Medha Patkar

Medha Patkar is an outstanding social activist of India. She was conceived on first December in the year 1954. Preceding turning into a social reformer, she finished her M.A. in Social Work from Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS).She left Ph. D. in the middle and got effectively engaged with the fomentations led by tribals and workers of Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat. This cleared path for the arrangement of the association named Narmada Bachao Andolan. Indeed, in this article, we will give you the history of Medha Patkar, who has contributed a great deal in improving the living states of individuals.

On 28th March, 2006, Medha went on an appetite strike, in dissent of the choice taken by the specialists, to build the tallness of the Narmada dam. The strike proceeded for an extensive stretch of 20 days lastly reached an end on April 17, 2006. The Supreme Court dismissed the supplication of Narmada Bachao Andolan to stop the development of the dam. On December 2, 2006, Medha was captured by the police at Singur in West Bengal, for her dynamic contribution in the challenge against getting the hold of farmland. She was kept, on the grounds that the cops felt that, she may incite individuals, in this manner prompting peace issue. The Madhya Pradesh Government alleged the Narmada Bachao Andolan of receiving foreign funds and using them for unclear purposes. They claimed that, the money that was obtained was being used by the organization to hamper the rehabilitation process. In 1996 Patkar founded the National Alliance of People’s Movements (NAPM), an agglomeration of progressive social bodies opposed to globalization policies. She was a representative to the World Commission on Dams, the first independent global advisory body on dam-related issues of water, power, and alternatives; the commission was set up in 1998 and in 2000 issued its influential final report, which contained recommendations on improving development outcomes. Patkar also worked with local communities to develop alternatives for energy generation, water harvesting, and education, and she created a system of residential and day schools in villages of Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, and Gujarat. She was recognized internationally for her work.

 The background to Patkar’s activism took place during the 1960s and early ’70s, when the Indian government was promoting dam building as a route to modernization. The harnessing of river water was to provide water for drinking and irrigation and for generating electricity in impoverished areas. It would also, however, displace hundreds of thousands of people. In 1979 the NVDP—which proposed the construction of thousands of dams on the Narmada and its tributaries—was granted approval. In 1985 Patkar visited villages in the Narmada valley that were to be submerged after the completion of the Sardar Sarovar Dam in southeastern Gujarat, one of the largest of the planned projects. There she became aware of indifference exhibited by local government officials toward the people affected by the project. The NBA’s major aim was to provide project information and legal representation to the concerned residents of the Narmada valley.

- Navpreet Kaur