Ahmedabad tribal workers' site demolished for metro project: Whither rehab policy?

By Mina Jadhav*
The Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC) has demolished 69 settlements of tribal construction workers in front of Srushti Arcade, Motera, Ahmedabad. The settlement had come into news last year at the time of the visit of US President Trump to the Motera stadium.
The AMC had tried to undertake the demolition at that time as the settlement was very near the Motera stadium to be visited the US President. However, facing adverse media publicity, the AMC had stopped its eviction proceedings. The then AMC commissioner gave an interview in a national newspaper saying that there will be no eviction without rehabilitation.
Now, all of a sudden, the AMC demolition squad undertook the eviction when the workers had gone to their homes for Holi. Very few workers were present when the demolition happened. All the belongings of the workers were also destroyed in the process.
Since then, there have been two major developments. The Covid induced lockdown brought the issue of housing for seasonal migrant workers into public limelight. It was acknowledged by the state that the exodus of workers was directly related to the poor quality of housing migrant workers had access to.

It is to be noted that all the residents of the Motera basti are the tribal migrant construction workers from Dahod and surrounding districts who migrate with their family. The low wage rates means that they can not afford rental housing and are forced to live in the open. Realising this, the Central government has come out with policy for public rental housing. The Government of Gujarat has also launched schemes to make public rental housing available for migrant workers. However, all this did not stop the AMC from undertaking the demolition.
Another major development has been that the plot of land occupied by the settlement has come under the second phase of the Metro-Link Express for Gandhinagar and Ahmedabad (MEGA) project that is funded by Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) and has robust rehabilitation guidelines.
The agency responsible for under the Social Impact Assessment of the project Gujarat Institute of Development Research undertook a social assessment of 69 families resident on the plot on 25th February 2021. Under the guidelines of the project, the residents are entitled to the following compensation:
a) Valuation of the structure
b) Right to salvage the affected materials.
c) One time subsistence allowance of Rs.3,000 per month for one year from the date of award.
d) One time shifting assistance of Rs.50,000
e) PAPs losing residential units shall be offered tenements of 36.5sq.m at residential buildings by AMC.
Every single one of these conditions has been flouted by the AMC. The workers' union, Majur Adhikar Manch, has lodged a formal complaint with JICA demanding

Full compensation under the provisions of the Social Impact Assessment of the project
Compensation for the trauma suffered by the families
A full inquiry into the episode, fixation of responsibility, and punishment for the guilty personnel
Adoption of suitable measures by JICA so that similar violations do not take place in this project and other project funded by JICA
Stopping of all work on the project until the resettlement is complete

---
*Secretary, Majur Adhikar Manch, Ahmedabad

Comments

Anonymous said…

what a stealthy covid sir jee kal strike by bjp bhai

April 04, 2021

The soundtrack of resistance: How 'Sada Sada Ya Nabi' is fueling the Iran war

By Syed Ali Mujtaba* The Persian track “ Sada Sada Ya Nabi ye ” by Hossein Sotoodeh has taken the world by storm. This viral media has cut across linguistic barriers to achieve cult status, reaching over 10 million views. The electrifying music and passionate rendition by the Iranian singer have resonated across the globe, particularly as the high-intensity military conflict involving Iran entered its second month in March 2026.

Lata Mangeshkar, a Dalit from Devdasi family, 'refused to sing a song' about Ambedkar

By Pramod Ranjan* An artist is known and respected for her art. But she is equally, or even more so known and respected for her social concerns. An artist's social concerns or in other words, her worldview, give a direction and purpose to her art. History remembers only such artists whose social concerns are deep, reasoned and of durable importance. Lata Mangeshkar (28 September 1929 – 6 February 2022) was a celebrated playback singer of the Hindi film industry. She was the uncrowned queen of Indian music for over seven decades. Her popularity was unmatched. Her songs were heard and admired not only in India but also in Pakistan, Bangladesh and many other South Asian countries. In this article, we will focus on her social concerns. Lata lived for 92 long years. Music ran in her blood. Her father also belonged to the world of music. Her two sisters, Asha Bhonsle and Usha Mangeshkar, are well-known singers. Lata might have been born in Indore but the blood of a famous Devdasi family...

'Batteries now cheap enough for solar to meet India's 90% demand': Expert quotes Ember study

By A Representative Shankar Sharma, Power & Climate Policy Analyst, has urged India’s top policymakers to reconsider the financial and ecological implications of the country’s energy transition strategy in light of recent global developments. In a letter dated April 10, 2026, addressed to the Union Ministers of Finance, Power, New & Renewable Energy, Environment, Forest & Climate Change, and the Vice Chair of NITI Aayog, with a copy to the Prime Minister, Sharma highlighted concerns over India’s ambitious plans for coal gasification and the Prototype Fast Breeder Reactor (PFBR).

Manufacturing, services: India's low-skill, middle-skill labour remains underemployed

By Francis Kuriakose* The Indian economy was in a state of deceleration well before Covid-19 made its impact in early 2020. This can be inferred from the declining trends of four important macroeconomic variables that indicate the health of the economy in the last quarter of 2019.

Incarceration of Prof Saibaba 'revives' the question: What is crime, who is criminal?

By Kunal Pant* In 2016, a Supreme Court Judge asked the state of Maharashtra, “Do you want to extract a pound of flesh?” The statement was directed against the state for contesting the bail plea of Delhi University Professor GN Saibaba. Saibaba was arrested in 2014, a justification for which was to prevent him from committing what the police called “anti-national activities.”

Food security? Gujarat govt puts more than 5 lakh ration cards in the 'silent' category

By Pankti Jog* A new statistical report uploaded by the Gujarat government on the national food security portal shows that ensuring food security for the marginalized community is still not a priority of the state. The statistical report, uploaded on December 24, highlights many weaknesses in implementing the National Food Security Act (NFSA) in state.

Why Indo-Pak relations have been on 'knife’s edge' , hostilities may remain for long

By Utkarsh Bajpai* The past few decades have seen strides being made in all aspects of life – from sticks and stones to weaponry. The extreme case of this phenomenon has been nuclear weapons. The menace caused by nuclear weapons in the past is unforgettable. Images of Hiroshima and Nagasaki from 1945 come to mind, after the United States dropped two atomic bombs on the cities.

Subaltern voices go digital: Three Indian projects rewriting history from the ground up

By A Representative A new wave of digital humanities (DH) work in India is shifting the focus away from university classrooms and English-language scholarship, instead prioritizing multilingual, community-driven archives that amplify subaltern voices . According to a review published in the Journal of Asian Studies , projects such as the People’s Archive of Rural India (PARI), the Oral History Narmada archive , and the Bhasha Research and Publication Centre are redefining how the country remembers its past — often without government funding or institutional support.

Beyond Lata: How Asha Bhosle redefined the female voice with her underrated versatility

By Vidya Bhushan Rawat* The news of iconic Asha Bhosle’s ‘untimely’ demise has shocked music lovers across the country. Asha Tai was 92 years young. Normally, people celebrate a passing at this age, but Asha Bhosle—much like another legend, Dev Anand—never made us feel she was growing old. She was perhaps the most versatile artist in Bombay cinema. Hailing from a family devoted to music, Asha’s journey to success and fame was not easy. Her elder sister, Lata Mangeshkar, had already become the voice of women in cinema, and most contemporaries like Shamshad Begum, Suraiya, and Noor Jehan had slowly faded into oblivion. Frankly, there was no second or third to Lata Mangeshkar; she became the first—and perhaps the only—choice for music directors and all those who mattered in filmmaking. Asha started her musical journey at age 10 with a Marathi film, but her first break in Hindustani cinema came with the film "Chunariya" (1948). Though she was not the first choice of ...

Search This Blog