The Sardar Sarovar Mega dam Project (SSP) in the Narmada River Valley is one of the largest and most controversial of the large dams in India. For the last two decades, the people affected by the project have been challenging many issues related to the dam, primarily displacement and lack of just rehabilitation, but also including exaggerated cost-benefits analysis and the need for alternatives. The “oustees” as the affected people are known in official documents, are organized as the Narmada Bachao Andolan (NBA). Today, official figures place the total families affected by the Sardar Sarovar in three states
at around 41,000 (and in one document it is stated to be 43,816).

However, the NBA estimates the total figure to be closer to 50,000 (after adding major sons and other currently undeclared but eligible families). As of now, there are over 11,000 families yet to be rehabilitated who are affected at the current height of 110.64 meters.

Many thousands among these have already faced submergence due to the SSP, and others who are affected at the same height will face submergence at higher levels of rainfall. Hence, the current reality is that the construction of the Sardar Sarovar Project has proceeded to a height of 110.64 meters (out of a total of 138.68m), but rehabilitation
has not been kept up as per the law, causing great devastation to the living communities in the Narmada Valley. This year, submergence hit all the hilly Adivasi villages affected by the Project, in all the three states – Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and Gujarat – about 60
villages. These adivasi families, living on the banks of the river, between the Vindhya and Satpura mountain ranges, who have not only fought valiantly for their rights, but have also raised questions about consumption, inequitable distribution of wealth, and about why they have to “sacrifice their lives” for the “greater common good of the country.” These families have lost most of their good fertile lands by the river-banks, and this year they all lost their standing crop. About 150 homes were submerged this year also. Though Maharashtra government has paid compensation for crops lost in previous years, they have not paid so far for this year and the MP government has never paid the compensation for this human-caused disaster. Amongst all this, the struggle of the people continues fiercely. In the entire Adivasi belt, no family has accepted the illegal cash compensation being offered to them in lieu of land; they are all demanding land from the government, since they know that they need land in order to ensure secure
livelihood. In the plains of Nimad in MP, while many families have been lured into accepting cash compensation, there are thousands of other families who have not touched cash compensation, and are still demanding a just and deserving land-based rehabilitation. The Maharashtra government has started buying private lands in order to
re-settle people. However this process is moving very slowly, while the dam height brazenly continues to be raised and the submergence keeps on increasing. For Maharashtra, it is also important to note that about 2/3 of all families living in the villages are not declared as affected people. Hence, their rights are not understood or acknowledged, and hence not rehabilitated. The NBA has conducted many dharnas and
demonstrations including outside the Mumbai Mantralaya, in order for these families to be declared, and for rehabilitation to be completed before any further dam height increase. The Madhya Pradesh government has totally subverted the legally-binding procedure of giving land for land to all affected families who are entitled to it. Till today, not a single oustee has been offered or allotted adequate cultivable agricultural land in Madhya Pradesh by the Government of Madhya Pradesh. M.P. initially presumed that all the thousands of families who are entitled to alternate land in lieu of land submerged, would go to Gujarat. However, this presumption was not based on the consent of the
people.