Beginning in February 2015, 40-50 residents of Durgapur village in northern India, mostly women, sat in protest for more than a month. A state-owned company called the Tehri Hydro Development Corporation India Ltd. (THDC) was developing a hydroelectric power project near their community and some villagers believed that tunneling for the project endangered their homes and the overall well-being of their community. The women and their children sat all day in protest, singing folk songs that gave voice to their worries regarding the future, as well as songs of courage and hope.
One of the protestors, Sita (not her real name), a 30-year-old woman, told Human Rights Watch how THDC workers and contractors regularly threatened, intimidated, and insulted her and the other villagers while they protested. Company employees called the women “prostitutes,” subjected them to vicious insults referencing their caste, and warned them of “severe” consequences should they continue their protest.
Those threats and insults are part of what Sita and other community members described as a broader pattern of harassment. Some community members from neighboring project-affected areas say they have faced reprisals for objecting to how the hydroelectric power project is being carried out. Communities in the area say that the project prevents women from going about their daily lives freely and without fear. When Human Rights Watch asked THDC about these allegations, the company said that there have been no violations of human rights in the project area, that it has taken the issue of women’s safety seriously from the very start of project preparation, and that it was looking into the incidents that Human Rights Watch had raised “and will deal with them if necessary.”
While a majority of villagers in project-affected areas have accepted the project, a small number of families in Harsari hamlet continue to resist resettlement. In addition to those in Durgapur protesting a tunnel, scores of community members in nearby villages are opposed to the project because of broader concerns over environmental sustainability. These critics say they are facing threats due to their resistance.
http://www.hrw.org/report/2015/06/22/your-own-risk/reprisals-against-critics-world-bank-group-projects
Human Rights Watch says the World Bank critics were attacked by local governments, with almost complete impunity.
A report, by Human Rights Watch, entitled “At Your Own Risk: Reprisals against Critics of World Bank Group Projects” says that though the World Bank and many of the companies it invests in have “policies that require them to consult communities and safeguard against causing harm to them and the environment through their investments… in reality this often adds up to very little when communities come under attack.”
The organization says “people in Cambodia, India, Uganda, Uzbekistan, and elsewhere have faced reprisals from governments and powerful companies for criticizing projects financed by the World Bank and the IFC [which] failed to respond meaningfully to abuses that make a mockery out of their own stated commitments to participation and accountability…the World Bank Group has failed even to take appropriate action when people have suffered reprisals specifically because they were involved in bringing human rights concerns to the attention of Group officials.”
Though the World Bank says it spoke out against some of these abuses and attempted to seek remuneration for the victims, their claims are contradicted by their subsequent choice to enable the perpetrators.
http://www.infowars.com/world-bank-critics-attacked-and-jailed/