Examining Displacement, Resettlement and Rehabilitation Processes: The Case of Rengali Dam Displaced Communities in Odisha, India*An earlier version of this article, titled—‘Why Development Brought Vulnerability for Them? A Situational Analysis of Resettled Colonies of Displaced Communities’, was presented at the International Conference on ‘Conflict Resolution and Sustainable Development’ organised between 10 and 11 December 2016 at Nabakrushna Choudhury Centre For Development Studies, Bhubaneswar, Odisha, India.

Abstract

This article aims to examine the outcomes of state-led resettlement and rehabilitation processes in the resettled colonies of Rengali Dam displaced communities in the state of Odisha, India. By employing the descriptive research design and analysing qualitative and quantitative field data, it presents several consequences of the displacement process and how people and communities are impacted by it. It argues that while the Indian state has responded to development-led displaced people with promises of ‘resettlement and rehabilitation’, in most cases, the State 1 1 The authors are referring to the ‘State’ at national, provincial and local levels. has only confined itself to ‘resettlement’, neglecting the ‘rehabilitation’ of displaced communities—many of them Dalits, Adivasis and marginal farmers. Referring to the doctrine of the ‘eminent domain of the state’, it points out the failure of public policies in the equitable distribution of growth benefits and how it has intensified the vulnerability of the displaced communities. This analysis has implications for future development-led displacement and resettlement and rehabilitation of people and their communities.