The Narmada Bachao Andolan (NBA) is a social movement opposed to the Narmada Valley Development Project, a project involving the construction of 30 large dams along the Narmada River in India. The NBA, led by activist Medha Patkar since 1989, argues that the dams will displace millions of people while benefiting economic elites. Using non-violent Gandhian methods like protests and hunger strikes, the NBA campaigned internationally and nationally to stop the projects. While construction of the Sardar Sarovar Dam was approved by the Supreme Court in 2000, the NBA continues opposing the project and advocating for affected communities.

1. Narmada Bachao Andolan
-Justin Jacob

2. About Narmada River
● Narmada River is the fifth longest river in India.
● It begins its 1312 km (813 mile) flow to the sea from Amarkantak village in
Madhya Pradesh, continuing its flow towards Maharashtra, then Gujarat and
eventually to the Arabian sea,

3. History of the Project
● The idea of building dams in the Narmada river basin predates independent
India,
● In 1946, India's Central Waterways, Irrigation, and Navigation Commission
constituted a committee to study the feasibility of such a project.
● Fifteen years later the government of India came out with a plan to construct a
series of dams over the Narmada river .Thus was started a multi crore project
that would generate a big revenue for the government.
● In 1978, the Indian government sought the World Bank's assistance to build a
complex of dams along the river as part of the Narmada Valley Development
Project.

4. ● The Narmada Project included the creation of thirty large dams, 135 medium
dams, and 3,000 small dams.
● The Indian government promised that the dams would help provide potable
water for almost forty million people, irrigation for over six million hectares of
land, and hydroelectric power for the entire region.
● The government also claimed that the dams were essential for India's economic
development was the assertion that these benefits, which would purportedly
accrue to millions of people living in the Narmada River valley

6. Narmada Bachao Andolan
● Since the early 1980s, the Narmada Project has faced mounting opposition
from a variety of sources.
● Protest groups formed in all three affected states and included or were
supported by individuals facing displacement, students, social activists, Indian
environmental NGOs, international NGOs, and transnational networks.
● Groups in Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra opposed the dams altogether. Two
such groups were the Narmada Ghati Navnirman Samiti in Madhya Pradesh
and the Narmada Ghat Dharangrastha Samiti in Maharashtra

7. ● These two groups subsequently merged to form the Narmada Bachao Andolan
in 1989, under the leadership of Medha Patkar
● While Medha Patkar established Narmada Bachao Andolan in 1989, the groups
joined this national coalition of environmental and human rights activists,
scientists, academics and project affected people with a non- violent approach.
● NBA originally employed "Gandhian methods' such as peaceful marches and
protests.

9. Works of NBA
● The success of the NBA campaign resulted from its innovative strategies of
resistance that operated simultaneously at the grassroots, national, and
international level.
● NBA focused towards the stoppage of the Sardar Sarovar Dam, Medha Patkar
using the right to fasting, undertook a 22-day fast in June 1991 that almost
took her life.
● Medha Patkar and Baba Amte together let a series of protests, some of which
failed.
● In May 1990, a massive NBA five-daydharna (sit-in) at then-Prime Minister V.
P. Singh's residence in New Delhi forced the Prime Minister to agree to
"reconsider" the project.

10. Current Status of NBA
● In October 2000 the Supreme Court gave a judgment approving the
construction of the Sardar Sarovar Dam,
● The court decided that the height of the dam be raised to 90 m. This height is
much higher than the 88 m which anti-dam activists demanded, but it is
definitely lower than the proposed height of 130 m.
● After the Supreme Court judgment, the Gujarat Government has taken up the
construction of the dam.
● As the World Bank withdrew its financing in 1993 the project is now largely
finance by the state governments and market borrowings.

12. Thank you..