In Singrauli district, more than 300,000 people have been displaced over 65 years due to mining, power and dam projects.
Chandawal village is unique — every resident here has been displaced from another part of Singrauli.
Many families, like that of 71-year-old Chandrika Prasad, have been uprooted four times since 1960.
Despite repeated displacement, compensation remains meagre and government assurances unreliable.
Experts say India’s land acquisition laws must address the crisis of multiple displacement with stronger safeguards.
Part three of a Down to Earth (DTE) series exploring the scars of displacement in Singrauli. Read part one and part two.
In Madhya Pradesh’s Singrauli district, millions of people have been forced to leave their villages because of mining, power generation and dam projects — and this trend has not yet stopped. It continues unabated. Down To Earth visited a village where every resident has migrated from another part of the district. Those who have made their home here recounted their ordeal — from their first displacement to their present struggle.
Chandawal village is one of nearly four hundred villages in Singrauli, but its uniqueness lies in the fact that it has no native inhabitants. It is home to people displaced from hundreds of other villages in the district.
A small hut stands at the entrance of the village. In its veranda, an elderly tailor is struggling to thread the needle of his sewing machine. After several failed attempts, he calls out loudly. A little girl playing nearby awakens at his voice, rushes to him and threads the needle in no time.
This is 71-year-old Chandrika Prasad, barely managing to operate the sewing machine to sustain himself and his family. When asked why he works so hard at this age, he immediately replies, “If we don’t work hard, how will we fill our stomachs? The government doesn’t give us enough compensation to start a decent livelihood or help anyone in our family find employment. In such a situation, our only option is to depend on others for food until our last breath.”
“We have no faith in the government,” he continues. “They could drive us out of this place too. Every day we live in fear that a government official will come and hand us a notice to move. How long will we and our families continue to wander from one place to another? When we have given everything for the country’s development, should we not at least receive enough in return to eat two meals a day without worry?”
This isn’t just Chandrika Prasad’s plight — it is the plight of almost every family in this village.
Chandrika Prasad’s story of displacement began in 1960, when the Rihand Dam was nearing completion and nearly 40,000 families like his were forced to leave their ancestral lands. At the time, he owned about an acre of land — enough to sustain his family. But the dam took even that away.
After being displaced, he settled with his family near the Shaktinagar Canal. They lived there for nearly two decades before facing displacement again in 1980. That time, he received compensation of Rs 6,000 from the government.
With this, he moved to Dudhichuna village in the district. But he couldn’t stay there for long; mining began nearby and he was displaced once more in 1982. That time, he received double the previous amount, Rs 12,000, and moved to Dahilagarh village. Six years later, in 1988, he was forced to leave again, receiving only Rs 6,000 in compensation.
His family was devastated by this endless process of displacement, but they had no choice except to keep moving. “We’ve had to leave our village four times in thirty years,” he says. “We don’t know how we’ve survived. We should have died long ago. How many times can we rebuild our homes?”
He is grateful that he has been living in Chandawal for the past 37 years and hopes this will be his last home. Yet, he admits, “Everyone here has come from some other village in Singrauli.” Still, he worries constantly that he may have to leave again in his final days.
The village lies adjacent to the NTPC power plant and he fears that if the plant expands, they will be forced out once more. “My life,” he says, “is caught between two crises — the struggle for livelihood and the fear of displacement.”
At the entrance to the village sits 80-year-old Deendayan, whose story mirrors Chandrika Prasad’s. He too has been displaced four times over the past 65 years. Once a farmer, he now works as a labourer. Each time he was displaced, he received a small amount of money — Rs 5,000 in 1980, Rs 7,000 in 1982 and Rs 5,000 in 1988.
This displaced village still lacks basic amenities. Most of its residents travel to nearby towns and cities to work as labourers.
On the issue of repeated displacement, Shashi Singh, a research fellow at Cambridge University who has studied displacement in Singrauli for the past four decades, says, “When drafting the new law, I highlighted that the displaced people of Singrauli were not being considered from the perspective of multiple displacement. If you look at Section 40 of the new Land Acquisition Act, it directly addresses the problem of multiple displacement in Singrauli.”
He argues that efforts must be made to prevent repeated displacement. “Multiple displacement was evident in Singrauli because the previous law failed to understand the sensitivity of displacement — how difficult and painful it can be. Clearly, the problem of multiple displacement was unimaginable at the time. The previous law lacked understanding. The new law recognised this issue and introduced policy measures to address it. Most importantly, if you fail to prevent multiple displacement, the compensation amount should be doubled.”