Land needed for mining, dams and other large-scale projects is acquired mostly from Adivasis, hill dwellers and rural communities. The displaced persons are paid monetary compensation as per the legal provisions. However, the payment is often tardy. In any case, it cannot sustain the displaced families for long. These people do not possess marketable skills to engage in some other occupation. They end up as low paid migrant labourers. Moreover, their traditional ways of community living are destroyed. Thus, the benefits of development go to industries, industrialists and urban communities whereas the costs are passed on to these poor helpless people. This unjust distribution of costs and benefits is unethical. Suppose you have been entrusted with the task of drafting a better compensation-cum-rehabilitation policy for such displaced persons, how would you approach the problem and what would be the main elements of your suggested policy ?

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Q1.

Land needed for mining, dams and other large-scale projects is acquired mostly from Adivasis, hill dwellers and rural communities. The displaced persons are paid monetary compensation as per the legal provisions. However, the payment is often tardy. In any case, it cannot sustain the displaced families for long. These people do not possess marketable skills to engage in some other occupation. They end up as low paid migrant labourers. Moreover, their traditional ways of community living are destroyed. Thus, the benefits of development go to industries, industrialists and urban communities whereas the costs are passed on to these poor helpless people. This unjust distribution of costs and benefits is unethical. Suppose you have been entrusted with the task of drafting a better compensation-cum-rehabilitation policy for such displaced persons, how would you approach the problem and what would be the main elements of your suggested policy ?20

Introduction

A dam or a mine is built for the nation, but its first bill is paid by Adivasi families. The core dilemma is between Development and Distributive Justice, and the policy must make the displaced the first beneficiaries.

Approach to the Problem

Development vs Distributive Justice. Venn diagram: Development, Distributive Justice; overlap: Displaced as project partners

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Last resort

Test less displacing alternatives through the Social Impact Assessment of the RFCTLARR Act, 2013 [scheme].

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Consent, not consultation

Let gram sabhas decide, as the Supreme Court allowed the Dongria Kondh to do in Niyamgiri (2013) [case].

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Count everyone

Include landless labourers, forest-rights holders and women, not only titled owners, and judge success by whether each family's standard of living is better years later.

Main Elements of the Suggested Policy

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Fair, prior compensation

Pay replacement value, up to four times market value in rural areas, through an escrow before possession.

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Livelihood over lump sums

Land for land, as the Narmada Tribunal award (1979) [committee/report] required, plus a job or indexed annuity and early skilling.

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Whole-community resettlement

Relocate villages together within the same Scheduled Area, as Section 41 of the 2013 Act provides, with commons and shrines rebuilt.

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Benefit-sharing and audit

Extend the District Mineral Foundation model [scheme], give women joint titles and audit outcomes through an R&R ombudsman for five years.

Justification:

Rawls's Difference Principle: a project is just only if the displaced end up better off.

Conclusion

Treating the displaced as partners and shareholders, not collateral damage, turns development from an unjust transfer of costs into Antyodaya in practice.

This model answer is indicative and the model can make mistakes; please verify key facts independently.

Question from the official UPSC Civil Services (Main) Examination 2016 paper. Answer written by Ghissu's engine and checked against our editorial standards. Found an error? Tell us and we correct it within 48 hours.