The World Bank estimates that forcible “development-induced displacement and resettlement” now affects 10 million people per year. According to the World Bank an estimated 33 million people have been displaced by development projects such as dams, urban development and irrigation canals in India alone.

India is well ahead in this respect. A country with as many as over 3600 large dams within its belt can never be the exceptional case regarding displacement. The number of development induced displacement is higher than the conflict induced displacement in India. According to Bogumil Terminski an estimated more than 10 million people have been displaced by development each year.

Athough the exact number of development-induced displaced people (DIDPs) is difficult to know, estimates are that in the last decade 90–100 million people have been displaced by urban, irrigation and power projects alone, with the number of people displaced by urban development becoming greater than those displaced by large infrastructure projects (such as dams). DIDPs outnumber refugees, with the added problem that their plight is often more concealed.

This is what experts have termed “development-induced displacement.” According to Michael Cernea, a World Bank analyst, the causes of development-induced displacement include water supply (dams, reservoirs, irrigation); urban infrastructure; transportation (roads, highways, canals); energy (mining, power plants, oil exploration and extraction, pipelines); agricultural expansion; parks and forest reserves; and population redistribution schemes.

Copyright by Victoria Rowels ©2011

Young black slaves with beautiful dark skin,
Violated by white masters again and again.
They had white women to whom they were publicly wed.
But they preferred to rape black women in the slave shed.

A painful history we all want to forget,
But we can’t because of the children born of it.
Their hues range from black to white,
With hair sometimes straight and other times tight.

Evidence of a crime and justice never received.
Centuries have passed and yes, we still grieve.
But we must love the black rainbow that we have become.
We are the original hue-mans and should unite as one.

From the middle passage to every denied civil right,
We make the best of our trying plight.
But brainwashed to hate our African origin,
We began to hate our beautiful black skin.

From European standards of beauty to the paper bag test,
We have been encouraged to take part in a self-hate fest.
Now is the time to stop this genocidal game.
God loves us all and we should do the same.

A young black girl wanted to be fine.
She bought hazel contact lens and now she’s blind.
Some black women put glue in their hair,
To hold long straight weaves that blow in the air.

We shouldn’t do destructive things like that.
We are a beautiful people and that’s a fact.
Sisters and brothers we must love our natural state.
We must love the black rainbow and stop all the hate.