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Focus on development refugees
Soumya Sarkar
A two-day workshop on `Status of Resettlement and Rehabilitation in Infrastructure Projects in India' was organised by the Delhi-based consultancy firm ERM India in collaboration with the Planning Commission on July 16 and 17.
The broad objective of the workshop was to derive lessons for the draft policy on resettlement and rehabilitation (R&R), based on an analysis of existing policies as well as first hand experience of project proponents and donors.
On the first day, the keynote address was delivered by N C Saxena, secretary, Planning Commission, in which he outlined the provisions of the draft National Policy on R&R. The main working sessions of the workshop comprised three discussion panels on social assessment and entitlement framework, resettlement processes and rehabilitation action plans. The workshop concluded with the following observations:
The existence of different policies tends to set different standards of what project persons can expect to receive in compensation, even in similarprojects with different project components. The amendments being considered under the Land Acquisition Act have implications for infrastructure projects in its emphasis on consent award, that is, land acquisition will take place when consented upon by communities potentially affected by the acquisition, and public purpose, that is, the onus of justifying the project being on the project proponent. Social assessment methods were recognised to be still evolving and constitute a critical part of determining the entitlement framework, working out a rehabilitation action plan and monitoring the process of R&R. Entitlement frameworks in R&R packages are still considering conventionally income generating that have not shown demonstrable success in restoring incomes of project affected persons. Even with the presence of diverse range of practitioners, the workshop was unable to provide too many examples of positive experience of restoring project affected persons to the same standards ofliving as that prior to their being affected. Special attention needs to be paid to the problems of `host communities', that is, those who are expected to receive resettled persons in their areas and share already limited common resources with them. Little attention has been paid to preparing project affected people to deal with the trauma of resettlement. There was a consensus on the idea of a `social feasibility assessment' as an indicator of the viability of the project. It was suggested that this should be undertaken as early as possible in the project cycle, in order to prevent undue hardship to the communities likely to be affected. With the advent of private sector funding for infrastructure projects, R&R is increasingly being considered as part of project costs and hence, being given its due importance. Participants were keen to have both positive and negative experiences in R&R documented and made available to practitioners as learning lessons. It was also suggestedthat future interactions on the subject would be initiated by organisations having to deal with R&R first hand.Participants at the workshop included representatives from the Planning Commission, Ministry of Rural Areas & Employment, NTPC, National Highways Authority of India, Infrastructure Leasing & Financial Services, Infrastructure Development Finance Corporation, World Bank, Kampsa India Ltd, Sverdrup Civil Inc and Indian Institute of Public Administration.
Copyright © 1999 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
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