Women-led and women’s rights organizations are on the frontlines of today’s humanitarian crises—but many are at risk of disappearing. As global needs rise due to conflict, climate change, and displacement, deep cuts to foreign aid are threatening organizations that provide life-saving services for women and girls. In March 2025, UN …
Many international organisations have expressed concern for the people to be displaced by the Sardar Sarovar dam project on the Narmada in Gujarat, but the fate of those already ousted by other dams on the river goes unnoticed. Recently, one of them, 65-year-old Sunderbai, died of starvation a few months …
RESETTLEMENT of people against their will constitutes a "gross violation of human rights", according to a resolution adopted by the UN Commission on Human Rights at a recent meeting in Geneva. The resolution was put together by groups led by Habitat International Coalition of Mexico. It applies to resettlement due …
IN MARCH 1991, Aeta tribals living in Pinatubo region felt a rumbling in the long-dormant volcano. Birds and animals also exhibited showed signs of agitation. Here is an account of what followed: April 2: A hydrothermal explosion shakes the area, forcing columns of steam upto 800 m high from vents …
EIGHTEEN months after the Pinatubo erupted, much of the landscape in the Zambales, Pampanga and Tarlac provinces is blanketed by what looks like slurry, but is in fact volcanic sediment deposited by lahars -- thick, flowing mixtures of volcanic material and water. Lahars carry much more sediment than the muddiest …
NORMAL life in the Philippines is often disrupted by nature -- typhoons andoccasionallyvolcanic eruptions. The archipelago of more than 70islands is struck by typhoons several times each yearmainly between June and December. These storms can cause extensive damage and in some yearsup to 25 typhoons hit the country. Volcanoes are …
TRIBALS from 23 villages in Udaipur district, citing the potential displacement of 12,000 people, are gearing up for protracted battle with the government to scrap the proposed Manasi Wakal dam, intended to supply drinking water to Udaipur. The villagers allege the project, in fact, was conceived to meet the massive …
You have questioned the appropriateness of the system of national parks in developing countries. What are your objections? The idea of national parks came up in the West with the object of preserving the wilderness. Given the size and population of countries like the United States, it was feasible. But …
AS THE United Nations labours to clear the mess it has been accused of creating in providing refugee relief in Somalia and in the elections and peace process in Angola, World Health Organisation director-general Hiroshi Nakajima is attempting to pre-empt complaints of still another delay. He called on the international …
IN 1987, the late Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi offered to set up an Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) in Assam as one of the sops to quell the student agitation in the state. Five years later, the country's sixth IIT is all set to come up in Silagrant village in …
WITH THE national rehabilitation policy on the anvil, this timely book raises important questions regarding humans displaced by development projects. After citing acquisition of land for development projects as the most visible cause of displacement, the book surveys big dams as they, more than other development projects, cause the maximum …
TWICE-DISPOSSESSED Pong dam oustees have urged the Centre to sponsor tripartite talks between their representatives and the BJP governments of Himachal Pradesh and Rajasthan to settle rehabilitation issues. At a Congress-organised rally recently, Union minister of state for planning Sukh Ram condemned the Rajasthan government's high-handed and unilateral amendment of …
IN THE battle to save the environment, the nature of laws that govern people's rights to natural resources are crucial, as is the poor person's knowledge of these laws. Certain organisations are working towards reforming existing anomalies in the law and helping people become more aware of their legal rights. …
GUJJARS are up in arms because they resent being thrown out of their homes by the proposed Rajaji National Park in Uttar Pradesh. In coastal Orissa, Chilika fisherfolk are protesting the allocation by the government of a slice of their environment to the House of Tata. What binds these disparate …
THE alleged rape in Brazil of an 18-year-old teacher by Paulinho Paiakan, chief of the Kayapo tribe, may be seen as symbolic of the rape of the Amazon rainforests using as a lure the theory that marketing forest produce is more economically beneficial and ecologically friendly than selling timber. Attracted …
NOTHING seems to move them, the planners of misery and destruction in the Narmada Valley. Not entreaties, not scientific arguments, not reason, not 23-day hunger fasts, not 40,000-strong demonstrations, not even the possibility of entire communities drowning in their refusal to move out of their ancestral lands when the reservoir …
THE MORSE committee has asked the World Bank to step back from the Sardar Sarovar project. Whether the bank complies or not, the committee has undoubtedly delivered a resounding indictment of all those involved in the project -- from the governments of Gujarat and India to the mighty World Bank. …
THE REPORT of the Independent Review (RIR) of the Sardar Sarovar was expected to look at Sardar Sarovar and other projects on the Narmada not only from the viewpoint of displacement and rehabilitation, but more holistically to see whether submergence itself could be reduced to manageable proportions. Instead, the committee …
I HAVE not seen the Morse report. So I cannot comment on its specifics. But I have some general observations to make on the Narmada project and other issues of this kind. I believe that rehabilitation and resettlement must precede the launching of a project and not follow it. Secondly, …
THE RIR had raised considerable expectations in western India. The report, however, came as a damp squib. The only substantive comment made by the report relates to basic hydrology, which states, "We found that there is good reason to believe that the project will not perform as planned." The reference …
JHARKHAND stretches from Bankura district in West Bengal to Surguja in Madhya Pradesh; and from Santhal Parganas of Bihar to Sambhalpur in Orissa. Approximately 1,87,646 sq km in area, it has a population of 30.5 million according to the 1981 census. Adivasis constitute 30 per cent of the population, while …
