Development for Whom?

This book is with a mission: to arouse the conscience of the world community to the indiscriminate and avoidable pain and impoverishment of the people who are helpless to fight the forces which engulf them in this world. With the urge to compete and keep up with the pace of development, the Third World countries are ready to entail heavy sacrifices in the interest of the nation at large. But what is neglected meanwhile is the involuntary displacement of huge population for what is considered, national development. Chapter one further discusses about the very cause of the displacement, high lighting the environmental, social and human costs of the same on the oustees. Chapter two presents the country (Indian) synthesis and discusses how real the impoverishment risks are in the local scenario, post-colonial era. A formal discussion on the laws involving policies introduced by the government and local legislature governing the resettlement, by the author helps understand the legislative involvement and ideologies during that period. In the next chapter, the author tells about the multiple impoverishment risks of the tribal oustees and suggests alternatives for the risk management which would thus help the tribal oustees regain their self-confidence, self-esteem and their capacity for self-management in the rehabilitated colonies. Also the chapter raises the question as to how far the compensation, employment education and rehabilitation are effective. The last chapter discusses the concept of Resettlement and Rehabilitation from a Human Rights Perspective. It is believed that human rights approach is based on the notion of equality and hence how far such a developmental goal would go beyond the conventional development policy and if IPR for life forms and genetic resources would guarantee adequate long term gains.