Mumbai: Industrialisation and infrastructure development have displaced more than 1.4 million people in the country from their land in four states alone in the last decade, according to a study.

The study by the ActionAid agency also found that most of the displaced people are unhappy about it.

"If I am going to be displaced from the land of my birth in the name of progress, I have every right to ask to be the first beneficiary of that progress," said actor-activist Shabana Azmi.

The survey was based on interviews with more than 1,700 displaced persons.

Most of those displaced are among the poorest in the country, living in areas rich with minerals and other resources, the study found.

As new factories, dams, mines and power plants come up, India's poor are increasingly becoming marginalised. The authorities are looking at ways to resolve these tensions as India industrialises.

ActionAid said most of those surveyed belong to tribal communities. Nine in every 10 respondents said they had not received enough compensation for moving.

Many said they had only moved in the first place because of threats from developers' agents.

Although most projects promise to resettle affected people, two-thirds said no such assistance had come by.

In October, the government announced a relief and rehabilitation policy to ease anger over the issue, under which those affected would be provided alternative land, jobs in the project, housing benefits and vocational training.

ActionAid also based its study on thousands of government land acquisition documents for Jharkhand, Orissa, Chhattisgarh and Andhra Pradesh, which record the transfer of more than 10 million acres of land.