CSR - Conspiracy of Snatching Resources
By Gladson Dungdung
MyNews.in
4 May, 2008
These days many methods are being used to trick tribals for snatching their
remaining resources in Jharkhand. Recently, the village head Fula Marandi of
Amgachi village of Dumka district in Jharkhand was offered Rs. 13 lakh cash,
one vehicle and Rs. 20 thousand per month as honorarium by the Agriculture
Minister of Jharkhand for convincing the villagers to surrender their land for
the proposed Thermal Power Plant at Kathikund in Dumka, which the villagers are
opposing from the beginning.
The Minister knows that only the village-head can convince the villagers to
surrender their land for the proposed plant as he is the highly respected
person in the village. In another case, a tribal activist Dayamani Barla and
villagers were threatened by the middle men for raising their voices against
the global steel giant Arcelor Mittal in Torpa-Kamdara region in Jharkhand,
where the company has proposed a steel plant with the production capacity of 12
million tones per annum, which is expected to be streamed by 2012. The company
requires 12 thousand acres of land for the project but it is not able to
acquire the land due to people's resistance against the steel plant.
In the recent development, the Arcelor Mittal has announced to spend about $300
million on rehabilitation, resettlement and corporate social responsibility in
Jharkhand. The money will be spent for the improvement of health, education,
development, economic activities, socio-culture aspects and women empowerment
in the project areas. According to the media hype, it will change the fate of
Jharkhand. But one surprises that how one R&R and CSR would change the fate of
Jharkhand, which hundreds of corporate houses and the government of India could
not do for last 60 years? The company is also in so hurry to execute its CSR
plan in Torpa-Kamdara regions; therefore one must have to go back to the
journey of Mittal in Jharkhand to understand about the reality of CSR
(Corporate Social Responsibility), which seems to be the best method of
"Conspiracy for Snatching Resources" from the tribals.
The journey of the Steel Giant Arcelor Mittal began in the mineral richest
state Jharkhand on October 8, 2005 with the signing of a MoU (Memorandum of
Understanding) with Arjun Munda then the Chief Minister of Jharkhand for
setting up a steel plant with the capacity of 12 million tones per annum at an
estimated investment of Rs 40,000 crore. In addition to the steel and mining
projects, Mittal Steel has also proposed to set up a 2,500 megawatts capacity
of mega power plant in the state. The Chief Minister, Arjun Munda was delighted
after signing the MoU and had said that the proposed project of Mittal Steel
would provide a boost to the industrial development in Jharkhand.
After 8 month of signing MoU, the Mittal again visited India in July 2006 to
explore more investment prospects, but he was quite upset with the progress of
the project in Jharkhand and warned the state government of shifting the mega
project to its neighbouring state of Orissa if the project continues in the
same snail pace. Mittal said, "Though the Jharkhand government is co-operating
us but we are not happy with the progress therefore we are weighing our options
in Orissa". We want to move fast," he added. He had also a chat with the
Orissa Chief Minister Naveen Patnayak on the matter during his visit to Orissa
on July 7.
But by the time, Arjun Munda the Chief Minister of Jharkhand had already
created history in signing MoU with 43 companies therefore he dared to tell
Mittal that as he is a global steelmaker and is free to go anywhere. Munda knew
that the Orissa can never fulfill Mittal's requirements and he would come back
to Jharkhand sooner or later even if he shifts the project to Orissa for the
moment. The major problem for Munda was the people's resistance against MoU was
on high therefore the state government could not acquire land for the
companies. The Assar Steel, Bhushan Steel and Jindal Steel were forced to leave
the areas from the Kolhan region of Jharkhand. The Mittal suddenly got an idea
of luring people with CSR as he had never done in his life before; even he had
not spent a single paisa for India.
The Mittal founded an international NGO named "Arcellor Mittal Foundation" in
2007 with the objectives of working in order to provide added focus to its
diverse programme of social investment activities, and to promote Arcelor
Mittal's commitment to society and sustainable development, focusing in
particular on the communities where it operates. It is also said that the
Foundation will seek to develop partnerships with non-governmental
organizations (NGOs) to drive the programme forward. But the real agenda of the
foundation is to open the door for company to enter into the project areas
through the CSR programmes with the help of local NGOs. Obviously, the
foundation will pour huge fund on NGOs and use them in convincing people in
favour of the steel plant.
The Arcelor Mittals activities suddenly went on high with the appointment of
Sanak Mishra as the CEO of Indian project. The operational office was set up in
Ranchi on April 8, 2008 and the announcements of CRS programmes started like
what ruling parties do in the election year to convince people for getting
their votes. The first move was to launch an ITI (Industrial Training
Institute) in Khunti, which will operate from 2009. It was told that 50 percent
of the total seats will be filled by the state government and the rest will go
in the hand of the steel company. The 50 percent seats will go to tribal
students and 50 scholarships would be awarded to deserving local students of
the region on merit basis. The ITI was projected as a change maker for the
tribal community.
Meanwhile, the Mittal was updated with the information about how much tribals
love to play hockey and they can do anything for it, which can be one of the
best entry points into the region by sponsoring the hockey matches. The
ArcelorMittal immediately sponsored hockey tournament for girls and boys of
Khunti and Gumla districts. The training for boys and girls started with the
support of the district and the state hockey federations. But the question
comes in mind is why does Mittal only concerned about the tribals of
Torpa-Kamdara region of Khunti and Gumla district if the CSR is being
implemented for the non-profit purposes?
The Mittalss next step was to lure NGOs with huge fund. It is the known fact
that the NGOs had played a crucial role in mobilizing people for the successful
people's movement against the Koel-Karo thermal power project at Torpa.
Similarly, the thousands of people have started resistance against the steel
plant in Torpa-Kamdara region, which the Mittal wants to turn in his favour
therefore a seminar on "Development initiative for better tomorrow" was
conducted in Ranchi on April 17, 2008 in the banner of Arcelor Mittal
Foundation.
The hidden purpose of the seminar was to kill two birds with one stone. It
mobilized the local NGOs in his favour and also got the strategies of the
peoples resistance, which will help the company to come out with the new
strategy to combat it. 70 NGOs representatives of the areas participated in the
seminar but the irony is neither the village-heads nor the organizations were
invited who are really opposing the project. Leader of Adivasi Astitwa Raksha
Manch (tribal identity protection forum) Dayamani Barla questions that how can
outsiders design and decide the development plan for the villages? 'Why local
Parha Raja (head the tribal self governance) and Gram Pradhan (village-heads)
were not called for the seminar, she resisted? Now there is also a hunt of
getting tribal professionals for the CSR programme so that the company can use
them in convincing the villagers in their languages.
The final kick of the Mittal's illurement match was the announcement of huge
fund of $300 million for Rehabilitation & Resettlement and CSR programmes for
the state. Remi Boyer the Vice-President of Arcelor Mittal justifies it by
saying that the company is very serious about welfare of the people, their
ethnic needs and culture at the proposed site of the Greenfield project. "We
are here to stay and for generations", he added. But he gets upset when
landholders ask him to share the company's profit in the annual basis. He says,
"Its ridiculous to give shares to people who would not know what to do with
those". This is how the real business mindset comes out. Remi Boyer is also
trying to convince the Church as it has huge prevalence in the areas. All these
activities clearly indicate that the Arcelor Mittal wants to acquire land at
any cost and it is adopting the every possible method to convince people for
the project.
A noted mining activist and the spokesperson of Jharkhand Mines Area
Coordination Committee Xavier Dias says, "The Arcelor Mittal's CSR efforts in
mining areas are a dubious attempt to hoodwink the local people and get a back
door entry to grab their lands and resources. If they are really interested in
CSR then let them implement it in areas and regions where they must pledge not
to enter commercially". "If they are sincere about CSR then we ask them to
acknowledge that the people's ownership rights to natural resources are
paramount and they will not use the state or mafia power to capture them", he
added.
According to Sanak Mishra the CEO of the Arcelor Mittal India Limited, the
people of Jharkhand demand for industrialization therefore the rich minerals
state should lead Indian in the Industrialization. He says, "Lakshmi Mittal has
asked to do more social work in India under CSR and the Jharkhad project is the
model project of the universe for us". But the questions arise are how can
Sanak Mishra say that the Jharkhandis want industrialization when there is a
huge people's resistance in Kolhand and Torpa-Kamdara regions? Does Mishra
really know that Essar Steel, Bhushan Steel and Jindal Steel were thrown out
from the Kolhan region last year? And who are those Jharkhandis, who need
industry in Jharkhand except a few bigwigs? It's obvious that Sanak Mishra
gives such dubious statements deliberately to create the public opinion in his
favour.
The Arcelor Mittal has done media advocacy extremely well, which resulted in
the media's propaganda in manufacturing the consent and convincing people in
favour of the company. The media exaggerated the Mitals entry as a great
achievement of the state government and when Mittal threatened to leave the
state, the media coined it as the sky is going to fall in Jharkhad. The
announcement of ITI was also projected as it would change the fate of the
tribals of Torpa-Kamdara regions. It was coined in such a manner that without
the Mittal, tribals of the regions are living like the beasts. Finally, the CSR
was exaggerated as it will change the fate of Jharkhand in over night. All
these were done in complete planned manner to get land by projecting Arcellor
Mittal as the Massiha of Jharkhand.
The state government also put all the efforts to convince people for the
purposes but got nothing. The Deputy Chief Minister Sudhir Mahto, who is also
in-charge of the industries department, is extremely busy in incorporating
suggestions of the corporate houses in Rehabilitation & Resettlement Policy.
The final draft of the R&R policy is ready. The government has been working on
the R&R policy for last five years. The state government has also constituted a
14-member committee under leadership of another Deputy Chief Minister Stephen
Marandi for finalization of R&R policy because the state government has signed
65 MoU with an estimated investment of Rs. 2,00,000 crore in steel, mining and
power sectors and the government has to sort out the land acquisition problems
to translate these agreements into reality, which seems to be very difficult in
near future.
But the fundamental question is why people do not want to give their land for
the development projects? The most important thing is that the 60 years of
independence has taught horrible lessons to the displaced people about the
politics of development, rehabilitation and CSR programmes. The data of
Jharkhand shows that 24,15,698 acres of land were acquired in the name of
development, where 17,10,787 people were displaced. In every project
approximately 80 to 90 percent tribals and local inhabitants were displaced.
But what did they get in the so-called corporate development processes. Merely
25 percent of them were halfway rehabilitated but they are also in the
miserable conditions and no one has any idea about the rest of 75 percent. The
benefits of all these development projects were enjoyed only by the bigwigs -
Project Officers, Engineers, Contractors, Beaurocrats, Politicians and the
outsiders.
Another important thing is that there are numerous laws like the Chota Nagpur
Tenancy Act 1908, Santhal Pargana Tenancy Act 1949 and PESA Act 1996, which
provide protection to tribals lands despite their limitations but these laws
were never enacted with the true spirit in the tribal regions. At the same
time, the anti people policy like SEZ (special economic zone) came up within a
year but policy makers failed to introduce the rehabilitation policy even after
the 60 years of independence. Similarly, the Industrial Policy was introduced
soon after the creation of Jharkhand but the state rehabilitation policy is
still hanging in the ministers chamber for the last 5 years. The people were
displaced from one place to another in the name of development but they were
not rehabilitated. Thats the reason why the people have strong feelings of
betrayal in the name of "development" and resisting against the development
projects.
The main problem lies in the mindset of the corporate houses, who are not ready
to understand the tribal society, which is based on agro-forest based
subsistence economy, did not develop the habit of savings or taking up business
entrepreneurship. The communities depend on agriculture and forests for their
sustenance. They mostly practice agriculture and collect so-called minor forest
produces to meet their everyday needs. They do not only depend on the natural
resources for their livelihood, but their identity, dignity, autonomy and
culture are based on it. 90 percent of them still live in or in close proximity
to the forests therefore the community will not survive if they are alienated
from the natural resources, which the people of so-called mainstream of the
society are not ready to accept and consider while designing the development
projects. Rehabilitation, Resettlement and CSR programmes will not address the
real issues of the tribal communities because all these are based on the profit
making, which is against of the tribal culture, principles and ethos.
Obviously, the corporate houses do the social work to avoid the people's
resistance while acquiring land, to get the support of public in opinion
building and for the benefit of huge tax exemption in the name of corporate
social responsibility, and the Arcelor Mittal is not different from it. Why do
the companies like Arcelor Mittal, Tata Steel and Jindal Steel want to
establish such huge plants if they want to do the social work in the true sense
as they already own huge resource?
The major reason is that the people are fed up with the rehabilitation
packages, which created a huge people's resistance against the government and
the corporate houses across the country therefore the corporate houses came up
with the new glamorous term 'Corporate Social Responsibility' (CSR) to lure
people. This is why the CSR should be called as a "Conspiracy to Snatch
Resource" instead of "Corporate Social Responsibility. The CSR is defined as
"the business contribution to sustainable development" therefore one must has
to be aware about it because the business is all about profit and no one does
business for social services. The Corporate Social Responsibility is nothing
than a slow poison to the people, which the Arcelor Mittal has also adopted
therefore tribals and local inhabitants must fight against the proposed steel
plant, CSR and neo-imperialism of Arcelor Mittal and also beware of the tribal
politicians who are the real wolfs in the lamb's faces.
Gladson Dungdung is a Human Rights Activist associated with the "Child Rights
and You". He can be contacted at: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
© 2007 MyNews.in
Reference:
Ekka, Alex, 2003. Displacement and Rehabilitation. New Delhi: Indian Social
Institute.
Fernandes, Walter (ed.) 1992. National development and tribal deprivation. ND:
ISI.
Dungdung, Gladson. 2008. Uprooted Abandoned. Tehelka (New Delhi) March, 14.
------------------------ 2008. Rightfully Theirs. Tehelka (New Delhi) February,
29.
Mittal News Release. 2005.Mittal Steel Company signs Memorandum of understand
for greenfield project in Jharkhand (Ranchi) October, 8.
Roy S., Ambar. 2005. Mittal Steel signs MoU with Jharkhand for Rs 40,000-cr
plant
Business Line. October 9.
Menon, Shreelatha. 2008. Giving shares to people is ridiculous. Business
Standard
(New Delhi) April 22.
Chatterjee, Surojit. 2006. Mittal may junk Jharkhand project if progress not
satisfactory.
Internation Business Standards. July 15.
BS, Reporter. 2008. Mittal Jharkhand CSR plan launched. Business Standard.
(Kolkata).February. 26.
Steelguru, 2008. ArcelorMittal plans USD 300 million R&R and CSR in Jharkhand
April, 22.
Gladson Dungdung
