The tribal or the Scheduled Tribe communities constitute only 8.6 percent of India's population and yet, they are around 40 percent of those displaced due to ‘development’ projects. In the midst of a raging debate on the new Land Acquisition Ordinance, a new report brings out many such paradoxes of development versus displacement of India’s indigenous or Adivasi people. The report exposes the anomalies of land alienation, displacement and forced...

-Business Standard The ordinance has returned near absolute power of discretion in land acquisition, except in tribal areas, into the hands of the bureaucracy yet again Even after the National Democratic Alliance's land ordinance, governments will still need the Consent of tribal gram sabhas in all Schedule V and VI areas of the country before acquiring land for themselves or for public-private projects. While the land ordinance has done away with the need...

-The Hindu Chhattisgarh deaths turn the spotlight on the undue stress on female sterilisation The Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare has written to all States to ensure that every individual opting for family planning, is provided options in a "spirit of voluntarism." Following protests over the focus on female sterilisation and the deaths of 13 women in Chhattisgarh this past November, the Ministry has shot off a letter to the States...

-The Hindu When the National Democratic Alliance government amended the land acquisition Act through an ordinance last week, it promised to set farmers and industry on an amiable path to mutual benefits and development. Land acquisition under the 1894 Act had been marked by violent protests, even police firings at farmers. The Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement (LARR) Act, 2013, is the first law on...

-The Indian Express The NDA government's ordinance to amend the land acquisition Act does not merely expand the list of projects that would be exempted from requirements of Consent and Social Impact Assessment but also quietly makes other provisions in the law less stringent. It dilutes the requirement that unused acquired land be returned to the original owners, makes it tougher to prosecute defaulting civil servants, reduces the scope of the...