“`html
India’s Ken-Betwa river interlinking project is displacing thousands of residents from villages in Madhya Pradesh, but women affected by the scheme say they have been systematically excluded from compensation payments. The Daudhan Dam, which will submerge approximately 10 settlements near Panna Tiger Reserve, is expected to displace around 7,000 families. Despite legal frameworks designed to protect vulnerable groups, adult women in affected households are receiving nothing while male family members receive rehabilitation payments.
Residents of villages including Pathapur are taking desperate measures to draw attention to their plight. Women have staged funeral pyre protests, symbolically lying on unlit pyres to represent the devastation displacement without proper compensation would bring. Gyan Rani Gond, a 50-year-old member of the indigenous Gond tribe, borrowed money to travel over 70 kilometers to participate in the demonstration. Her family received compensation for male members but nothing for the adult women, despite having their home demolished and facing further losses.
The compensation structure treats payments as household resources rather than individual entitlements, leaving women without independent financial support despite their equal stake in family property and livelihoods. Affected residents argue that India’s land acquisition laws, which theoretically safeguard women’s rights, are being disregarded in practice. Families struggling to rebuild their lives after displacement say the current payments are inadequate, and they demand that government honor its legal obligations to compensate all affected parties equally.
“`
Originally reported by Aljazeera →
About the Author
