The International People’s Tribunal on the World Bank Group report is now published
In 2024, the World Bank and IMF marked their 80th anniversary. In response to the 80th anniversary of the Bretton Woods Institutions, groups across Asia, Africa, and Latin America came together and, over the course of a year, conducted a series of people’s tribunals directly challenging the Bank’s policy frameworks and its impacts.
The IPT in India is part of a broader global movement. Across the Global South, people’s tribunals are being organised to examine and challenge the role of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in perpetuating debt dependency, resource extraction, and corporate capture of essential services. With the first International People’s Tribunal held in Manila in October 2024 and the third scheduled in Nepal in March 2025, the tribunal in India plays a crucial role by contributing critical evidence and testimonies to this global effort.
The independent people’s tribunal in India was organised by the Working Group on International Financial Institutions, and was held in Kolkata in December 2024, bringing together over 300 participants and 30 speakers across five thematic sessions.
The report that has emerged from this process synthesises the testimonies across the sessions to provide an overview of World Bank operations in India over the past eight decades, with a focus on the last twenty years - looking at key projects and policy interventions, the changing nature of the Bank’s investments, newer forms of influence, and its growing role in shaping India’s political economy.
The tribunal’s inquiry was structured around five key sessions, focusing particularly on the World Bank’s interventions in India over the past two decades:
1. The introductory session analysed the historical evolution of the World Bank’s 80-year presence in India, highlighting how it has operated not just as a financial lender but also as a powerful policy influencer, using its strategic position to shape structural reforms, a role it continues to play today.
2. The second session examined the current status and long-term impacts of major World Bank-funded projects, including the Sardar Sarovar Dam, Tata Mundra Ultra Mega Power Project, Social Forestry Programme, Mumbai Urban Transport Project, and Singrauli Thermal Power Plant. Testimonies from affected communities and activists revealed how these projects led to displacement, ecological destruction, and entrenched economic inequality - while continuing to operate with impunity and little accountability.
3. The third session looked at how World Bank interventions have reshaped key public sectors in India, including agriculture, health, education, energy, water, urban planning, and banking. Tracing how policy choices of the Indian state influenced by the Bank have contributed to the erosion of public services, reduced access to essential goods, and deepened socio-economic inequalities, the session found that Bank-financed reforms have often favoured corporate interests which have led to privatisation, financialisation, and the weakening of public accountability in essential service delivery.
4. The fourth session examined how the World Bank has undermined labour protections, enabled environmental deregulation, and promoted the privatisation of public goods in India. By analysing the Bank`s policy frameworks and knowledge tools, speakers demonstrated how it has shaped decision making to advance digital surveillance and resource financialisation, while deepening social and economic inequalities across gender, class, caste, and community lines.
5. The final session examined the contradiction between the World Bank’s climate commitment rhetoric and its continued financing of projects that exacerbate the climate crisis, revealing that the Bank’s climate finance mechanisms remain focused on large-scale energy and infrastructure projects that prioritise profit over climate justice.
Please read the full report here.
Photo: Scene from the International People`s Tribunal. Source: CENFA.
