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India: Letter to World Bank from Social Movement Groups Opposed to Dilution of Safeguards in Favour of Businesses and Violation of Community Rights

30 June 2016

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June 25, 2016

Dear Executive Directors,

We are representatives of people’s movements, civil society organisations, and other concerned citizens from India, who have been engaged with, or monitoring World Bank financed projects for the past many years.

In April 2013, around 60 of us jointly issued a statement titled ‘Sham Consultations: No More’ during the first phase of the Safeguard consultations. We have detailed our opposition to the consultations, citing examples of different projects to establish that “the so-called environmental and social safeguards of the Bank are nothing more than a veneer of protection to mask the real impacts of this dangerous financial institution which works only to increase profitability of its shareholders and furthering the cause of the extractive-accumulative large capital - at any cost.â€

While we stand by that, and despite many voices of opposition and concern from different parts of the globe, the Bank continued it process of consultations, without addressing the issues we collectively raised, and brought out two drafts of it. The drafts clearly demonstrated all that we said in our letter – the intentions are wrong, the process flawed and the purpose of this is to fool people, giving them a false sense of participation. The end result remains the same – to push investments in all possible sectors, with scant regard for social and environmental impacts and without any democratic and participatory processes. The World Bank projects are not only a contributor to climate change situation, the projects are also destroying the capacity of the people to adapt to changing climate.

To add insult to injury, our government has advocated for weakening of the policies claiming that these Safeguard policies are too costly and time-consuming to implement; inefficient when national systems could more quickly and easily be applied; and undermine national authority and sovereignty by putting harsh conditions on Bank lending.

We do not share this view with our government. Our opposition was on different grounds and it was not to weaken the policies.

We believe that unless there are genuine efforts to learn from past experiences, the consultations are more inclusive and participatory, and keeping people and environment in the core of any planning, these policies will only further disempower the people, rob them off their natural resources and push them to destitution.

Yours truly,

  • National Alliance of People’s Movements
  • International Rivers
  • South Asia Network on Dams, Rivers and People
  • International Rivers South Asia
  • North East Peoples Alliance
  • Bharat Jan Vigyan Jatha
  • All India Union of Forest Working People
  • National Domestic Workers Union
  • National Cyclists Union
  • All India Forum of Forest Movements
  • Narmada Bachao Andolan
  • Matu Jansangthan, Uttarakhand
  • Beyond Copenhagen Collective, New Delhi
  • Delhi Forum, Delhi
  • Manthan Adhyayan Kendra, Madhya Pradesh
  • Institute for Democracy and Sustainability, New Delhi
  • Machimar Adhikar Sangharsh Sangathan, Gujarat
  • Intercultural Resources, (ICR) New Delhi.
  • Urban Research Center, Karnataka
  • Environment Support Group, Karnataka
  • Khan Kaneej Aur ADHIKAR (Mines minerals & RIGHTS), Jharkhand
  • Delhi Solidarity Group
  • Srijan Lokhit Samiti, Singrauli, Madhya Pradesh
  • Theeradesa Mahila Vedi, Kerala