Industrialising India leaves little room for farmers

'I won't give my land away'

Jagdishji Vaghela is one of hundreds of thousands of farmers standing in the way of India's breakneck economic expansion.

Determined not to give up his land for an industrial park in Gujarat, the 55-year-old farmer scorns at talk of how the benefits of industrialisation in Asia's third-largest economy will trickle down to people like him.

Despite a nearby plant producing what is touted as the world's cheapest car, the Tata Nano, he pointed to a water-logged track leading to his village.

"What is this development they are talking about? Look at the road, it's completely flooded," Vaghela said.

"I won't give it (land) away. If we give it what do we do? We will have to search for jobs, but even they are not available."

Text: Reuters

Reuters Images

Image: Farmers wait to sign agreement papers to hand over their land to the GIDC (Gujarat Industrial Development Corporation) for the development of an industrial zone at Sanand, west of Ahmedabad on September 9, 2010.

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