Globalisation and trade liberalisation policies have led to the privatisation of water and biodiversity and the concentration of land ownership in India, reversing six decades of land reform and introducing a new form of corporate zamindari -a feudal land tenure system- through instruments like "special economic zones", writes Vandana Shiva, an author and international campaigner for women and the environment.
The World Bank's water sector reform projects are transforming rights to water; through its loans, is redefining India's water acts and rewriting water policies and laws. This amounts to an outsourcing of legislation that undermines the Indian constitution and Indian democracy, robbing the people of water rights and water laws that were democratically established and articulated by the panchayati raj (village council), state legislatures, and national parliament.
(*) Vandana Shiva is an author and international campaigner for women and the environment.
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