"I will show you the state of the aanganwadi in our village. It may just collapse at any time," said 28-year-old Rajendra Tadvi, a local activist, and one of the few educated youth of the Kevadia village near which the Statue of Unity (SoU) stands tall in Gujarat's Ekta Nagar (formerly called Kevadia Colony).
Hardly 200 meters from his house stood the local aanganwadi -a quaint structure with a damaged tin roof and a broken window, one toilet outside, and one drinking water tap that had no water. "It gets flooded when it rains," Rajendra said, pointing at the holes in the roof.
"The world's tallest statue was made here but the schools are in a dilapidated state. There is just one teacher from Class 1-6. The aanganwadi may collapse any time. There is a secondary school nearby, but that's in a bad state too," said Rajendra.
A few kilometres away, Dakshaben Tadvi runs a dhaba right across the entry gate of the Statue of Unity.
"You should go and see Limdi village, there are no toilets there. The kids and others have to go to a nearby forest to defecate. They made a 182-metre-tall statue, and the Narmada dam, but there is no 'vikas'. There are tourist facilities around, but no development in villages. You can go to several such villages and see for yourself," she said.
The accounts of Rajendra, Dakshaben, and several others around the SoU are telling of the years of systematic failure that tribals displaced for the Narmada Dam Project in the 1960s are bearing the consequences of.
Several villages, resettlement colonies, and displaced families are still struggling because of a lack of basic facilities such as access to toilets, fully functional schools, equipped anganwaadis, proximity to hospitals, and jobs.
The Legal Struggles
Six of these tribal villages - Kevadia, Vaghadia, Navagam, Limbdi, Gora, and Kothi - have been embroiled in a legal tussle with the Sardar Sarovar Narmada Nigam Limited (SSNNL) over acquisition of their lands for tourism development around the statue. SSNNL, a Gujarat government-owned public limited company, manages and executes the Sardar Sarovar Project. The Quint reported on the legal battle these villages are embroiled in.
However, barring these six villages that are embroiled in legal tussles, even the resettlement colonies where displaced people have been moved over the years, are struggling for access to basic facilities.
About 10 kms away from the statue, in Sira village — a resettlement colony, residents have been protesting since over two months.
"There is a lot of work left here. When our villages got submerged, the government moved us here to this resettlement colony. They gave us land to cultivate and money to build houses. But we never got any irrigation water facilities here. They made a colony but didn't make proper drainage system. My house got flooded recently during the rains. There aren't any proper gutters or pipelines. First they did half the job, and then they stopped work altogether," Jikubhai Bhil claimed.
"There is water and there is electricity, but the water supply stops at any time, so does the electricity. It's been 20 years of this settlement here," he added.
Lack of proper water supply is also a problem in Kasundar village near Siri.
Kanshanbhai, who was moved to the village in a similar displacement package in the 60s, said that they sacrificed their lands for Narmada, but still wait for proper drinking water.
"There is a Panchayat borewell here which we use for drinking water. It has water every third day, it does not come every day. It comes from other villages. We never got the benefits of Narmada water. We still have not tasted the canal water," he said.
Unemployment The Biggest Issue Across Villages
Several villagers claimed that the male members of their house who were promised government jobs when they were displaced, never got them.
"They had promised that at least one son will get a government job after our lands are taken, but that never happened. A few months ago, we met the chief minister in Gandhinagar and submitted a list of our demands. He told us that he will meet us within the next 15 days, but he did not," Jikubhai said, following which, they began the protests.
The one thing that most villagers point out is the employment generation that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had mentioned in the speech he gave while inaugurating the Statue of Unity in October 2018.
Many locals allege that the external agencies hired to maintain the statue only offer menial jobs to them like cleaning and driving local autos, and that priority is given only to "outsiders."
"There are several graduates across so many villages who did not get jobs at the statue, while people are being brought from outside to work here," Rajendra claimed.
The authorities claim that the jobs offered to people are as per their qualifications.
Ashish Tadvi, an activist from Kothi village and a former teacher at a nearby school, once worked as a tour guide supervisor at the statue.
"I was happy when the SoU project was being launched here. Who does not like development here?" Ashish said.
"You launched the project in 2010. But, since 2010 and even before that, you did not even give proper schools for us to be able to educate ourselves and be employable. You could build the statue and develop the areas around it within a decade, but for 60 years, you could not care less about our education and upliftment," he said.
Most locals and hawkers even alleged harassment by the police over setting up shops on the streets near the statue.
"They don't mind big businessmen coming and setting up shops here, but the locals are not even allowed to be hawkers," Rajendra said.
Several locals, however, claimed to have have benefited from the statue, even if not in the most ideal ways.
As the statue was launched, local women were hired to drive e-rickshaws around the statue to take people to the nearby tourist attractions. The villagers have also been given jobs at the zoological park, the 'Valley of Flowers', etc.
23-year-old Karishma Tadvi, who rides an e-rickshaw outside the statue, said that she is able to earn for her family with the job. Somebody who has not been able to study beyond primary school, Karishma said that most of her friends have got employment because of the statue.
"The e-rickshaws came here because of the statue. I have been working here for five months. If the auto gets booked for the whole day, we get Rs 2,000, out of which Rs 670 has to be given to the SoU office. I get to keep the rest," she said.
Another local tribal employed at the 'Valley of Flowers' nearby, who did not wish to be identified, said that the job pays lesser than what farming on his ancestral lands would have, but he does not want to keep clinging to the past.
"I am no fan of the government, but I cannot change the past either. Whatever happened in the 1960s happened too long back. Yes, there should have been efforts to uplift us over the years because it was the government's responsibility to do so, but if I keep engaging in protests and legal tussles, I will not be helping my children," he said.
Decades of Systemic Failure
Nandini Oza, a writer and an archivist who has been associated with the Narmada Bachao movement for years, alleged decades of neglect by subsequent governments and reflected upon the reasons behind the basic facilities not being provided to the rehabilitated families.
"For the authorities, these people are non grata and these are the lands that the authorities have acquired on which they are not supposed to be living. It is only because of the people's protests that they get to retain at least their housing, which is mostly on the acquired land as the government claims," she said.
"From the 1960s, there is really no record, no data of the compensation paid. People say they were only compensated for the standing crops but the SSNNL claims that these are their lands. They don't want to provide any basic facilities so that people are gradually forced to move out to places with better facilities," she alleged.
"It's not just about the right to resettlement, but the struggle at a humane level," she added.
"The benefits of the dam have already reached the more privileged and the powerful. There is already the Sabarmati riverfront where the Narmada water has reached," Oza said.
(The Quint has reached out to the SSNNL via email for its response on the claims by several locals and the issues being faced by them.The story will be updated once their response is received.)
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