Mumbai: Around 35 years ago, a wave of urbanisation swept over a clutch of villages and a minicity, which we know as Navi Mumbai today, was created. However, for the thousands of villagers who surrendered their land and civic facilities to make way for the development, and received a huge amount of money as compensations, did little to improve their economic condition.
   A recent government study shows that 68% of Navi Mumbai’s project-affected people blew up their compensation amount—the minimum amount comes to around Rs 30 lakh to 40 lakh—on things that can hardly be described as constructive.
   A whopping 81% of them admitted to Cidco, the creators of Navi Mumbai, that they had spent most of the amount on upgrading their lifestyle by partying and buying vehicles and gold ornaments. Only 34% said they used it for education and business purposes.
   Today, 80% of these families survive on less than Rs 10,000 a month, and of them, 46% make the ends meet with less than Rs 5,000 a month.
   These are some of the results thrown up by a study conducted by Cidco with the help of Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) to assess the impact of its compensation scheme on the sociodemographic and economic profile of project-affected people of the Navi Mumbai project. More than 900 families, comprising 5,254 members, were interviewed for the survey and a report was tabled a few weeks ago.
   About 70% of the project-affected people had sold off the land they received as rehabilitation to private builders, to make a quick buck. They also had their ancestral homes reconstructed into pucca buildings. Now they live in 1,000 sq-ft houses, but have a meagre income to fall back on.
   “A majority of the project-affected people sold their lands they received in compensation to private builders and 60% of them still do not have jobs. Most work as brokers, skilled and unskilled workers in various sectors and 41% could not even define their current form of occupation,’’ states the study. Tellingly, 50% of them refused to dilvuge their places of job and 36% said they worked with local industrial or commercial establishments.
   Their sorry state indirectly reveals a failure on Cidco’s part to educate them about sustained financial management of the compensation amount, says the report.
   Although the literacy rate of the 14 villages of Navi Mumbai—Belpada, Kopra, Kamothe, Valvali, Asudgaon, Kalundre, Kalamboli, Roadpali, Taloja and Kharghar—is 94%, most have not studied beyond HSC.
   “Nearly 43% of the families have cars and autorickshaws and 71% have motorcycles, but 95% of them have no formal employment,’’ statistics reveal.
   Around 40% of them run autorickshaws and taxis and 50% still walk to their work places. “Nearly 50% do not have playgrounds and recreational facilities in the vicinity of their gaothans. Around 88% do not have agriculture land and lack health facilities in their residential areas, in spite of staying in the middle of the 21st-century city of Navi Mumbai,’’ states the survey.

WHAT THEY TOLD CIDCO

68% spent compensation amount on partying, buying vehicles and ornaments and “other activities’’

71% have bikes, 43% have cars and autos, up to 97% have TVs, washing machines, refrigerators, phones and computers. Only 17% have trucks, tempos and jeeps

44% complain about poor health services despite being part of Navi Mumbai

41% failed to define their current occupation

18% are brokers or work in the real estate sector, while 21% are unskilled workers