The Right to development was a significant contribution to the international human rights framework. Developing countries argued for a primary importance to their development needs, given their low levels of material well-being. This transformed the human rights discourse to legitimize multiple paths to development. This right to development of every State gains meaning only when the States themselves legitimize multiple versions of development within their jurisdiction. In the case of land acquisition in India, the State acquires land in order to cater to its developmental needs or ‘public purposes’. Different individual or group perspectives of development are not included within this notion of ‘public’. This contradicts the very idea of a right to development. Large scale land deals see an interaction of global capital flows and specific political, social structures. In the process of land acquisition and framing of ‘public purpose’, this global phenomenon becomes a contestation over right to development. This paper undertakes a critical review of the right to development framework using the lens of the land acquisition debate in the POSCO project.
Land Acquisition, Human Rights, Development
