Abstract Book of the 9th International Conference on Advanced Research in Social Sciences
Year: 2025
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Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Groups (PVTGs) and Development: A bottom-up exploration of Identity, Displacement and Dispossession in Mandla district, Madhya Pradesh, India
Shweta Singha
ABSTRACT:
In the eastern parts of Madhya Pradesh (MP), India, mining and industrial projects are a well-known reason behind displacement of indigenous population. Much has been written about the deleterious effects of Development-induced Displacement and Rehabilitation (DIDR) on the region’s indigenous and non-indigenous communities. International studies, on the other hand, have drawn attention to the unequal consequences of displacement within affected communities and the ways in which they can create new local disparities. Furthering this area of inquiry, my research will seek to expand the understanding of the differential impact of mechanisms of dispossession, displacement, and compensation amongst indigenous communities in Mandla district, MP. My research will draw on ethnographic fieldwork to explore the different ways in which two groups of indigenous residents – Gond, who are the local, landed households and Baiga who are the migrant, forest dependent households, officially regarded as Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Group (PVTG) – perceive and respond to the displacement induced by a proposed nuclear power project in Chutka village, Mandla district, Madhya Pradesh. My research will illustrate how the prospect of displacement, along with associated compensation policy operated by the Nuclear Power Corporation of India (NPCIL), gives rise to inequalities between the two indigenous communities. The research will illuminate some of the significant qualitative forms of inequality that can arise due to displacement.
Keywords: Development-induced Displacement and Rehabilitation (DIDR), Exclusion, Forest dwellers, Indigenous, Resettlement