ADB’s 50th anniversary, civil society’s 100 protests

People’s movement allege the institution’s ‘development model’ has led to loss of livelihoods

GN Bureau | May 2, 2017


#Civil Society   #Environment   #Economy   #ADB   #NAPM  


A section of people’s movements and other civil society organisations across India are holding more than 100 protest actions between May 1 and May 7 to mark the 50th anniversary of the establishment of the Asian Development Bank (ADB), highlighting “the gross human rights violations, loss of livelihood, and environmental destructions caused by the ‘development model’ being pushed by ADB and other international financial institutions (IFIs), using public money”.

The during the first week of the May, the organisations will hold multiple programmes to “expose” the ADB’s neoliberal capitalist model of growth, where public money was used to promote private corporations, and its failed development paradigm, through raising the larger issues related to issues of accountability and transparency of ADB and other IFIs, the National Association for People’s Movement (NAPM) said in a release.

“The model of development pushed ahead by ADB resulted in the loss of livelihood and forced eviction, pushing people to poverty, contradicting ADB’s stated motto of ‘fighting poverty’. In urban areas, the hawkers are the badly hit ones. However, with increasing privatisation of services, even the middle class will not be spared,” the release quoted Shaktiman Ghosh, general secretary National Hawker Federation, a trade union conducting programmes in several states, as saying.




The programmes include protests, public talks and lectures to highlight what NAPM called the serious impacts of ADB’s lending, at a time when ADB is celebrating 50 years of expanding its lending portfolio of just over $3 billion during the first decade, to $123 billion during the last decade. 

The venues range from Bilaspur in Himachal Pradesh to Thiruvananthapuram in Kerala, and Mundra in Gujarat to Dibrugarh in Assam.

‘Peoples’ Forum Against IFIs’, a platform of people’s movements and civil society organisations working on the “ill effects of international financing”, is the one coordinating these 100+ events. The actions are organised by local organisations in a manner which is relevant to them, to highlight their struggles and issues and seek transparency and accountability from IFIs.

“ADB needs to seriously review its push for hydro-projects in India, particularly in the Himalayas, in the name of clean energy programme in the light of the adverse environmental and social fallouts of its projects and the complete failure of its safeguard policies in this context,” said Manshi Asher of Himdhara - Environment Research and Action Collective. “Further, the escalation of costs in these projects has put a question mark on the financial feasibility of hydro power projects,” she added.




Coastal Gujarat Power Ltd, a $4 billion, 4,000 MW coal based thermal power plant in Munda, Kutch (Gujarat), is one the projects ADB is co-financing, causing damage to people and environment. As confirmed by its own accountability mechanism, Compliance Review Panel, the project has violated ADB’s policies on consultation with communities, the sanctioning of the project was based on erroneous social impact assessment and due to the project the fish catch has reduced drastically, threatening the livelihood of thousands of fishworkers.

Also read: Join the club, let’s discuss biodiversity!


“Our plea to ADB to restore the livelihood of the fishworkers has fallen on deaf ears. While they are celebrating the 50 years, the fishworkers in Mundra are struggling to meet their ends,” Bharat Patel, general secretary of Machimar Adhikaar Sangharsh Sangathan, said.

 

Comments

 

Other News

How to leverage AI to solve urgent global issues

The world seems to be hurling towards World War III in all the possible scenarios: hot war, cold war, and proxy war. The battleground seems to have expanded beyond physical to digital or virtual/mixed reality with technology like drones. Moreover, the line between civilian and military targets seems to hav

Budget: Progress towards SDGs and areas for improvement

The Union Budget 2025-26 outlines India`s vision for economic and social growth while also reflecting the country`s commitment to sustainable development. As India moves closer to the 2030 deadline for the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), this budget presents a balanced approach

Repo rate cut by 25 basis points to 6.25%

The Reserve Bank of India has, for the first time in five years, reduced the policy repo rate under the liquidity adjustment facility (LAF) by 25 basis points to 6.25% with immediate effect. Consequently, the standing deposit facility (SDF) rate will stand adjusted to 6.00% and the marginal

Amitav Ghosh’s new work: Connections between the word and the world

Wild Fictions: Essays By Amitav Ghosh HarperCollins, 496 pages, Rs 799.00 Amitav Ghosh, one of a handful of Ind

How markets can help (and also hinder) fight against pollution

In the annals of environmental policy, few ideas have been as transformative as the Emissions Trading System (ETS). Born from the minds of economists in the late 1960s, this market-based approach to pollution control has evolved from a theoretical concept to a global tool in the fight against climate chang

Will Bihar complement the resolution of Viksit Bharat 2047?

As India completes its diamond jubilee as a republic, I am reminded of a statement by Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, delivered during an address to the Bihar Chamber of Commerce in Patna on March 28, 2006. He said, “I have visited Bihar numerous times, and it has always been a source of happiness for me to

Visionary Talk: Amitabh Gupta, Pune Police Commissioner with Kailashnath Adhikari, MD, Governance Now



Archives

Current Issue

Opinion

Facebook Twitter Google Plus Linkedin Subscribe Newsletter

Twitter