Developmental Activities and Human Right Issues in India: A study of Lifelivelihood Debate in Kerala

It seems that many projects initiated by post independent governments of Kerala with the intention to bring development, particularly to generate more number of employment opportunities have resulted in serious violation of human rights, that too the right to life of thousands of underprivileged sections of people living in the project area. It is a paradox that when the right to livelihood of a relatively small number is guaranteed, the right to life of a large section of people is brutally denied. The situation becomes more complicated when the governments that are preoccupied with a modernist perception on development did not pay attention to the question of environmental degradation and allow the projects to continue to operate. The present study is an effort to analyze those human rights movements in Kerala with an inclination to challenge the existing development paradigms with a focus on selected issues from industrial and agricultural sectors.

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