Sreya Sen - Doctoral Fellow, Department of
South and Southeast Asian Studies
University of Calcutta, India. This paper was
presented at a workshop on Gender, Development, Resistance at the University of
Lapland, Finland in June 2015.
Recurrent river
erosion on the banks of south western Bangladesh, such as in Khulna since early
2000. has led to massive displacement of the local population. Simultaneously,
the slow but steady erosion of the Ganges River in the district of Malda in West
Bengal, India has caused the people residing in these areas to lose their
homes. This article draws upon archival sources of data, namely national and
state government reports on policy and planning, district human development
reports, reports generated by non-governmental organizations (local and International)
working in the river erosion affected areas of Malda and Khulna and clippings
from national and sub national dailies, to examine the impact of river erosion
induced displacement on the lives of women residing here. It also attempts to
see the ways in which these women have emerged as forces of resistance to the
phenomenon of displacement instead of being mere victims of the process.
The problem of
displacement caused by river erosion became extremely acute in the early years
of the 21st century owing to the advent of development projects,
prompting state authorities in both areas to take note of the severity of the
problem. The construction of the Farakka Barrage in West Bengal for instance,
has aggravated saline intrusion in both Khulna and Malda, leading to a rise in
river erosion. The early part of the new millennium was also a time when International
and domestic provisions for the protection of the IDP’s were widened in both
India and Bangladesh in addition to the fundamental rights available for the
protection of such persons in both countries. This was when Bangladesh became a
signatory of the United Nations Convention of Human Rights (UNHCR) and thus
bound to abide by their mandate. It became a member of the UNHCR in 2002, and
consequently became bound to abide by its mandate as well as to take on board
the Guiding Principles relating to IDP’s. In India, the National Resettlement
and Rehabilitation Policy whose draft was prepared in 1998 by
the then Ministry of Rural Development, became an official policy in 2007.
Additionally, India being a member of the EXCOM of the UNHCR was also bound by
its mandate to look into the well being of IDP’s in the country.
