Ugly faces of Economic Development in India

Ugly faces of economic development in India_part 2

Ugly faces of economic development in India_part 2

Summary 

The documentary named “Ugly faces of economic development in India” is about the negative impacts of a large scale mining industry on the livelihood of the local villagers. It shows that economic growth in India is not inclusive. The documentary shows the situation and social issues related to the mining sector in eastern part of India. Similar situations and conditions are present in different parts of India as mining company is operating and extracting coal in different parts of the country in order to fuel the country’s economic growth. The documentary also shows the unequal distribution of the benefit from the coal mining; for example, the CEO's and top executives of these major mining companies are being paid more than $40,000 per month while the local families who are displaced from their farm land back in mining region are hardly able to earn $1 per day. These people were originally farmers doing agriculture in their community. However, after the large scale coal mining project took place, these people’s lands were taken away from them, their environment was destroyed and, worse of all, they had to adjust their lives to coal extracting, which actually took away their livelihoods, themselves in order to survive in the environment. The compensation for displacement was so less that it was not even enough to rent a room for 3 days in a very low standard.

Commentary

The documentary video was a great piece of work. It gives us good insights to better standard the conditions and the enormous costs the coal mining industries, or in other word the economic development projects, have inflected on the poor local people in the mining zones in different parts of India. I am always aware that any large scale development projects have both negative impacts and drawbacks in any countries including India. However, it comes as a shock to me to see how bad the negative consequences could be for the local families in some parts of India. So, the documentary video conveys its message well to its audience or viewers.

The documentary explores quite into daily activities of the poor villagers and their conditions. It also looks at different actors relating the coal mining and interviews different people who are affected by the mining as well as the people who work for the mining companies. So, the documentary looks professional and gives us different perspectives from different people about the same issues.

The video also demonstrates the huge gap of unequal distribution of wealth between the top people who operate the mining industries and the local villagers. This aspect of reality can contribute to our understanding of uneven development and power relation between the rich – the business operators and the poor – the powerless and the exploited. Some of the families were living with less than $1 a day, which is below the standard of what is so-called “extreme poverty” or “ultra poverty” as defined by the World Bank and IMF. The documentary clearly shows that the main stream so-called “development” or “economic growth” is not for everyone. In fact, it often takes away people’s livelihoods, their dreams and their future and could marginalize a large group of people in the process.

To solve this kind of problem, the India government has better laws and regulations to protect its own citizens or minimize the impacts large scale mining activities on its own people. The country should also try to minimize the huge gap of unequal distribution of wealth and exploitation of natural resources by demanding mining companies to do impact assignment and to play enough compensation to the people who lose their home, land, and livelihood to make a living elsewhere where they could have the same standard of living, at least. Moreover, the company should take responsibility of the pollution they produce from mining area by providing some kind of health care system for the displaced of the region and people who are affected due to pollution because those villagers were badly affected in term of health as they are living above and within the burning zones of coal. 

Min Zaw Min Tun (540415503)

GEO 154443: Space, Society and Development