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Society
Their Houses On Our Land
by Ajitha Menon
Nazneen
Begum's day starts at the crack of dawn. After cleaning her rented
one-room hut, she cooks and then feeds her 17-year-old son, who is
mentally challenged. Leaving him under the care of her 14-year-old
daughter, Nazneen catches the 6.15 am bus to one of the 60-odd housing
complexes off VIP road in Kolkata to start work at 7 am sharp.
Nazneen, 58, works in the city as a domestic help. But she was not
always one. Believe it or not, there was a time when she had her own
house and about two 'bighas' (one 'bigha' is about 2,468 square metres)
of farmland. Farming was the family occupation and they used to get by,
albeit with a little difficulty. Unfortunately, life for Nazneen changed
the day the West Bengal government decided to take over their meagre
land holdings in Rajarhat, on the eastern fringes of Kolkata, to build a
satellite township.
"We cultivated paddy on our land in Ghuni 'mouza'. The yield was about
1,080 kilograms every season. In between the three seasons a year, we
cultivated vegetables. It was a simple life. We did not have to buy
anything from outside. The government acquired our land in 2000 and the
compensation was only Rs 120,000 (US$1=Rs 42.4). This money was soon
spent on the treatment of my husband, who had met with a road accident
at the time. He eventually passed away," recalls Nazneen.
According to Nilotpal Dutta, 59, of the Rajarhat Zameen Bacchao
Committee, 40 villages have come under the land acquired by the
government in Action Areas I, II and III in Rajarhat. "When we went to
court on the environmental impact issue related to acquiring farm land
and ponds, the government declared before the court that it was
acquiring 3,075 hectares under 25 'mouzas'. The court, after a survey,
gave permission to acquire only 622 hectares. But the government has
sold over 3,000 hectares to promoters now, displacing 250,000 people,"
he reveals.
From Rs 3,000 per cottah (720 sq. ft.), the government compensation went
up to Rs 14,000 per cottah in the last stages of acquisition depending
on the lay of the land. Acquisition began in 1996 by the West Bengal
Housing Infrastructure Development Corporation Limited and concluded
last year. However, land sharks are now paying farmers outside the
Action Area up to Rs 500,000 per cottah, informs Dutta.
Those who received lump sums spent it without planning for the future.
"When the government acquired our 5.5 cottah land in 2001, they paid us
Rs 29,311. Outsiders were willing to pay about Rs 40,000 for the same
land - that was its actual market value," says Renu Khatoon, 53, who
works as a maid in a 525-apartment complex near the city airport. She
has had to change her name - she has a Hindu name now - so that she
could get work. "It's not just the humiliation of losing our land and
looking for work. It's also about losing our identity. Several Muslim
women like me pretend to be Hindus. We wear sindoor (vermilion), in
order to get work in Marwari and Gujarati households in these complexes
that have come up on our land. We even pay bribes to local councillors
to certify our new identity for security clearance at the complexes,"
she adds.
Sitarani Sardar, 54, too, rues her bad fortune. "Our land was near the
Hatiara mosque and Ram Mandir, but that too was acquired," she says. And
the compensation they were paid was blown up on buying her 24-year-old
son a motorcycle. Now, Sardar earns about Rs 1,500 as a domestic help
and pays Rs 600 as rent to her landlord for a small hut near the Atghara
crossing.
Several women in the mouzas of Salua, Ghuni, Jatragachi, Reckjoani and
Patharghata have lost the money given as compensation to husbands, sons
or other relatives. Many have also been cheated by brokers, who promised
them land elsewhere and then vanished with the money. "I bought four
cottahs of land near Atghara crossing with the money I got as
compensation to make a house. However, after paying the money, I found
out that the land was already registered in someone else's name. The
broker cheated me. Now I don't have any money. I work as a cook in four
apartments in the complexes that have come up on farming land like the
one we lost, to make a living," says Motirani, 45.
The victims of land acquisition received compensation, which was not up
to market standards, and they spent the money at one go for constructing
a house or marrying off a daughter or buying vehicles for wastrel sons.
Most of them did not invest any money.
Mahamaya Mondal, who lost land at Patherghata mouza, says, "My husband
is paralysed waist down. We spent the compensation money to marry our
two daughters. Now, I work at a club as a bathroom attendant, doing both
morning and night shifts to earn money."
According to Dutta, "On the one hand, there has been no guidance given
to these poor farmers on how to invest and make the compensation money
last. Neither has alternative land been provided to them to set up
homes. On the other, the government, which has paid poor compensation,
has sold the land at rates ranging from Rs 150,000 per cottah to
promoters at the upcoming township."
Big builders like DLF, Unitech, Keppel Magus, Gujrat Ambuja and Shrachi
have bought land in the Rajarhat Satellite Township Action Areas for
building huge housing complexes. Information Technology parks by DLF and
Shapoorji Palonji and a hospital by Tata have also come up, along with
conference halls and five star hotels.
And of the people who were displaced due to these land acquisitions, the
government has rehabilitated only 17 per cent, says a Comptroller and
Auditor General's (CAG) report.
But the women have no doubt survived. From cleaning to cooking, from
washing clothes and utensils to dusting, from working as security guards
in complexes and as bathroom attendants at clubs, they are doing all
sorts of jobs to make a living and feed their children. But they are
often waging a losing battle, with their children dropping out of school
- often after class IV - and their husbands being prodigal with the
small compensations that have come their way.
But even those women whose husbands or sons work, as rickshaw pullers or
as daily labourers - occupations farmers are not trained for - are
unhappy. It is indeed ironic that the land acquisition meant to solve
urban housing problems has rendered the rural poor, homeless and poorer
by at least another generation.
August 10,
2008
By arrangement with
WFS
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