NIMAD , M.P.
We first got to know about the dam when Medhaji, Nandini and others went around from house to house. That is when we realised that the sarkar plans to displace us. Women were at first reluctant to go for meetings or dharnas. We have never stepped out of the house, how can we go for a dharna, we thought. Very gradually women started coming out. 5 women at first, then 10, then 50……That is when Nimad awoke. We first went to Kevadia, 60 kms away from the dam site in Gujarat. The sarkar had deployed such a large contingent of police, it was beyond our comprehension. Section 144 had been clamped… we violated orders in Kevadia.
We went to Harsud. Women had gathered there in thousands from all over the country. We marched to Ferkuva on foot. With our food, wood for 22 days we sat on a fast. Having lost all sense of decency sarkar come to arrest us at midnight. Women immediately gathered there to prevent the 250 police men and women from doing that…the SP, DSP had all come but we did not let them near the hunger strikers… that was mahila shakti…We went to Bhopal, Delhi, Mumbai—there was an upsurge. An upsurge of protest. And as our struggle gained urgency the dam construction gained speed. Why? Because the women of the country are now asserting themselves… so they are alarmed. World Bank was a big donor. They had come to our area. Women gheraoed them. I said to them, we don’t lack anything in our desh, why should we get out from here? We can grow everything here, we live on the banks of Narmada, we breathe in this fresh air, we have no need for coolers. They couldn’t understand any of what I said. They kept repeating, very good, very good! We think the dam is destructive. We don’t want it. The sarkar is hollow and that is why the dam is also hollow. There is a crack in it. The World Bank pulled out, but Chimanbhai was determined to go ahead. We went to Manibeli. There is a very good mandir there. Shoolpaneshwar is a century old mandir. God knows how the mind of the sarkar works, they submerged that mandir. Our task is to save all the remaining mandirs on the banks of Narmada. The police arrived suddenly when we were at Manibeli. We decided that we wouldn’t let them enter. When the waters came, there were many friends, many supporters who told Medhaji that she was doing the wrong thing. What will remain if all of you drown. No, she replied, I will sit here. There were other women there who sat with her. They are so strong, I have not, in the past 10 years, seen women with so much courage. They sat there for many days. The police said to them the waters will come. They said, these forests and these lands are our own. It is not sarkar’s that we will leave it and go away. But the police came and dragged them away. Today their condition is so bad. Their homes have been submerged twice in a row… Their cattle, their homes, their clothes… all have been lost…We, the women of Nimad have to support them. We live in pucca houses, we have not lost like them. What will happen when the waters rise? We will have to join them…