Revision summary
Development displacement breaks tribal land, kin, and commons together. Sardar Sarovar on the Narmada is the teaching case. LARR 2013 lists land, house, and jobs; older 1894 awards were mostly cash. Colonies rarely restore nistar, council, or grove. Consent under PESA and FRA is the missing procedural core.
Model answer
Introduction
Rehabilitation and resettlement are the state’s promise that people moved for dams, mines, and industry will live again as a society. For tribals, the record is that cash and a plot rarely rebuild the grove.
Body
The typical break
- Sardar Sarovar on the Narmada became the national classroom: submergence of Adivasi hamlets, incomplete relocation, and a long legal-political fight.
- Displacement scatters kin across colonies. Hunt, fish, and shifting plots cannot move with a concrete house.
What R&R offers
- LARR 2013 lists housing, land-for-land where possible, jobs, and amenities. Forest rights under FRA should be settled before diversion.
- In practice, many older projects used 1894 awards: money without a viable farm, and common property left uncounted.
Social outcome
- Resettlement colonies mix tribes and castes. Councils weaken. Women’s work and girls’ safety often worsen.
- A job for one adult does not replace nistar for the household. Culture becomes a weekend return to a drowned shrine.
Standard of judgement
- Successful R&R would restore livelihood, community, and consent. Most tribal cases meet compensation, not restoration.
- PESA gram sabha consent is the procedural test that many files still fail.
Flow diagram
flowchart TD D[Dam mine town] --> X[Displacement] X --> R[R and R colony cash] R --> G[Gap grove kin livelihood] N[Narmada Sardar Sarovar] --> X
Conclusion
Tribal R&R is judged by whether a people still have land, council, and forest use. Colonies and cheques have usually delivered survival, not a rebuilt society. Narmada remains the warning case.
Quick related
Students also ask
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Recently non-government organizations have been critiqued for interfering with developmental process in tribal heartland ! Critically comment
Next question on this syllabus topic (2015 · Q7(a)). View answer →
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Is a pucca house successful R&R?
Only if livelihood and community also move. A house without a field is incomplete.
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Do all displaced tribals live in one colony?
Often they are split across sites, which is why organisation thins.
PYQ trend
When UPSC asked this
Related PYQs from other years, newest first. Open a question to read it.
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2023 · Q7(b) · Anthropology GS 2 · 15 marks
Critically examine how the displacement of tribal communities due to hydroelectric river dam projects has affected the women in local context. Illustrate with suitable ethnographic examples. -
2022 · Q6(a) · Anthropology GS 2 · 20 marks
Discuss the objectives of Integrated Tribal Development Projects (ITDPs). How far have these objectives been achieved? -
2021 · Q6(a) · Anthropology GS 2 · 20 marks
Discuss the impact of the Forest Rights Act (2006) on the livelihood and culture of tribal people in India -
2015 · Q7(a) · Anthropology GS 2 · 20 marks
Recently non-government organizations have been critiqued for interfering with developmental process in tribal heartland ! Critically comment
More from this topic
Q7(b) · UPSC Mains 2023 · Anthropology GS 2 · 15 marks
Critically examine how the displacement of tribal communities due to hydroelectric river dam projects has affected the women in local context. Illustrate with suitable ethnographic examples.
Developmental projects and their impact on tribal displacement and problems of rehabilitation. Development of forest policy and tribals. Impact of…
Hydro dams submerge the river commons that tribal women use for fish, fodder, fuel, and flood-recession farming. Compensation usually follows the male household head, so women lose title and natal networks. Baviskar and NBA work on Sardar Sarovar document Bhilala, Tadvi, and Vasava women’s losses and resistance. Lower Subansiri affects Mising and Arunachal hill women through flood pulse, safety, and labour camps. Polavaram, Hirakud, Tehri, and Mapithel show the same gendered pattern beyond one river.
Q6(a) · UPSC Mains 2022 · Anthropology GS 2 · 20 marks
Discuss the objectives of Integrated Tribal Development Projects (ITDPs). How far have these objectives been achieved?
Developmental projects and their impact on tribal displacement and problems of rehabilitation. Development of forest policy and tribals. Impact of…
ITDPs are Tribal Sub-Plan area projects, often called ITDAs. Objectives were integrated poverty reduction, services, and resource protection. Schools, roads, and clinics expanded in many blocks. Xaxa recorded leakage and weak control over land and mining. FRA and PESA had to carry the resource objective that projects missed.
Q6(a) · UPSC Mains 2021 · Anthropology GS 2 · 20 marks
Discuss the impact of the Forest Rights Act (2006) on the livelihood and culture of tribal people in India
Developmental projects and their impact on tribal displacement and problems of rehabilitation. Development of forest policy and tribals. Impact of…
FRA 2006 recognises individual and community forest rights. Livelihood gains when nistar and minor forest produce are legal. Culture gains when groves sit under community title. Weak gram sabha and rejected community claims blunt the Act. Mining after a thin FRA process repeats dispossession.
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