POVERTY AND INEQUALITY: OTHER SIDES OF DEVELOPMENTAL PROJECTS

Indian Nation State has completed more than six decades of independence. After independence our planners have focused on building large infrastructural projects to accelerate the economic development to fulfill the larger objective of inclusive growth by removing poverty, unemployment and inequality. However in India development and displacement are considered as correlates process. The infrastructure development projects have the unintended consequences of impoverishment. M. M. Cernea, a sociologist, who has researched development-induced displacement and resettlement for the world bank, points out that being forcibly ousted from one's land and habitat carries with it the risk of becoming poorer than before displacement, since a significant portion of people displaced do not receive compensation for their lost assets, and effective assistance to reestablish themselves productively. He has identified eight interlinked potential risks related to development-induced displacement. The major impoverishment risks such as: landlessness, joblessness, homelessness, marginalization, morbidity, food insecurity, restricted access to common property resources (CPR) and social disarticulation. The present paper attempts to understand the socio-economic impact of the population displaced by the construction of such large projects. More particularly this paper is focused on how development-induced displacement leads poverty and inequality in the society. This present paper has been prepared mainly by using the secondary sources of data like unpublished thesis, published books and reports on the development, displacement and rehabilitation. Development-induced displacement and rehabilitation has not seen as a “development opportunity” (Mathur and Marsden 1998), and this in itself is questionable, it will need radical change. This includes the need to avoid displacement and ensure that it is minimized. The entire process must have the provisions to include the full participation of displaced people in decisionmaking processes of developmental project, resettlement and rehabilitation