Champaben Tadvi

“…We have all kinds of trouble ever since we came here (resettlement site) from our ancestral lands…In our old village, we had no trouble at all. We were happy there, but here we do not find happiness…Coming to the resettlement site, we do not get sleep at night, it is like that, sister. It has been 12 to 13 years since we have been relocated here but I have never been happy. Our life span reduces here but does not increase. That is the kind of trouble here. We are in foreign land here, so we have to live like foreigners do, sister…”,

Champaben Tadvi

I was a witness to the forcible displacement of Champaben Tadvi in the year 1994 from her village Vadgam, the first to submerge in the Sardar Sarovar dam, out of the total of 245 villages. Champaben and her family were forcibly evicted by police from their village and were offloaded with their houses and goods from trucks at Dharampuri resettlement site near Dabhoi, Vadodara also in Gujarat. The two clips here are a small part of her interviews taken in the year 2009, 13 years after her displacement from Vadgam and once again in 2023, 28 years after her displacement from Vadgam.
In these two clips together, Champaben covers an in-depth history of over three decades in the life of an adivasi woman, a victim of the Sardar Sarovar Dam and her struggles for survival.

In the first clip from her interview in 2009, Champaben details the struggle against the dam and displacement that she and the adivasi community she belongs to fought, the forced eviction of the affected families to the resettlement site, her life on the banks of the river Narmada before her village submerged in the dam waters and the life after displacement in the resettlement site. She narrates how she has never felt at home in the resettlement site although 13 years have passed since her arrival at Dharampuri resettlement colony.

In the 2nd clip from Champaben’s interview in 2023, she narrates how her hardships in the resettlement site have only grown and her life has not changed for the better since the time she was interviewed last in 2009 and it is now 28 years since arriving and living in Dharampuri rehabilitation site.

The 2nd clip is Champaben’s interview taken in 2023, 14 years after her first interview in the year 2009. This interview is significant as it has been taken 28 years after her forced displacement in 1994 and after her first interview in 2009 at the resettlement site in Dharampuri. This clip is important to hear as it helps understand if Champaben does feel at home at least now, at the resettlement site – since her last interview in 2009 and after spending 14 more years, a total of 28 years, since her displacement and arrival at the Dharampuri resettlement site.

1st Clip Duration:
1:15:00

Language:
Audio in Gujarati, Subtitles in English

Subtitles can be switched on and off by clicking ‘CC’ button at the bottom right of the video

2nd Clip Duration:
0:28:20

Language:
Gujarati, Subtitles in English

Subtitles can be switched on and off by clicking ‘CC’ button at the bottom right of the video