By Vivin Matthew and Gautam Sreenivasan
Daudi village in Hoshangabad district of Madhya Pradesh is a predominantly tribal area. It is seeing a conflict between the tribals and the government's various projects. The tribals who are displaced need alternative livelihoods than just land.
Rekhiram said he feels like he has been a refugee most of his life. His entire tribal village was first moved out of the forest almost 35 years ago, when the Tava dam was being built. At that time, the government gave each family five acres of land near the dam site, on which they could build homes and start farming. But the waters of the dam caused more problems.
“A lot of the land we were given gets submerged. Hence, we have much less land for farming,” said Rekhiram.
There's more bad news for the villagers. When Daudi village was first transplanted many years ago, the villagers lost the use of the forest as a source of income. So, they turned to the waters of the Tava, where they fished very successfully for about 10 years. But just a few weeks ago the Forest Department banned fishing in these waters.
Now, the villagers say they are left with very little option than to become migrant labourers. It is not just this one village alone. We attend a meeting where representatives from over 230 villages in Hoshangabad district are in attendance. Most of them are being evicted from their homes either for dams, factories or wildlife preserves. They say previous experience has made them distrust the government's promise of re-habilitation.
"The adivasis and the forests have lived in harmony for centuries. Without each other, their survival itself at stake,” said Sunil, Leader, Samajvadi Janparishad.
But the future is not completely hopeless. Rajkumar Bakoria, is one of four children from his village that has moved to a government funded boarding school 25 km away from is village. In spite of all the hardship he has seen his people go through, he wants to serve the nation once he's done studying.
“I want to join the Indian navy and protect my country,” said Rajkumar Bakoria.
If this remaining goodwill is to be preserved, the government must give the displaced education and alternative viable livelihoods.