The women India’s biggest river project forgot

What the report says

Al Jazeera reports that women in Kupi village, Madhya Pradesh, are protesting displacement linked to the Ken-Betwa dam, a major river-linking project that will submerge villages near Panna Tiger Reserve. The article says the Daudhan Dam, the project’s centrepiece, could affect about 10 settlements and force roughly 7,000 families to move. Protesters have used a “funeral pyre” demonstration to warn that they could be left without land, homes or support if compensation rules are not properly applied.

The report focuses on the experience of Gyan Rani Gond and other women from the Gond tribal community. It says her family has already lost one house, with another under threat, but that the adult women in the household have not received compensation in their own names. Al Jazeera says India’s land acquisition law includes a provision meant to treat each adult, regardless of gender, as a separate family for compensation purposes, but that officials are instead applying a narrower interpretation that can leave women excluded, especially when they do not hold land titles or are not listed on government records.

The article adds that the issue has drawn official attention. It says a district verification order followed local protests and a hunger strike, while state and Union officials have given differing accounts of whether affected families have been paid and rehabilitated. Construction has continued despite the disputes, and many families report that they are still trying to rebuild on their own. The article argues the case matters because it could shape how women are treated in future displacement from India’s planned river interlinking projects.