Got Development?

Manas Mohanty popped his bubble gum and reclined in the comfort of his air-conditioned SUV moving past laborers  washing after a day of pounding iron ore in India’s eastern town Joda, Orissa. As the car approached another stretch of highway that resembled a pothole surrounded by tiny roads, rather than a major artery  carrying about 15,000 trucks a day, he grabbed onto the passenger’s side handle in preparation for the bumpy ride.

“Here we go,” Mohanty said. “Heaven-Hell. Heaven-Hell. Heaven-Hell.” The phrase mimicked the sensation of the car bouncing up into the heavens and down into hell as the driver navigated the maze of red-mud watery ditches. It was a joke describing the pathetic situation of the roads, which are the lifeline for  numerous mining companies transporting iron ore to steel factories in other parts of the world.

'Heaven and Hell' doesn’t just describe the roads, it’s a description of the hellish life of the day laborers who are building the heaven that could be India’s future.

Mohanty is a local mine contractor and journalist who translated for me while I was in Orissa. Like most Indians, he embraces the contradictions and conflict of interest in his life. "You do what you have to do," he said.

So Orissa is one of those hot spot states of controversy that everyone  kind of knows is not in the best of shape and a spot whose conditions and issues people rarely think about until its too late. In other words, it's easy to ignore it because it doesn't directly effect your life.

It's a state rich in minerals: iron ore, bauxite, aluminum. Steel companies see big dollar signs.  Foreign and domestic companies have been in the region for decades. After India's economy opened up, the companies have come in droves.Especially in the last four years. Yet it's also the most financially indebted state in India.

The problem is that the state is largely populated by tribal communities (adivasis) living off the forests and water. So as the companies come, the tribals lose their land and have no other choice but to take jobs working in the mines. Their culture disappears. Family structures breakdown. Children don't got to school and women lose their social status. Their only pleasure is getting drunk off the local rice beer. It's often their only food, too. The central and state governments thus far have offered no incentive for the companies to invest in the communities by building roads, schools or hospitals. So in Joda and towns all over Orissa — towns producing millions in revenues for multinational companies — there are slum packets instead of neighborhoods, traditional healers instead of hospitals, child laborers instead of students. 

This isn't a new phenomenon. It happened to Native Americans in the USA and Aboriginals in Australia. Some say its the cost of development. Perhaps. Except that it seems like Orissa still operates in a colonial economy. The state made more money off of alcohol tax in 2004 than tax from the minerals. The minerals then get shipped to China, which produces the steel and then China sells it back to India so another millionaire can build a mall.

I did not take any photos of my time there as I was traveling with a freelance photographer, Adam Ferguson, who took  stellar shots. Follow this link to see a little bit of what we saw. Go to stories and click on Poverty in Orissa. He'll be going back to Orissa to visit some other hot spots. I would like to go back as well. We'll see. I will have a story published about the women of Joda shortly.