Socio economic impact of subarnarekha irrigation project on women in Mayurbhanj district of Odisha

Abstract

Displacement existed from the ancient times but has become a human rights issue today because of alarming proportions it assumed in the colonial era. The number of displaced person is big and their rehabilitation is poor. General perception is that development raises the standard of living through economic growth and improved services but several studies and experience in recent decade shows that benefits don’t reach every class. On the contrary some classes pay the price of the benefit that other class get. One of its reasons is that development projects require a huge land area. Many of these areas are inhabited by tribals and other rural poor classes whom the project forces to sacrifice their subsistence in the name of national development. In this transition women pay a highest price of development especially among the disadvantage. The present study attempts to assess the socio- economic and other human impacts of Subarnarekha irrigation Project on women in Mayurbhanj district of Odisha. The paper highlights that displacement deprives the women from the land and forest. Her social and economic status deteriorates with the loss of the resources on which her social status depended. As a result, the nutritional and health status of women in particular deteriorated and beside it their hygienic did not address by the project authorises. The study also reveals that the patta is made in the name of the head of the family and they are deprived of the resource and are rendered powerless. The paper also argue that the policy makers are meticulous in planning the financial and technical aspects of the project but little effort to get a clear idea of the people affected by it or to plan their resettlement. When resettlement is planned, the specificity of the problems faced by the women is ignored.