Western Indian campaign secures relief for families affected by dam project
After a 17-year struggle, the Western Indian campaigning group Gosikhurd Prakalpgrast Sangharsh Samiti was awarded a relief package by the Chief Minister of Maharashtra in May 2013 for those affected by the Gosikhurd dam, Maharashtra’s largest irrigation project located in Bhandara.
The incomplete dam project, now 25 years old, has attracted much criticism, including complaints about the contractor; stalled environmental clearances; financial mismanagement and negligence of the 100,000 people who have been affected by its construction. Initially approved at a relatively low cost in 1982, the project cost has escalated hugely over the years. Despite being accorded national project status in 2008, the dam has irrigated only 34,000 hectares of the 250,000 hectares of land in the three water-starved districts of Bhandara, Chandrapur and Nagpur.
The relief package will distribute compensatory land to 25,246 land owners and 3,363 landless labourers. Those affected by the project will also receive additional funds for rebuilding houses and cattle sheds that were flooded by the dam reservoir.
The project was originally welcomed by local people who were ready to sacrifice their land and homes for the improvement of the drought-prone Vidarbha region, which severely lacks irrigation infrastructure. However, delays and corruption meant that the Gosikhurd dam has failed to provide respite.
The Gosikhurd Prakalpgrast Sangharsh Samiti was set up to tackle this. It raised the issue of corruption and represented the rights of the affected population, initiating forms of peaceful dissent to highlight issues that those affected by the project faced, such as deprivation of resources for cattle rearing, grazing and even space for cremations.
The movement is led by Vilas Bhongade. Bhogade is a fellow of the Society for Rural Urban and Tribal Initiative (SRUTI), a charity established in 1983 to work towards social change at the grassroots across rural and urban India. SRUTI’s Fellowship programme, where individuals who initiate social change to empower marginalised people are supported, is built on the ethos that change is driven not by an enforced agenda but one that evolves and is relevant to the area, ensuring organic transformations are brought about. Since its inception, SRUTI has supported the work of more than 127 fellows across 18 states.
SRUTI currently supports 28 fellows and 150 activists and their groups in 12 states across India. Its fellows reach around 600,000 Indian families.
The PHF India programme began to support SRUTI in October 2012 with a single-year grant. In October 2013 this support was extended with an additional three-year grant. The money will contribute towards SRUTI’s work with 10 fellows in the states of Bihar, Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh, where it is hoped that SRUTI will be able to link people’s movements to local governance systems.
