1 Forced Displacement: A Gendered Analysis of the Tehri Dam Project in India

Development induced displacement has brought about a profound economic and socio-cultural disruption to the affected communities. Under conditions of deprivation and marginalization, the rights and entitlements of those forced to move and fundamentally change their traditional means of livelihood have been lost. They lose their social networks, cultural identity, sense of well being and existing modes of production. These processes of impoverishment question the developmental model that perpetuates displacement causing human misery to the displaced communities world over. The premise of using gender as a category for analysis in the effects of development-induced displacement is based on the assumption that women experience displacement and relocation in a particularly gendered way. This occurs due to the gendered division of labor that has arisen from socio-historical processes of men‘s traditional incorporation in wage earning and performing labor oriented tasks while women remain on the land jobs and its management on a daily basis. The insensitivity of the regimes constructing large developmental projects in the state has created conditions where women have been the greatest sufferers. These project