India's Poor Displaced By Country's Industrialization

Land is being grabbed up all over India in efforts to industrialize the country and bring in foreign investment. The country's poor in these primarily agricultural areas are disproportionately affected by these acquisitions.

1 minute read

April 27, 2007, 11:00 AM PDT

By Nate Berg

"As India's economy continues to boom, resistance to the conversion of agricultural land to industrial purposes is being met with increasing state-sponsored violence."

"These conflicts cannot be dismissed as an inevitable rite of passage on the road to development. Rather, they reveal deep underlying problems with India's bid to follow the Western model of modernization."

"All across India, international corporations are on land-acquisition sprees for infrastructure projects and manufacturing plants. Some 220 so-called special economic zones have sprung up since 2000 in an attempt to spur foreign investment."

"The poor and the lower castes are the most affected by India's industrial projects, especially tribal Adivasis, who make up 8 percent of the population yet account for up to 55 percent of those who are displaced because a disproportionate number of mines and dams are located on their resource-rich territory."

FULL STORY: When development and tradition clash

Friday, April 27, 2007 in International Herald Tribune

Community / Economic Development Land Use Social / Demographics India

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