Industrial Development and Displacement: The People of Korba

The issue of people being forced to abandon their homelands is a matter of global concern. In India, the displacement of local inhabitants due to large development projects such as big dams, has received a fair amount of attention from activists, researchers and the media alike. However, the nature and consequences of displacement caused by urban development or by the development of industrial clusters is an area that has so far received scant attention. This significant book is based on intensive fieldwork in Korba, a little known multi-project industrial area in Chhattisgarh. It describes the impact of piecemeal industrial development, and its consequent environmental degradation, on the lives of the original inhabitants of the region. The authors argue that the people affected by the various industrial projects in this area have not received the same attention that people affected by large dams have. This is primarily because individual industrial projects acquired comparatively smaller quantities of land and displaced relatively few local inhabitants at different points in time. The authors show that while in the new economy their traditional skills are no longer marketable, the villagers are unable to compete for the technical and better paid jobs which are taken by outsiders who also begin to dominate the area. The local people thereby lose not just their livelihoods but also their status and relevance. Overall, this timely and thought-provoking book about the impact of multiple industrial projects on the environment and on the lives of the local people questions the concept of ‘development’ that benefits a few at the cost of many. It will be of interest to development organizations, NGOs, activists, as also to students of economics. development studies, public administration and sociology.