Children - Terre des Hommes

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village also complained of contamination in their drinking
water and how their health is affected due to this.
Government health infrastructure consisted of one SHC
in Goudaguda and Amalabadi each, and one PHC at
Damanjodi.
Social Disturbance and Sexual
Harassment
Villagers have reported 10–15 cases of sexual harassment
of the women from their community. Women walking to
the mine sites for daily wage work have faced intimidation
by migrant labour and truck drivers. 269 Some of the single
women and widows who have no other source of livelihood
have been forced into the sex trade in the fringes of Damanjodi
and Mathalput. Also there were at least 100–200 HIV/AIDs
affected persons but it is difficult to give accurate estimates.
Damanjodi has acquired the reputation of being the second
Ganjam (a city in Koraput district with high incidence of
HIV/AIDS) in terms of HIV cases. Considerable number
of migrant workers come from Ganjam and coastal belt. 270
Single woman—vulnerable and destitute, Damanjodi
(Photo June 2009)
The social environment of the DP camps has changed from a
village community to a slum community with problems like
alcoholism, domestic violence, theft and crime being common.
Although basic amenities do not exist in DP camps, liquor
is the most easily available commodity with liquor shops set
up within the rehabilitated colonies. In Damanjodi it is no
different, and the wages earned by men are directly drained
out for alcohol, which is a cause for domestic violence,
frequent brawls and physical abuse on women. The adivasi
children who had no exposure to such social disturbances in
the earlier times, have to now face a degenerate social order.
This is both an intangible price and beyond the boundaries
of compensation. This is a price that a nation is willing to pay
for the economic returns, because, mention of such impacts is
normally ridiculed as giving undue importance to insignificant
and inevitable impacts vis-a-vis the economic image of an
industrially advanced India.
Conclusions
The rehabilitation of the community displaced by NALCO,
even after three decades, remains incomplete. The fact that
at the time of this study in 2009, the PAPs were organising
strikes and agitations to demand for proper rehabilitation
shows that the displaced families’ problems are yet to be
addressed by the NALCO authorities. There has been no
impact assessment report made public, if any was undertaken
during this period, and no stocktaking of the rehabilitation
process, or a review of the basic services provided were
undertaken in consultation with the PAPs. Particularly, there
has been no assessment of the impact on children, even when
high incidence of child labour, school drop-out rate and
malnourishment are visibly evident. The presence of a large
section of single mothers, widows and destitute women in
the displaced camps, where they are unable to provide basic
survival for their children, is a direct impact of the mining
project; yet no attention has been given to their plight. The
new Rehabilitation and Resettlement Policy of India provides
for mere cash compensation with voluntary assurances that
social responsibility will be demonstrated by the respective
projects and governments.
(Acknowledgements: This case study was done with the
assistance of NALCO Displaced and Land Losers’ Employee
Association, who provided us with data, introduced us to the
communities and helped in the field data collection.)
Dolomite and Limestone
Quarries of Sundergarh
“My name is Anjana (name changed). I am 15
years old. I am working in a crushing unit here
since the last 1 year as my family is very poor. For
269. Villagers from Janiguda and Champapadar
270. Statement made by members of NALCO Displaced and Land Loser Employee Association