PIPARWAR COALFIELDS KARANPURA GHATI BACHAO ANDOLAN, HAZARIBAGH, BIHAR
Hazaribagh is one of the oldest districts of Bihar and is an important city of South Bihar because of the coalfields in and around the area. We are part of the Karanpura Ghati Bachao Andolan. Karanpura Ghati has one of the biggest coalfields in Asia, it has 23 projects. Every project covers 12-20 villages. The entire project displaces 250 villages. Piparwar is the first project and covers an area of 2800 acres. Each coalfield has a life of 30-35 years i.e. after these many years, the project will be wound up. The Piparwar project affects 10 villages, the first of which is Magardaha. The entire village has been evacuated. The compensation given is very low-Rs. 300-500 per acre. Magardaha is empty, and people have been resettled in Chidainya and Juhnia, both are heavily forested. The worst part is that these adivasi and hanjan families that have been uprooted and resettled here have been compensated for the land they have lost on the basis of survey land valuations made 50-60 years back. Some have received compensation, some have not. There are very few big farmers in South Bihar and very rarely do people have 30-35 acres of land. Because of this they have been denied compensation. So, people who own 60-70 acres land have got compensation only for residential plots i.e. for about 1-2 acres. And those who were till yesterday fairly well off have been reduced to penury. Adivasis have been resettled and in the name of resettlement they have received only 5 acres of land. Much like the way cattle are kept in sheds, every adivasi has been given a 5R plot in one acre of land. That is, one acre of land has been divided into 5 plots and given to adivasis along with Rs. 5000. Adivasis do not like to live in congestion, they live at distances from each other and construct houses in the middle of their lands. Now they live on tiny plots that do not even compare with the land on which they used to keep their cattle…The biggest difficulty is that they have lost their lands and are without a means of livelihood. Only those who have been given 3 acres of land have been given jobs. That too, they have not got jobs in the same coalfield. According to the rules people who have lost their lands to the Piparwar project should get jobs there itself. But in Hazaribagh there are many projects like the Tata Steel Plant. So, the people have jobs 40-50 kms away from where they have been resettled. Another aspect of this displacement is that people who used to earn daily wages have been very badly affected. Because they had land, the forests gave them fruits and medicinal herbs that they used to sell. The forests were a source of livelihood. The land acquired for the project had not been cleared by the Environment Department. The andolan created an uproar over this. After that the government backdated the acquirement. Before the acquirement notices have to be issued. There is a special court in Ranchi where people can claim and issue notices to the government. What the authorities did was to backdate the land notices which preempted people from making claims. Notices are issued in English, the sarpanch or the main leaders are given these notices. Adivasis do not understand English. We tried organising people. But there are sarkari dalals (government agents) who have got Rs. 200-500. And the least informed, those without any means of support, did not get anything: they lost their homes, their lands. This is the unfolding of destruction in the name of development. Any description of their condition will fall short of their reality… Adivasi life is communitarian, they have their own lifestyle, language and culture. All this has been lost; their own societal structures have collapsed. The education of their children is finished…Women have had specific experiences. In comparison to other castes, adivasi women have more freedom. Their society is more open. It is amongst the upper caste Hindus that there are many restrictions: the purdah system, dowry and so on. All this is absent in adivasi society. Adivasi women take decisions in the family, participate equally in economic activity like farming. Whether it concerns economic activities, upbringing of the children or those pertaining to the family, women take equal part in all. Displacement has uprooted them and put them in other villages where they are exploited mentally and physically in every possible way. The social custom of mahua collection and the brewing of liquor has been distorted…They have never dealt with money, never having needed it as they produced their means of sustenance and lived off it. Monetised economy and the bazaar (market) never had a place in their lives. Today they do not know how to use the money received as compensation. Banks and its rules and regulations inhibit them, neither do they know how to benefit from keeping their money in banks. Sometimes the dalal cheats them of money.
They now have to buy the rice they used to produce in their fields. After 2-3 years the money is used up and then they are on the streets. They have no land in the villages they have been resettled in. The goonda (goons) type of people in these villages exploit women sexually…Communities have been broken up and resettled in different villages: social cohesion and unity has therefore been ruptured. The entire society is gradually facing destruction… The most glaring insensitivity of this resettlement is that while the sarkar has set up institutions in the name of preserving adivasi culture elsewhere, here their gods and places of worship have been lost. And the sarkar has turned a blind eye to this fact. The end result is loss of culture, loss of economy. The government has made an agreement with the Australian government that their technology will be used for mining. One machine will displace 500 people from jobs. The myth being perpetuated here is that modern technology will provide jobs for many. But the ill-informed adivasis are unable to understand what this means. The government will get coal and the nation will develop, but this development will not be of any use to the people. In fact, the introduction of technology will actually deprive people of badly needed jobs. We have been making efforts to explain to people. But they are confused and just do not understand the changes that are taking place in their lives. After the Piparwar project, the Ashoka project is slated to take off. This is the biggest project and will affect 20 villages. Many are however, opposing this project… women are now migrating from villages. They have been reduced to looking out for mazdoori… We have been resisting these projects for a long time. But there are many hurdles. We have a right over the land they have been occupying. They should be therefore, paid for the amount of coal that is found there. Not lose their lands and become labourers. A committee should be formed to organise employment for those who do not have land. As people work on these lands they should be given work on the coalfield, other opportunities should also be made available to the people. If coal is extracted manually the life of the coalfield can be extended to 60 years. And in that much time other avenues of income can be created.
Hazaribagh is a densely forested area and this being Asia’s biggest open colliery these forests are relentlessly being cut down. In Australia trees are cut, the mud collected and coal extracted. Once all the coal has been removed the mud is put back and the trees are replanted. The same procedure is supposed to be followed here too. But in reality, trees have been cut down to extract coal, the trees are then being sold off. The land is left just like that. If people are given the land for coal extraction, it would definitely not be rendered useless. It would be used for farming and the environment would be preserved. A tree takes 20-25 years to mature and the sesame trees grown here fetch a price of Rs. 30-35,000 each. Such valuable trees have been destroyed without as much as a thought…
Another demand we have made is land for land compensation. Land is used over generations; the survival of the coming generations depends on it. Coal mines that are being dug here will not even sustain one generation. This is certainly a move towards destruction. Where is the development?
The rate of adivasi population in Tandiwa area (30-40 kms away from Hazaribagh) has been decreasing at the rate of 15% a year and has gone down by 30% already. Their numbers will keep decreasing till, we fear, all trace of the adivasis will vanish.
In the name of development 1217 adivasi families and 973 harijan (Dalit) families will be affected here by this project. A total of 3010 women are to be displaced…In the next 10 years the Damodar river will be destroyed because of the dust from the colliery. The same will happen to the Bokharo river. And this, when South Bihar does not have too many rivers to boast of.
Many political parties initially organised the villages. Then they began to work hand in glove with CCL. They did dalali and earned money. People lost everything they had. We tried to co-ordinate with some groups within these villages. Because of their experiences with political parties, they have lost faith.
We started working with small groups. CCL broke up the organisation. They gave the people contracts: to construct houses, wells or roads. This brought an end to the work of committees that we had formed.
People have been duped earlier. They do not trust us easily. They say, if we trust you today is there any guarantee that you will not become dalals tomorrow? We face uprootment, will your intervention prevent, that they ask.
There are groups that believe in violence. They think that we are against development. That we are confusing and instigating the adivasis. They have often attacked us, they pressure us. As a result, we cannot follow-up on court procedures, we cannot stopover in villages at night. In this atmosphere of fear, meetings cannot be held, collective decisions cannot be taken. We have now begun informal literacy classes with adivasi children.
Another obstruction we are up against are NGOs that receive funds from the Australian government to work on rehabilitation, for vikas?! These are also dalals of a sort. They do not take money from CCL, but take foreign funds and gain credibility. This affects the struggle.
Have uprooted people ever been successfully rehabilitated? With the loss of means of livelihood how can they be rehabilitated? Where will they go? They cannot push pens or take advantage of reservation. We believe in struggle so that forests and lands are saved. But these NGOs mislead them. They say: we build houses, dig wells, make roads. The other organisation (meaning us) deprives you of all this. People see short term benefits and give in to the slow poisoning.
What does our organisation have? Only our bodies, our hands. Which is why we are not able to struggle effectively against the capitalist system. With one step forward we are being dragged three steps back.
We feel that if women are included in the struggle, it will be strengthened. And if women emerge in the leadership, threats on life and violent struggle will decline.
I have been involved in political work since I was 15 and so struggle gives me satisfaction. Especially when women get organised…