Documentation

This study explores the issues of women street vendors at 4 tourism sites - Bodhgaya (Bihar), Bhubaneswar, Puri (Odisha) and Goa in context of tourism. It documents the issues of street vending like realities and challenges faced by women street vendors, perspectives of stakeholders and the policy and regulations. It highlights the gaps in National Urban Street Vendor Policy 2004 & 2009 and the Model Street Vendors (Protection of Livelihood and Regulation of Street Vending) Bill 2009. A consultation on Street Vendors & Tourism: Right to Livelihood and Space was organised to share experiences from the field and bring tourism into ongoing debates. The report of the consultation is also included in this publication.

This publication called the 'Working Paper Series 2011-12' is a compilation of our Papers and Campaigns for the year 2011-12

The paper is about the linkages between the Tourism and Water Rights, Today water is one of the most central resource consumed by the tourism industry. Consumption of water will be predominantly felt by those communities who are dependant on natural resources for their livelihoods. These communities, over the years have evolved efficient natural resource management mechanisms. However, the needs and the access of these communities to the natural resources are being sidelined when developmental projects come up which most often undermine the sustainable management practises.The ideal “holiday experience” with its luxury services places a high demand for water.

Tourism is a highly resource centric and resource heavy industry that banks on the availability of land, water and natural resources for providing the tourist experience. Unregulated tourism and diversion of natural resources for meeting tourism demands has caused negative impacts on the environment. Inevitably, local communities that are dependent for their livelihoods on commonly shared natural resources also experience hardships from depletion of the commons.

In July 2011, the district administration authorities of Hampi, one of the most important tourist destinations in India, demolished more than 200 shops located in the historic Hampi Bazaar, and justified the act by claiming the shops were illegal encroachments. Some of the shops had homes attached to them, and this inhuman demolition forced hundreds of people on to the streets, with no access to basic facilities such as housing, sanitation, medical facilities and clean water. EQUATIONS conducted a fact-finding on the demolition and subsequent eviction.

The case study ‘ People versus Corporations’ by the organisations Him Niti Abhiyan, Jan Jagran Evam Vikas Samiti (JJVM) and EQUATIONS is on a peoples campaign against a tourism project. ABF International came to India in 2005 to invest $300 million in a Ski Village to be built in Himachal Pradesh. The proposed project would have granted irrevocable rights to use water, power and land by the company and had been approved without due public consultation. Several local NGOs along with EQUATIONS conducted a fact finding mission in 2008 which documented serious flaws and risks of the project. Due to this report that revealed the discontent of local communities towards the project and the lack of an environmental impact assessment the Government of Himachal Pradesh decided to cancel the project.
The case study has been published in 'A Manual on Corporate Accountability in India' by Cividep, India

This paper gives a broad overview of the laws and policies of land acquisition in India, concentrating on the practices of 5 states of India (Andhra Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Orissa, Maharashtra, and Karnataka), and looking more particularly at the practices of land banking, and land acquisitions for tourism related projects.

This is a background note, which outlines the broad issues and challenges in Ecotourism. The impacts of ecotourism on communities and conservation is highlighted. The note also indicates at possible strategies to address these issues and challenges.

Government of India announced it’s first ever National Action Plan on Climate Change (NAPCC) in June 2008 to identify measures and steps to advance climate change-related actions in its domestic sphere. One of the eight missions is the Green India Mission (GIM), which was ‘launched to enhance eco-system services including carbon sinks to be called Green India.’ This paper highlights the international political agenda motivating the agenda of the Mission as well as how it impacts communities, forest governance and therefore access to forest rights.

This is a background note, which outlines the broad issues and challenges in the Culture and Tourism. The note also indicates at possible strategies to address these issues and challenges.

The Universal Periodic Review (UPR) involves a peer review of the human rights records of all 192 UN Member States once every four years. The UPR is one of the key mechanisms to remind States of their responsibility to fully respect and implement all human rights.. EQUATIONS and ECPAT International (End Child Prostitution, Child Pornography and Trafficking of Children for Sexual Purposes) submitted this report as a part of the stakeholders inputs to the process. The key concerns raised in the submission is that India needs to ratify the ILO Convention on the Worst Forms of Child Labour (No. 182) and The Minimum Age Convention (No.138).Other recommendations include the need for the domestic legal framework to be brought in line with international standards to better provide legal protection for children throughout the country, as current laws fail to provide adequate definitions of child prostitution, child pornography and child trafficking and do not appropriately criminalise activities committed by offenders in relation to those crimes.

Private corporations have been actively lobbying the government for a larger role in the planning, implementation and evaluation of tourism activities. While the government has consulted with private sector players and invited their representatives on planning boards and policy initiatives there is a major thrust toward formalising this relationship and legitimising it through the prevalence of Public Private Partnerships or PPP, which now feature in most tourism polices. This paper in Section one probes the key features of PPPs, their modalities and the roles of different players in order to highlight their strengths and weaknesses. Section two covers the institutional framework that has emerged in India to introduce and facilitate a greater level of private sector participation in public service delivery. Section three is an exploration of tourism PPPs and state-level legislation which has accompanied them. In Section four, is proposed areas for further investigation through empirical research aimed at an assessment of the socio-cultural, environmental and economic impact of tourism PPPs on local communities.

The Kerala Tourism Policy 2011 (Draft) issued by the Department of Tourism, Government of Kerala in November 2011 recognises the role of local self governing institutions in tourism development. The policy also visualises sustainable development through involving local panchayat and communities. Both these are welcome moves. What needs a perspective change is the excessive tourist focus without consideration of the impacts on local communities. The objectives of the policy seem to be primarily about the role and functions of the Department of Tourism and the formal sector of the tourism industry while the informal sector of the tourism industry that constitutes a significant part of the industry and economy has been ignored. EQUATIONS’ critique highlights the need for tourism impacts to be considered in policy formulation and implementation.

This paper on the interactions between communities and forests in the context of ecotourism was submitted to the Indian Forestry Congress held in November 2011. Over the past 8-10 years, there has been a rapid increase in the number of ecotourism enterprises at well established existing destinations. Further, newer destinations have also emerged over the past 2-3 years and continue to do so. Today, it appears that ecotourism is at its peak and it is important that there be extensive debates in the country to understand the implications of ecotourism and to facilitate the positive impacts while mitigating its negative impacts. The paper draws examples from extensive field visits to Dalma, Betla, Tadoba, Panna, Bandhavgarh, Kanha and Pench, which form the backdrop of the paper. The policy and legislative framework used in the paper are The Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, 2006, Panchayat Extension to the Scheduled Areas (PESA) Act, 1996, the Indian Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972, the guidelines for the creation of special areas in forests and the draft ecotourism guidelines announced by the Ministry of Environment and Forests.

The Ministry of Finance issued the draft National PPP Policy, 2011 on September 27th and had invited comments/suggestions by October 15th. EQUATIONS has submitted it comments from the point of view of tourism. There are 5 key inadequacies/issues that need to be addressed: inadequate review for the need for PPPs, inadequate impact studies on PPPs, PPPs are driven by economic interests and returns on investment, impacting the access of under-privileged to basic services like health and education,clubbing of all tourism projects as public purpose being problematic as many of the PPP projects are in the high-end sectors and finally lack of basic documentation on the outcomes of existing PPP projects. While highlighting these issues, the comments also propose specific changes that need to be made in the text of the policy.

We condemn the inhuman and illegal eviction and demolition at Hampi Bazaar: Hampi has been more than just a collection of ruins scattered in a magnificent landscape. It is part of the historical and ancient city of Vijayanagara, which has survived as a living site. Here visitors experience the dynamism and colour of a vibrant bazaar. Today the Hampi Bazaar is facing a crisis, with it having been illegally demolished. Eviction notices were issued a few hours before the demolition, giving no time and opportunity for people to respond and react to the notices. Neither alternate housing nor clear guidelines for conducting business were issued prior to the eviction. The fallout of this demolition has been that many families, some with small children and some with aged people have been pushed on to the streets, do not have a place to live, and livelihoods have been affected.

The (Draft) Guidelines for Ecotourism in and around Protected Areas were issued by the Ministry of Environment and Forests on June 2, 2011 and comments invited by June 30, 2011. Through detailed comments and documentation, we have recommended that the Ministry recognise the primacy of the Gram Sabha and the various committees formed under The Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, 2006 in forest governance. A proposed structure for the guidelines, a note highlighting the realities of ecotourism in the context of conservation and livelihoods form important parts of the documents sent to the Ministry.

The Supreme Court in October 2010 directed the state governments to enact a law before 30th June 2011 based on the Model Street Vendors (Protection of Livelihood and Regulation of Street Vending) Bill 2009. EQUATIONS highlights the need to make the Bill more inclusive, contextual and holistic . We recommend an inter-ministerial collaborative approach.

This Publication explores some of the realities, dilemmas and challenges in the understanding and implementation of ideas around corporate accountability and corporate social responsibility within the tourism sector in India. This is explored through a set of case studies of companies in the hospitality sector.

This publication called the 'Working Paper Series 2010-11' which is a compilation of our Papers, submissions and Campaigns of the year 2010-11

This is a compilation of dated case studies from India and around the world to show how child pornography and child abuse and tourism are interlinked. It illustrates how child pornography spreads, either through tourism or other forms of contact, like the Internet.

In May 2010, EQUATIONS sent detailed comments on the Pre Draft Coastal Regulation Zone (CRZ) Notification 2010 issued by Ministry of Environment and Forest (MoEF). We specifically focused on tourism development issues vis-à-vis protection of coast. In September 2010, we reiterated our concerns on the Draft CRZ Notification 2010. Though the process evolved by MoEF in drafting the Notification was welcome, we were hopeful that through this process MoEF would issue an Act for the important extensive coastline of India.

On 6th January 2011, MoEF still took the route of coming with another Coastal Regulation Zone Notification 2011 under Section 3(1) and Section (2)(v) of the Environment (Protection) Act 1986 and Rule 5(3)(d) of the Environment (Protection) Rules 1986, superseding the CRZ Notification issued on 19th February 1991. CRZ Notification 2011 recognises the need to protect the interest of people on the coast and the protection of the coastal ecology. But a Notification is weaker than an Act when it comes to protection of the coast. This brief analysis of the Coastal Regulation Zone Notification 2011 in relation to tourism seeks to secure the protection of the coastal eco system and the livelihood of the communities directly dependent on it. We continue to stand by our call on the necessity for a strong Act to prevent violations instead of the current easily amendable Notification.