“The IRR model (The Impoverishment Risks and Reconstruction Model for Resettling Displaced Populations) found by American-Romanian social scientist Michael Cernea can be applied in Telangana. Lakhs of internally-displaced people due to various projects in the State continue to experience the eight inherent risks,” said State Human Rights Forum general secretary S. Tirupathaiah.
“These are landlessness, joblessness, homelessness, social disarticulation, marginalisation, food insecurity, loss of access to common property, and increased morbidity and mortality. In addition, three more field recordings by the HRF across districts in the State are realities,” he said while speaking at the 14th memorial of HRF’s founder and renowned civil rights activist K. Balagopal in the city on Sunday.
“Among all the displaced in Telangana, the worst-affected are women, youths, and people belonging to SC, ST and BC communities,” he said.
Other speakers such as Pratik Sinha of Alt News, and Kham Khan Suan Hausing of the University of Hyderabad, expressed their views on the current situation in Manipur during a talk on “Save democracy, Resist tyranny”.
According to Mr. Tirupathaiah, the Telangana government, keeping aside constitutional principles, follows a “for-profit business model” of development.
“Land acquisitions in the State are not transparent, and are based on false promises made by the ruling party,” he said, describing the last days of a few displaced people who ended their lives and the ordeal of several families living in R&R colonies.
The memorial also included two book releases, talk on Understanding Fascism: Writing on caste, class and the State, a collection of essays by K. Balagopal, and Vakapalli – Neramu Siksha, of the 2007 gang-rape of 11 tribal women, and the screening of a documentary called “Balagopal: The Man, The Movement and The Moral Compass”.
