed compensation of about Rs. 9 crore has not reached the 3,098 affected families of the Dam project (Asif, 1999).

The construction of the Hirakud dam commenced in April 1946 (Tripathy and Nanda, 1987) and as per the then rehabilitation policy of the state Government in connection to the project, the policy included both the methods of cash compensation and physical rehabilitation. The policy states that each household willing to accept compensation in money would be paid the value of the land and house lost; and those who are willing to accept land and house in lieu of the land and houses lost would be provided land and houses. The Orissa government promised that the resettled villages would be provided with modern amenities like water, electricity and the re-settled evacuees would be vested with the proprietary rights on the lands allotted to them (Tripathy and Nanda, 1987). The total number of colonies established for rehabilitation was only twelve for 28 villages. The total number of households re-settled therein was about 11 per cent of the total households displaced and the total land reclaimed for their rehabilitation was no more than 5 per cent of the land acquired for project from them (Tripathy and Nanda, 1987). But, the provisions made by the government were not maintained in many cases. Besides, many shortcomings in the implementation of rehabilitation policy of the government were chalked out. There were rehabilitation issues (Mishra, 2002) like - underestimation of the number of the displaced persons, inadequate compensation (Rs. 125.00 - Rs.200.00) per acre, those who had deposited money for land had been asked to take the money back without allotting land, unsatisfactory living conditions in the re-settled colonies etc. Regarding compensation to the oustees, the valuation of the private land was made based on malgujari paid against the land and even discrimination was there in fixing

rate of private land. The compensation paid to the Bhogra Land (land belonging to Jamindar and Gountiya) was higher than the rate paid against the land of other Rayats. Besides, Government land including forest land under the

occupations and possession of tenants were simply alienated by the Government without paying anything again due to absence of proper rehabilitation policy and acts at that period.

The displaced families were settled themselves in many parts of Jharsuguda, Sambalpur, Bargarh, Sundargarh and Sonepur Districts and even in the Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand State. Out of these 22,144 displaced families, around 11,000 families were settled themselves in the periphery of the Hirakud Swagatika Samal

Reservoir (Das, Fernandes and Rao, 1988).

A report by Orissa Diary Bureau (2016), Bhubaneswar, states that even after 60 years of the construction of the Hirakud dam project, there are 9944 displaced families who have not yet been paid any compensation. Due to continuous fight for the rights of the displaced people by different displaced people’s committees in the locality Government of Odisha had once decided to pay Ex-gratia compensation to 3540 families only in 11.3.1993, sanctioning 2 crore 66 Lakh leaving 6404 displaced families (Orissa Diary Bureau, 2016). However, many families among these 3540 families have not yet received the compensation amount.

The Rengali Dam Project

The Rengali dam, another big multipurpose river valley project of Odisha (Mishra, 2002), is built on the river Brahmani. The river Brahmani called as South Koel in Jharkhand, rises near village Nagri in Ranchi district at an elevation of around 600 metres. After flowing for about 258 km. inside Bihar it enters into Odisha. After falling another tributary Sankh in Rourkela, Odisha it is called as Brahmani and falls into Bay of Bengal, travelling a length of 799 km. In Odishsa the total drainage area of this river is 22,620 square km. It passes through Sambalpur and Dhenkanal districts after crossing Sundargarh district. The Brahmani enters its delta at Jenapur and bifurcates there to form Brahmani and Kimiria. Down below they reunites at Indupur (30 km down) and flows as Brahmani upto the Bay of Bengal. The major tributaries of this river are Koel, Kuradhi, Mankara, Samakoi, on the left and Karo, Sankh, Rukura, Gohira, Tikra, Singdajor, Nigra on the right. The catchment area at the dam site is 25,250 square km. It was commenced on June 1973 but the foundation stone of the dam was laid on 23rd December 1973. Its actual construction started in 1975m (Mishra, 2002). The main objectives of this dam project are (i) Flood control; (ii) Power generation; and (iii) Irrigation (Government of Orissa, 1978). According to the Bahumukhi Jatiya Yojana,

Rengali, 1978, Department of Irrigation and Power, Orissa, the dam project was planned to be done in two phases. A dam with the capacity for producing 60 megawatt of electricity was to be constructed on the river to control flood in the first phase. In the second phase, a reservoir with the capacity of irrigating 12 lakhs 16 thousand acres of land was to be constructed and further there were various other plans to provide irrigation to an area of around 6 lakhs acres of productive land between the Baitarani and Budhabalanga rivers.

In case of the Rengali dam also land was acquired under the Land Acquisition Act, 1894 (Mishra, 2002), for the so called project for ‘public purpose’. Hence 263 villages were either fully or, partially submerged for it. As per the Progress Report of Land Acquisition works of Rengali Dam Project on 15.01.2001, a total of 116 villages were fully submerged and 123 villages

were partially submerged with 24 villages in hardcore area. There was 34,335.67 acres of Rayati land and 65,382.10 acres of Government land and forest land submerged in the dam.

A total of 11,289 families were displaced under Rengali dam. It involved a population of 46,570 that includes different communities of people like Scheduled Tribe (5,687 persons), Scheduled Caste (8,475 persons), OBC and General Caste (32,408 persons). A total number of 11,289 families were displaced for the project (Government of Orissa, 1978).

Rehabilitation and Compensation for the Oustees

The rehabilitation of displaced persons of the Rengali dam project was the responsibility of the Resettlement and Rehabilitation officer assisted by Zone Officer under the control of Revenue Division Commissioner (RDC), North Division, Sambalpur. As per the governmental estimates (Government of Orissa, 1978), 11,289 families were affected by the project. For the displaced people, 61 numbers of resettlement colonies and 95 clusters villages were set up. It consisted of 1418 families rehabilitated in 22 colonies on Brahmani Right, 739 families on Brahmani Left, 643 families in 25 colonies of Gohira ayacut, 182 families in 6 colonies in Samakoi ayacut and rest families in the individual clusters. A total number of 7627 families were resettled by allotment of land and 2808 displaced families were provided with cash compensation only. There is no record available with the government regarding the places where these 2808 displaced families who received the cash compensation only were resettled. Therefore, as per the government records (Government of Orissa, 2000), 66 per cent displaced families were provided with land, 22 per cent were given cash and rest of the 11 per cent families awaits rehabilitation both by land and cash.

For calculating the compensation against lost land, the agricultural lands in the submergible villages were classified into 7 categories. Compensation was given on the basis of market value as per the annual harvest, geographical position, productivity etc. The amount of compensation per acre for all kinds of lands varied from Rs.500 to Rs.4500. For homestead land Rs.4500 was given (Government of Orissa, 1978). Compensation for houses in the submergible villages was paid to individual owners. For the purpose of assessment all the houses were classified into 12 different categories on the basis of materials used, the quality of construction and the present condition. The rate of compensation (Mishra, 2002) varied from Rs. 190.91 to Rs. 24.78 per square meter of the plinth area, and the people did not have much to complain about it. For payment of compensation, wells were classified into 4- types, and the payment varied from Rs. 176.78 to Rs. 5.42 per square meter (Mishra, 2002). This was a meager amount for evacuees. Similarly, compensation for tanks and ponds were paid to their owners at the rate of Rs. Swagatika Samal

322.80 per square meter. Compensation for perennial fruit-bearing trees such as mango, jack fruit, coconut, orange etc. were paid on the basis of the girth of the trunk of trees. If the girth was less than one foot, compensation was Rs. 5.00 and if it was above 6 feet the rate was Rs. 100.00 per tree. There was dissatisfaction among the oustees toward the sort of calculation, because for many, a fruit-bearing tree was not of economic value but also involved emotions and sentiment.

Findings

Analysis of data collected from the study areas provides the painful life situations of the displaced people. Even today various factors as a result of such displacements are affecting the lives of the people in the area. These are disruption of economic and social fabric, inadequate and improper resettlement and rehabilitation measures, denial of project benefit to the displaced people etc. Sacrifice and pains, and the real cost undertaken by the displaced persons are neither recognized by the society nor even by the beneficiaries of the