Submergence Village Nimghavan, Maharashtra
“Our old village was Nimghavan… Now we have been rehabilitated from there to Vadchil rehabilitation site…And when we were in the old village, means in my childhood, means my birth village was Nimghavan. I was born there. Back then, birth date registration just did not happen…Because in our remote village, there wasn’t any authentic documentation as government registrations did not take place at all…So the school registration took place as per my parent’s judgement…That school is at least at distance of 10 kms- 10-11 kms. Being a mountainous region, one has to walk to the school, cross the rivers and creeks. There isn’t any road facility there at all… When I was in 9th standard, I attended a meeting for the first time, when the lathi charge of Dhule happened. When the (government) survey was taking place here in Nimghavan…When the police force arrived, we were on our farm boundaries. Surveys should not be conducted. If the surveys have to be conducted properly, they should consider our opinion properly, sitting across, otherwise we will resist the survey. We were within our boundary but the police entered forcefully. They started lathi charge and firing. In that firing, we lost one of our boys from Surung village, Rehmal Vasave was killed in that firing. Because we lost our youth in the firing, we marched in the protest to the district place. There too, there was brutal lathi charge upon us. All of us, the villagers including me and Tai were present there. All of us were injured in that lathi charge. I was in the 9th standard. It was for the first time that we were beaten in the lathi charge and we also went to jail. It was the first time we went to jail. For 5 days we were in the Dhule jail in barrack no 1…”.
And so goes the phenomenal life journey of a young adivasi girl Geeta Vasave, who grows to be a courageous woman, a leading light of her community and the Narmada Bachao Andolan. This is the story of the people of the Narmada valley, of their struggle against destructive development, the tragedy that has befallen them, as also a story of their courage and resilience.
Interview Duration: 1:08:00
Language: Marathi, Subtitles in English
Subtitles can be switched on and off by clicking ‘CC’ button at the bottom right of the video