Something happened today that has stayed in my mind like a frozen moment...
Me, Sajal and Shastri were standing near Cafe Goodluck ...
We were discussing about dams... Shastri has been working with Shashwat (an NGO working near Manchar, Pune). He was talking about the kind of issues the displaced families of Dimbhe dam are facing... These families are kaatkaries.. i.e. tribal... they have no proof of existence what so ever... and so are easily brushed away from the farce of rehabilitation and resettlement... the R&R process typically needs proof of owning a land to get a compensation... now-- these tribal have no proof of even their existence.... how are they supposed to have proof of owning a land?
Then Sajal was talking about Gosikhurd dam in Vidarbha... the dam was built 30 years back... and the struggle of nearly 16000 displaced families is still going on....
The development that we see around... owning to which urban residents enjoy much comfort and luxuries... stands essentially on lives of too many of such vulnerable families having to give up everything almost at a gun point... of the Government...
We were talking for long time... all this while 4-5 stray dogs were roaming around in the lane....
Suddenly all of them ganged up.... and started howling... alarmed we turned our heads... and saw that a very small fragile beggar girl was walking down and the dogs were about to attack her...the girl was so small and frail...she shuddered for a moment and was screaming with fear...
Shastri ran after the dogs with stones in his hand... the dogs fled... the girl was relieved....
What we witnessed in that quarter of a minute was exactly what we were talking about... Resemblance between the frail girl and the kaatkaries uprooted from their land was uncanny...
The talk resumed...and after a while we parted ways.... but I am still stuck at that frozen moment....
The small frail girl screaming with fear... and gang of dogs all set to tear her down....
Me, Sajal and Shastri were standing near Cafe Goodluck ...
We were discussing about dams... Shastri has been working with Shashwat (an NGO working near Manchar, Pune). He was talking about the kind of issues the displaced families of Dimbhe dam are facing... These families are kaatkaries.. i.e. tribal... they have no proof of existence what so ever... and so are easily brushed away from the farce of rehabilitation and resettlement... the R&R process typically needs proof of owning a land to get a compensation... now-- these tribal have no proof of even their existence.... how are they supposed to have proof of owning a land?
Then Sajal was talking about Gosikhurd dam in Vidarbha... the dam was built 30 years back... and the struggle of nearly 16000 displaced families is still going on....
The development that we see around... owning to which urban residents enjoy much comfort and luxuries... stands essentially on lives of too many of such vulnerable families having to give up everything almost at a gun point... of the Government...
We were talking for long time... all this while 4-5 stray dogs were roaming around in the lane....
Suddenly all of them ganged up.... and started howling... alarmed we turned our heads... and saw that a very small fragile beggar girl was walking down and the dogs were about to attack her...the girl was so small and frail...she shuddered for a moment and was screaming with fear...
Shastri ran after the dogs with stones in his hand... the dogs fled... the girl was relieved....
What we witnessed in that quarter of a minute was exactly what we were talking about... Resemblance between the frail girl and the kaatkaries uprooted from their land was uncanny...
The talk resumed...and after a while we parted ways.... but I am still stuck at that frozen moment....
The small frail girl screaming with fear... and gang of dogs all set to tear her down....
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