Nepal/India - Some Elements of Resettlement

This is a photo essay on resettlement in Nepal and India. It does not attempt a comprehensive review of resettlement in these countries but only to illustrate some best practices as seen by the author, Tod Ragsdale, PhD. Page prepared October 1996.

It is also instructive to contrast R&R experience in South Asia with that of China.

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NEPAL

Resettlement takes place often, though not always, in remote rural areas. This is a village in Western Nepal.

This is another view of the same village as above, where low lying rice lands will be acquired for construction sites. Loss of these lands is made up for to a large degree by new opportunities from better access to the outside. Resettlement planning has involved local NGOs and mobilization of local resources -- as well as outside seed money -- to assist local groups to take advantage of such opportunities.

Rice fields owned by a Temple Association but worked by local farmers.

Villagers, in response to new trade opportunities, built an extension of the project access road using their own resources and the beginnings of a new trade Bazaar.

View of access road, with small shops on either side.

One of the buses that regularly comes to the village on the project access road.

The electric authority has a sociologist on staff, shown here meeting with one of the several communities affected by the hydroelectric project.

This is a photo of one of the several Village Advisory Groups made up of villagers who lost land to the access road.

One of the small scale irrigation collection tanks restored by the electricity authority after it was damaged by access road construction.

View of project access road.

Set of stairs built by electricity authority to facilitate pedestrian traffic up and down hill side.

Non Government Organization (NGO) working in community.

Dairy collection points have started on the project access road.

A leader of one of the local women's groups, involved in NGO and resettlement activities.

Kids at play.

Rural electrification already in the project area.

This page is under construction.

INDIA

A Dam in India.

One of the pre-resettlement villages, prior to relocation to a nearby new site.

View of resettlement village, with reservoir in the background.

Resettlement village house.

Owner of the resettlement village house, standing before doorway to his home.

Consultation with women's organizations organized by local development NGO.

Resettlement policy in the local language was put up, with maps illustrating the resettlement village layout, on new school buildings.

Village worker from the resettlement village, center, pictured with village leader (left) and government official.

Usually economic rehabilitation is the most difficult aspect of resettlement.

(Traditional Herder) In this area many villagers were traditionally herders and weavers.

(Sheep)Villagers were given a base grant, equal to approximately a year's income, and a wide variety of schemes to choose from.

(Livestock Insurance) NGOs worked with each household to choose a scheme that fit its aptitude and desire.

(Fodder Grasses) NGOs had, through a contract with the resettlement agency, conducted village surveys to determine in advance both villagers' desires and also the potential economic resources of each village.

(Fodder Trees) The village surveys had used a consultative technique called PRA, or participatory rural appraisal. Village Workers kept track of income earned, which went into a computer data base maintained by the resettlement agency.

(Watering Fodder Plants) At the end of the process, the NGOs updated the individual village studies and collected data to prepare village project completion reports comparing baseline income with income (and social services) after all families had been covered.

(Fodder & Fruit Tree Nursery) In addition to individual household schemes, the resettlement agency attracted entrepreneurial projects to the area, providing them with various means of support in exchange for their hiring villagers.

(Women Operated Tree Nursery) A wide array of Government social programs backed up the household and entrepreneurial programs, including provision of backward and forward economic linkages.

(Weaver) Provision of improved fodder resources, for instance, were backward linkages for livestock schemes, while assistance in marketing and introduction of new technologies for weaving were forward linkages.

(Improved Spinning Techniques) An independent monitoring and evaluation agency followed progress throughout the project implementation and was preparing a final evaluation report six months after completion of the economic rehabilitation program.

(Land Buying Group) The report was to provide recommendations for followup district and state government programs to sustain the economic rehabilitation program over the longer term.

(Crops on Newly Purchased Lands) Some of the lessons of the resettlement were: It was very important that resettlement was a component of the funding agency loan, as this allowed careful monitoring of the program's progress, especially in assuring closure through achievement of 100% coverage of households;

(Deepening Existing Wells for Irrigated Land) The use of NGOs to consult with families allowed for a wide range of options in economic rehabilitation;

(Tube Well Program to Improve Land Productivity) NGOs, in adopting their own villages, also created a kind of healthy competition between themselves and with the resettlement agency, which also directly implemented the economic rehabilitation program in its own adopted villages; and

(Village Drummers Announcing Arrival of Newly Constructed Ox Carts) There were a number of existing and well proven government programs that provided both a model for economic rehabilitation and also backup support for household-level schemes.

(Arrival of Newly Constructed Ox Carts by Truck) The success of India's several rural development and poverty alleviation programs in bringing about social change in villages was documented by a study carried out over a period of twenty years in the project area by a foreign anthropologist.

(Assembly of Newly Constructed Ox Carts) This study documented how landlords were disposing of their agricultural holdings during the 1980s and entering business, industry or other professions and how small farmers and the landless welcomed new economic opportunities when these were afforded to them by Government programs, even when these brought with them major alterations in occupation.

(A Family with its New Ox Cart) The study described ongoing social change in the area where the resettlement took place. The resettlement program wisely took advantage of the existing Government programs and, through close consultation with the participants, rode the crest of this social change. The willing, and enthusiastic, participation of the many households was testimony to the wisdom of this approach.