Indigenous Land Rights in India
Last updated September 2019
The Sardar Sarovar Dam is a decades-long project of the Indian government and the states of Gujarat, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, and Rajasthan. The project seeks to harness the waters of India’s fifth-longest river—the Narmada—for electricity generation and irrigation of farmland in the arid, western part of the country. While proponents of the dam have touted its potential for national economic development and poverty alleviation, the project’s benefits have been distributed unevenly, leaving marginalized communities to bear its costs. With the completion of the Sardar Sarovar Dam’s construction in 2017, thousands of families now await the destruction of their homes, lands, and livelihoods, many with no prospect of adequate compensation or rehabilitation.
In partnership with Narmada Bachao Andolan (NBA), a grassroots organization based in Madhya Pradesh, the University Network released a report and accompanying video documenting the forced displacement and other human rights impacts of the Sardar Sarovar Dam on Adivasi (Indigenous tribal) communities living along the Narmada River. The report urges Indian government and dam authorities to prevent any further submergence of land until all dam-affected families are fully compensated for the loss of their lands and livelihoods, consistent with India’s domestic and international legal obligations.
University Network undergraduates also designed and developed an advocacy strategy for the project, focusing on multinational corporations that benefit from the dam. Using GIS technology, students mapped the locations of corporate facilities along the Narmada River to identify those that receive water from the dam reservoir; researched the corporate social responsibility policies and practices of these companies; and prepared letters to send the companies in conjunction with the report release.
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