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Indian protester's hunger strike enters eighth day

A leading Indian environmentalist's hunger strike against a massive dam entered its eighth day yesterday, as her allies demanded that the government detail its plans to compensate thousands of people to be left homeless.

Medha Patkar, who has been leading a struggle for two decades on behalf of villagers displaced by the Narmada River dam project, has refused to end her hunger strike, saying the government has failed to reassure around 35,000 people that they will be fairly compensated and resettled once their houses are submerged.

Three other less well-known activists are also participating in the hunger strike with her.

The Narmada dam project will eventually include about 30 large, 135 medium and 3,000 small dams that will channel water into irrigation canals and electricity projects.

Changes to project

Patkar's hunger strike, which began March 29, was prompted by a decision to raise the height of one of the main dams from 110m to 121m.

Some 10,000 people are still awaiting resettlement from the building of that dam, and the new height will affect about 25,000 additional people.

Patkar, who is in her 50s, has not eaten any food in the last seven days. She has grown weak and pale in recent days, and seldom sits up anymore at the site of her protest, at a central New Delhi monument.

Saifuddin Soz, the federal minister for water resources, visited Patkar on Tuesday, bringing a request from Prime Minister Manmohan Singh that she call off the hunger strike because a team of three federal ministers was scheduled to visit the dam site soon in India's Madhya Pradesh state to review resettlement efforts.

Patkar refused, however, saying that the government had yet to bring sufficient assurances to the villagers.

Debate over benefits

Authorities said the dam project will bring drinking water to 40 million people, irrigate land and generate electricity which would benefit people in three drought-prone states -- Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat.

But critics say the project will displace 200,000 people and irreversibly damage the region's fragile environment.

The dam project has sparked a raging debate among policy planners and social and environmental activists about the benefits of large dams and whether powerless farmers should be displaced for the sake of development.

"If people are displaced due to a development project, then it is a violation of their human rights and a violation by the government of its commitment to observing human rights," said Miloon Kothari, a housing rights activist.
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