Medha Patkar

Medha Patkar (née Khanolkar; born 1 December 1954) is a politician and activist working on certain political and social issues raised by tribals, dalits, farmers, labourers and women facing injustice in India.

She is an alumnus of TISS, a premier institute of social science research in India.

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Patkar is the founder member of the movement called Narmada Bachao Andolan (NBA) in three states: Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and Gujarat.

NBA has been engaged in a struggle for justice for the people affected by the dam projects related to the Sardar Sarovar dam project, especially those whose homes will be submerged but have not yet been rehabilitated.

She is also one of the founders of the National Alliance of People's Movements (NAPM), an alliance of hundreds of progressive people's organizations.

In addition to the above, Patkar was a commissioner on the World Commission on Dams, which did thorough research on the environmental, social, political and economic aspects and impacts of the development of large dams globally and their alternatives.

She was the national co-ordinator and then convenor of National Alliance of People's Movements for many years and now continues to be an advisor to NAPM.

Under the banner of NAPM, she has participated in and supported various mass struggles across India against inequity, non-sustainability, displacement, and injustice in the name of development.

Her work challenges Casteism, Communalism, and all forms of discrimination.

She has been a part of numerous teams and panels that work on initiating and formulating various national policies and enactments including those related to land acquisition, unorganized sector workers, hawkers, slum-dwellers and forest-dweller Adivasis.

NAPM filed several public interest litigations including those against Adarsh society, Lavasa Megacity, Hiranandani(Powai) and as well as other builders.

Medha Patkar was born as Medha Khanolkar on 1 December 1954 in Mumbai, Maharashtra, the daughter of Vasant Khanolkar, a freedom fighter, and labour union leader, and his wife Indumati Khanolkar, a gazetted officer in the Post and Telegraphs Department.

She has one brother, Mahesh Khanolkar, an architect.

Medha Khanolkar earned an MA in Social Work from Tata Institute of Social Sciences.

She was married for seven years (hence her surname Patkar) but the marriage ended in divorce.

Medha Patkar worked with voluntary organizations in Mumbai's slums for 5 years and tribal districts of North-East districts of Gujarat for three years.

She worked as a member of the faculty at Tata Institute of Social Sciences but left her position to take up the fieldwork.

She was a Ph.D. scholar at TISS, studying Economics development and its impact on traditional societies.

After working up to M.Phil.

level she left her unfinished Ph.D. when she became immersed in her work with the tribal and peasant communities in the Narmada valley spread over three states.

Narmada Bachao Andolan (NBA) is a social movement protesting against the dam on river Narmada which began in 1985 consisting of Adivasis, farmers, fish workers, labourers, and others in the Narmada valley along with the intellectuals including environmentalists, human rights activists, Scientists, academicians, artists who stand for just and sustainable development.

Sardar Sarovar Dam in Gujarat is one of the biggest dams on Narmada where the non-violent people's struggle has questioned social and environmental costs, undemocratic planning, and unjust distribution of benefits.

The struggle is still on in the Sardar Sarovar affected areas and also other large and medium dams on Narmada and its tributaries.

It has led to thousands of project-affected families receiving land-based rehabilitation and continues to fight against submergence and displacement without rehabilitation of more than 40,000 families residing in these submergence areas of Sardar Sarovar to date.

Few of the claims and critique on economic, social, and environmental aspects of the Sardar Sarovar and Narmada valley development project stand vindicated today.

Patkar has also questioned the wisdom of the currently popular developmental strategy of linking rivers in India as a means to address issues of water shortage.

NBA has been running JEEVANSHALAS- schools of life, since 1992 with about 5,000 students have passed out and many graduated.

Tens of them are under training in athletics and some have won many awards.

NBA also successfully established and managed two micro-hydro projects which got submerged due to the SS dam.

It has been working in many sectors over the last 30 years including health, employment guarantee, Right to Food and PDS, rehabilitation, and environment protection.

Critics argue that dam's benefits include provision of drinking water, power generation and irrigation facilities.

However, it is believed that the campaign, led by the NBA activists, has held up the project's completion, and NBA supporters have attacked on local people who accepted compensation for moving.

Others have argued that the Narmada Dam protesters are little more than environmental extremists, who use pseudoscientific agitprop to scuttle the development of the region and that the dam will provide agricultural benefits to millions of poor in India.

There had also been instances of the NBA activists turning violent and attacking rehabilitation officer from Narmada Valley Development Authority (NVDA), which caused damage to the contractor's machinery.

The NBA has been accused of lying under oath in court about land ownership in areas affected by the dam.

The Supreme Court has mulled perjury charges against the group.

In 2000, Medha Patkar was included in the 100 heroes of the 20th century by Time.

However, noted Economist Swaminathan has criticized Medha Patkar in hindsight, saying she was wrong on the Narmada project.

Prime Minister Modi said that Medha Patkar and her “urban Naxal” friends had opposed and delayed the Narmada project that had greatly benefited Gujarat.” Expansion of the project in subsequent years has further brought further benefits from the dam, with irrigation water now available throughout the year to farmers across the states of Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Maharashtra, and Rajasthan.