Panaji, August 2025 — The intersection of development and displacement took centre stage at the Museum of Goa’s recent MOG Sunday session titled PARI: Stories from the Margins. Journalists from the People’s Archive of Rural India (PARI) presented gripping firsthand accounts of how large-scale projects in Maharashtra are uprooting rural and tribal communities, threatening their livelihoods, homes, and futures.
Among the highlighted stories was the impact of the Samruddhi Mahamarg, India’s ambitious Mumbai-Nagpur expressway, which stretches 701 kilometres through Maharashtra. Families dependent on river fishing were forcibly evicted without compensation, losing both their homes and their means of survival. Similarly, hydropower projects in the ecologically sensitive Western Ghats have displaced entire villages, leaving residents with little recourse despite holding proof of property ownership.
Jyoti YL, a journalist who reported from Maharashtra’s tribal and rural districts, shared poignant narratives of despair and invisibility faced by those affected. “For people on the ground, it often means displacement, despair and invisibility,” she said during her virtual talk. She recounted stories like that of Tulshi Bhagat, who travels over 40 km daily from Shahapur to Mumbai to sell palash leaves at the flower market, enduring police harassment and poverty.
The session also touched on the plight of children, whose education suffers due to school closures or mergers. Sons and daughters of migrant sugarcane workers and brick kiln laborers often have access only to makeshift classes run by community groups, with government support rarely materializing.
Video journalist Shreya Katyayini highlighted the importance of trust-building in rural journalism. “When I walk into a house, I don’t pull out my camera first. You have to almost become invisible so the story continues to be about them and not about you,” she said, emphasizing the empathetic and patient approach necessary to bring these stories to light authentically.
The MOG Sunday event reinforced the critical role of grassroots journalism in documenting development’s complex and often painful consequences on India’s rural heartlands. It serves as a powerful reminder that progress must be measured not only by infrastructure but by the dignity and rights of the people it impacts.
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