The Poorest Areas Civil Society (PACS) programme is an initiative of the UK government's Department for International Development (DFID). Under PACS, DFID partnered with Indian civil society to help socially excluded groups claim their rights and entitlements more effectively, so they receive a fairer share of India's development gains. PACS, in its second phase of implementation (2009- 2016), had been supporting the work of CSOs to promote inclusive policies, programmes and institutions at local, district and state levels in the areas of livelihoods and basic services.

Land rights for the socially excluded communities is one of the themes on which PACS Programme worked from 2011 to 2015 in 54districts across its seven interventions states. This document presents the approaches, strategies, results, achievements and key learning from the intervention along with the stories of change from the intervention area.

PACS Knowledge ProductPACS Knowledge Product

PACS National Office, CISRS House, 14, Jangpura B, Mathura Road, New Delhi-110014

Phone: 011-24372660, 011-24372699, email: info@pacsindia.org, www.pacsindia.org

Ensuring Land Rights for the Socially Excluded: Learning from the PACS Programme

This document is a part of the Knowledge Product Series of the Poorest Areas Civil Society (PACS) Programme. This document was developed by Sutra Consulting Pvt. Ltd. as an outcome of an independent assignment commissioned by PACS Programme.

Coordination and editing: Avinav Kumar, Head of Knowledge Management and Innovation, PACS Programme

Review and inputs from PACS team: Anand Kumar Bolimera - Director, Anu Singh - Programme Officer Jharkhand, ArtiVerma - State Manager Bihar, Dheeraj D Horo - Senior Programme Officer Jharkhand, Johnson Topno - State Manager Jharkhand, Mihir Kumar Mohanty - State Manager Odisha, Pragyan Mohanty - State Manager Madhya Pradesh, Rajkumar Bidla - Head of Programmes, Rajpal - Programme Manager, Rebecca David - State Manager Chhattisgarh, Santosh Kumar Sharma - Head of M&E, Sunita Munda Programme Officer Chhattisgarh, Swati Kundra - Head of Finance and Shivani Bhardwaj - Programme Manager.

Design: AB Imaging & Print Pvt. Ltd., Bhubaneshwar

Photo credits: PACS Programme and Sutra Consulting Pvt. Ltd.

PACS Programme is a programme of Department for International Development (DFID) Government of UK managed by iFIRST Consortium. However, the views expressed in this report do not necessarily reflect either DFID's or the views and official policies of the members of the iFIRST Consortium and the PACS Programme.

FOREWORD

I am happy to present this document 'Ensuring Land Rights for the Socially Excluded: Learning from the PACS Programme'which captures the key learning, details of the approaches and strategies adopted, their efficacy from the eyes of multiple stakeholders, including the communities, involved in the implementation of the programme.

Land is centric to the lives and livelihoods of the majority of the rural population in India. Apart from its productive value linked to livelihoods and food security, land ownership is also ensures security and is perceived to be linked to social status. For the socially excluded communities it can often be the determining factor between a life with dignity and security or exposure to different vulnerabilities and uncertainties. The inherent dependence on land for sustenance and food security is the reality of the small and medium farmers who largely come from the socially excluded communities.

PACS Programme during its implementation period of 2011- 2016, chose to work on ensuring access to land rights enshrined in various legislations of the Government due to the changes it could bring in the lives of the socially excluded communities. Complex issues of titles, possession and use mar the access to land rights for the socially excluded communities, which requires an intensive engagement with the communities along with a facilitative role with state.

PACS and its partners worked on ensuring access, titles and possession of agriculture and homestead land to the socially excluded communities under the framework of various legislations that govern this issue.

Working in collaboration with the biggest stakeholders, the Government, was the hallmark of the approach, which the PACS Programme, adopted and demonstrated its efficacy at scale, especially in states like Bihar. It enabled the programme and its partners to take up innovative interventions, work on addressing specific bottlenecks and barriers and try out strategies, which brought about awareness and change at scale.

I hope that this document is able to further strengthen the discourse on looking at the issue of poverty and social exclusion in multiple dimensions and how they impact each other. This document also presents the efficacy of a constructive approach of working closely with the state and how changes brought about by influencing the system are more sustained and lasting.

Due to the diversity and scale of experiences of the PACS Programme I am sure this document will find value in the eyes of multiple stakeholders, key among them being the development practitioners, implementers and others who have a responsibility of working on flagship programmes and priorities of the Government.

Anand Kumar BolimeraDirector, PACS Programme

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

I would like to take this opportunity to thank Mr. Rajpal, Mr. Avinav and Ms. Shivani from the

PACS team for their continued support and feedback during the entire course of the

assignment. The brain-storming sessions with them and their deep insights on every aspect

of the PACS programme have helped us document this wonderful journey and prepare a

road map for the way ahead. We would also like to thank Mr. Prashant, Ms. Arti and

Mr. Mihir who are the State Co-ordinators of the PACS programme in Uttar Pradesh, Bihar

and Odisha, respectively. They took out time from their very busy schedules particularly

during the winding up of the programme and helped us organise consultations with all the

CSOs. Without this support, any progress towards attempting this work would have been

impossible. They also opened up about the opportunities and the challenges that they have

faced as state co-ordinators, which was extremely valuable towards the drafting of the

document. The documentation of the PACS land programme would have been impossible

without the support and the enthusiasm of all the CSOs working on land across Uttar

Pradesh, Bihar and Odisha. We would like to thank all the CSO members and leaders for

joining us for the state-level consultations and for helping us reach out to the various people

across small villages and hamlets who have been part of the process of change. Their

zealous work, their optimism and their selfless service is reflected through the course of this

document. Last but not least, we would like to thank the numerous CBO members, field

functionaries and community members who shared their stories with us and welcomed us

into their homes and hearts. Their stories, their struggles and their victories make up this

document and we remain indebted to them for that.

The Sutra team through the course of six months has been trying to make this document as

reflective of the reality as seen on the ground. They have worked across states and have

conducted thorough secondary and primary research to best capture and document the

land rights story of PACS. We would like to thank the team for all the hard work they put in.

We would like to thank Ms. Pratyasha Rath for authoring this document and Mr. Abhirup

Bhunia, Ms. Amrapali Goswami and Mr. Govind Tiwari for supporting the fieldwork and

consultations. The document is the result of their hard work and enthusiasm.

The journey for PACS has been long and arduous and there are numerous stories of trials,

tribulations and successes along the way. It is important to learn from the past so that the

way ahead can be smoother. There is still a long way to go for people to access their rights to

land in this country and there is a need to re-strategizeand re-evaluate possibilities and

opportunities. We hope this document in some way catalyses this process of churning and

presents a legacy that needs to be heard. We hope the journey continues with renewed

determination and vigour.

Alok AcharyaDirectorSutra Consulting Pvt. Ltd.

List of abbreviations ....................................................................................................................................0

EVOLUTION OF LAND POLICY IN INDIA....................................................................................................3

LAND RIGHTS & RELATED LEGISLATIONS IN ODISHA, BIHAR & UTTAR PRADESH.............................4

Review of existing legislation for securing land access in Odisha: ...........................................................4

Review of existing legislation for securing land access in Bihar: .............................................................5

Review of existing legislation for securing land access in Uttar Pradesh: ................................................7

PACS AREA OF WORK..................................................................................................................................9

Flux and Equilibrium: Striking the balance in engagement ....................................................................14

Interface and bureaucratic advocacy efforts ...........................................................................................16

Building a village-level case .......................................................................................................................20

Evidence generation for filing claims........................................................................................................21

Training and Capacity Building .................................................................................................................23

The process of mobilisation and organisation ........................................................................................29

New frontiers, new goals, new leaders .....................................................................................................37

The long road ahead ..................................................................................................................................38

From Land to Livelihoods: Learning from GEAG interventions..............................................................43

The Road Ahead.........................................................................................................................................44

Joint Land Titling in West Bengal and Odisha .........................................................................................49

Empowering Women Farmers..................................................................................................................50

Opportunities for the Future........................................................................................................................58

Livelihood Convergence Programmes in sync with sustainable development goals:.................................59

Corporate Social Responsibility: ................................................................................................................59

Addressing gender inequality in issues of land:..........................................................................................60

Empowering Gram Panchayats and decentralised governance: .............................................................61

In Summation ............................................................................................................................................61

Executive summary...................................................................................................................................0

Section 1: Rights, Dignity and Land: Understanding the PACS intervention on Land....................1

Section 2: Confrontation, Cooperation or Cooption?- Re-defining engagement with the state...........13

Section 3: Information and Evidence: Making voices count ...........................................................19

Section 4: Not me, but us .......................................................................................................................27

Section 5: The birth of a leader .............................................................................................................35

Section 6: The new articulation of Land Rights.................................................................................41

Section 7: Her march ahead: Women and Land ................................................................................47

Section 8: Legacy of the past and possibilities for the future................................................................53

CONTENTS

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS AND GLOSSARY

ARTI Appropriate Rural Technology Institute

CBO Community-Based Organisation

CSO Civil Society Organisation

DADP Desert Area Development Programme

DfID Department for International Development

DM District Magistrate

DPAD Drought-Prone Area Development

DRLR Department for Revenue and Land Reforms

FFS Farmers' Field School

FRA Forest Rights Act

GEAG Gorakhpur Environmental Action Group

GLLRC Gram Panchayat-Level Land Rights Committee

GP Gram Panchayat

HR Human Resources

ISS Institute of Social Sciences

KVK Krishi Vigyan Kendra

LEISA Low External Input Sustainable Agriculture

LRCC Land Reforms Core Committee

MGNREGA Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act

MIS Management Information System

NAC National Advisory Council

NGO Non-government organisation

NRHM National Rural Health Mission

OCH&PFL Orissa Consolidation of Holdings &Prevention of Fragmentation of Land Act

PACS Poorest Area Civil Society

RI Revenue Inspector

RTI Act Right to Information Act

SC Scheduled Caste

SDG Sustainable Development Goals

SHG Self-Help Group

SPREAD Society for Promoting Rural Education and Development

SSEVS Samagra Siksha evam Vikas Sansthan

ST Scheduled Tribe

VICALP Visionaries of Creative Action for Liberation and Progress

WNO Woman Nodal Officer

The knowledge product in the form of a learning document is a reflection on PACS' intervention in Uttar Pradesh,

Bihar and Odisha on securing land rights for socially excluded groups. It culls out lessons and learnings from

findings and evidence-based data generated through the rigours of an empirical study. The framework of the

study is based on three important pegs that enable the communities to demand and secure land rights and

entitlements i.e., social change witnessed within the communities, the development of indigenous leadership

and the collectivisation of power.

Adopting a participative and consultative approach, the study has collected feedback and the experiences of a

diverse group of respondents the PACS team, CSO partners, CBO leaders, social activists and government

functionaries. In consolidating the knowledge accrued from PACS' interventions, both knowledge-based

evidence, such as numbers, figures and tangible changes, and tacit knowledge-based evidence, such as

personal histories, narrations and self-ethnographies, have been taken into account.

The Inception Report detailing the approach and framework of the study, roll-out plan, implementation plan

including state-wise stakeholder mapping, layering strategy for documentation and documentation plan set

the tone and tenor of the processes for consolidating the findings. Data collection has been undertaken

through consultations, case study documentation and interactions between the PACS team and CSO partners,

CBO leaders and social activists during field visits. Reports of state-level consultations, the national convention,

the baseline survey of the PACS program, the PACS log frame, the log frame midline assessment and tracker

analysis have been studied to understand the processes through which activities have been proposed,

formulated, designed and refined as also the efficacy and issues associated with strategies. Consolidation and

elaboration of the findings have brought forth five important outcomes from which the learnings have been

culled out.

The document is organised into sections anchored in the outcomes that delineate the processes and strategies

involved in shaping the outcomes. The contentious history of land, its centrality to food security, poverty

alleviation, caste equality, gender equality and strengthening of identities has been a recurring theme through

the course of the document. The work of PACs, the strategies which have worked to help people access their

rights and entitlements, personal narratives of courage and belief and a road map for the future are the major

components of this document. The adoption of context-specific strategies, the importance of a

network/alliance/platform, information/evidence-based positioning on land rights, multi-pronged and multi-

layered advocacy and repackaging of the rights-based approach have been culled out as learning from PACS'

successful engagement with the state.

The first section throws light on the work of PACS in the domain of securing land rights and entitlements of the

people in light of the existing policies and discourses. The section touches upon the evolution of land rights in

India starting from the tenancy reforms in the earliest phases to voluntary movements like Bhoodan to the

current land entitlement schemes followed in various states. The section then goes on to highlight the key land

based legislations in the states of Odisha, Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. The section then goes on to talk about the

guiding principles of PACS rights based work in the domain of securing land rights for the marginalized. The PACS

program on land rights focused on both agricultural and homestead land as well as on helping communities

secure non-discriminatory access to common land. The activities included supporting communities for seeking

land entitlements, working towards their security of tenure and in some innovative examples, helping them

make profitable use of the land.

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

The second section underlines a shift in the approach of CSOs working on land rights in moving away from

confrontation to engagement with the state. It seeks to understand the successful strategies adopted by the

various CSOs working on issues of land in the three study states. The section throws open questions about the

necessity of striking a balance between cooperation and confrontation so that the voices of the people finds the

platform it deserves. The case study of Land Rights Core Committee in Bihar has been elaborated as a case study of

the efficacy of such an engagement based approach.

The third section, Information and Evidence: Making Voices Count, narrates the centrality of detailed evidence

generation, compilation and documentation in making cases water tight and impactful. While this could appear to

be a smaller concern, most of the capacity building efforts of CSOs have been focused towards building evidence.

Training and working on the capacities of communities to document their grievances in the best possible manner.

The fourth and fifth sections of the document pertain to the importance of creating issue based collectives and

encouraging local leadership in an attempt to give campaigns more credibility and traction. From smaller CBOs to

larger federations, strong organizations have been able to take the fight for land to the authorities concerned. The

leadership from marginalized communities has gradually taken over many CSOs and has also made the jump to

electoral politics. This is the most lasting legacy of the PACS program and an indication of the sustainability of the

program. The resulting confidence and ramifications on the personal lives of the people has been highly indicative

of the success of this strategy. Underlining the importance of devising new ideas and new ways to renew the vigour

and enthusiasm of community leaders, it advocates building community leadership as a best-fit strategy to

strengthen institutions of local self-governance from within.

The sixth section talks about the new articulation of land rights by more sustainable linkages to livelihood. It

mostly dwells on the case study of the Gorakhpur Environmental Action group who have seamlessly merged land

entitlement with livelihood augmentation and have been able to make their model both desirable by the

community and sustainable in the long run

The seventh section talks of the obvious yet much denied linkage between land and women. The PACS program

has been highly successful in bringing this symbiotic relationship to the forefront and has been able to create and

nurture many strong female leaders. This section talks of the ripple effects of empowerment of women from

within the family to within the community and narrates many brave battles that women have fought and won in

order to access their land.

The concluding section, talks about the Legacy of the Intervention and summarizes the key learnings from the

work that PACS has done in the land rights area in the past phase. While the work has been exemplary and there

have been tangible changes on the ground, there are many roadblocks which need to be addressed and new

partnerships which need to be forged. The section will throw light on the possibility of convergence with the

sustainable development goals through the enhancement of livelihood development programs and the role of

corporate social responsibility in helping people secure land. The section talks of internal access based issues with

regards to land particularly about women and land rights. The inequality can be addressed by making women the

centre of the debate on land rights. Finally, the section talks of empowering local self-governments so that the

issue of land becomes mainstreamed and can be electorally and democratically challenged.

90-year-old Dwarkaji sits with a broad smile on his face

and turns the room heater away from him towards the

audience in the room. One has to shout into his left ear,

the only working ear, and because of that he takes

some time to process sentences and come up with a

response. Dwarkaji lives in a sparse room in the

Samanvaya Ashram overlooking the holy Bodh Gaya

temple. While age may have slowed down his body, his

mind is still agile and the stories do not stop. “When

Vinoba Bhave was alive, I worked with him for the

poor and the deprived,” said Dwarkaji. “Once when I

was working in Madhya Pradesh, some people

stopped me in a village and asked me for food. I told

them, 'Do not ask people for food. Ask people for land.

No one will give you food forever. But, if you have your

own land, you do not have to be at the mercy of people

for survival.' That was the truth 65 years back and that

is the truth now. You dignity is linked to your land.”

24-year-oldMaleka Crytynga from Odisha has just

been given 4 decimals of homestead land. She has

received a joint title and though she cannot read or

write, she is aware that her name is on the patta. “If

you do not have a piece of land, you have no dignity.

There is always a fear in your mind even if no one tells

you anything. There is always some shame because

you know that you are dependent on others,” she says.

Her husband Padera joins the discussion. “How long

will our hands and legs work? Till our bodies work, we

will get food. When others have work and feel like

giving us work, we will survive. What will happen after

that? If you have land, you have freedom and you have

dignity. How can you speak against people on whose

land you work, from whom you borrow money?”

Separated by age, gender and geography, Dwarkaji

and Maleka are united by their experience. The

centrality of land in the lives, in the freedom and in

SECTION 1: RIGHTS, DIGNITY AND LAND: UNDERSTANDING THE PACS INTERVENTION ON LAND

ensuring the dignity of people is not contested. Land is

at the centre of power in India and especially in

agrarian power. The peculiarity of land and its

chequered history of ownership and access is that it is

both a source and a manifestation of power. Keeping

people away from land is subjecting them to multiple

degradation because it perpetuates a constant cycle

of dependence, and in the process takes away the

voice of the people. Thus, land struggles have been

linked with caste and religious discrimination and the

alienation of land is rooted in alienation based on

other ascribed identities.

Access to land is of fundamental importance in rural

India. Land plays a dual role in rural India,;aside from

its value as a productive factor, land ownership confers

collateral in credit markets, security in the event of

natural hazards or life contingencies and social status.

One of the major problems for the vast majority of the

rural population in India is the inadequate or almost

non-existent access to fertile land. Rural poverty in

India, as we all know, has its roots in the absence of

access to land. Secure access rights to land are also

imperative for food security. Without land security,

efforts to use natural resources in a sustainable

manner may not be fruitful. The skewed nature of land

distribution in India is reflected in the fact that

approximately 2per cent of landholders own 25 per

cent of the land, whereas 98 per cent of the

landholders own just 75 percent of the land. Around

43 per cent of rural households in the country are

landless. Those who control land tend to exert a

disproportionate influence over other rural

institutions, including labour and credit markets. In

order to bring a balance and bridge the gap between

the poor landless and the rich landed peasantry, a

number of land reforms legislations were

promulgated after Independence.

1

Land was made a 'state subject' by the Government of

India in 1935. As a result, under the Indian

Constitution, land reform is the responsibility of

individual states, although central guidance is offered

at the federal level. The nature of the legislation, the

level of support or otherwise from existing or new

institutional arrangements and the degree of success

in implementation have varied significantly from state

to state. After Independence, in 1951 land reform laws

were put outside judicial intervention by the Indian

Parliament. It was now at the discretion of people's

representatives. These representatives mainly

comprise the landed gentry and they were the sole

authorities to legislate on land reform. Aside from a

few exceptions, most of rural and tribal India came to

be controlled by a Centre-State dispensation that

closely approximated feudal aspirations. This kept the

masses in dispossession and penury. The Indian

Constitution as one of its primary mandates promotes

an equitable society where every person has the right

to livelihood and dignity. Yet after years of

independence, the country is still struggling to keep up

to its mandate of redistributive justice and deliver the

same to its citizens in the form of land assets. The

socio-economic changes caused by the 1990s free

market economy has further deepened the chasm

between the elite and those dependent on land and

forests for their sustenance. The situation has been a

breeding ground for socially distorted mechanisms

like Naxalites /Maoists and has forced many into their

armed rebellion for long-pending justice. In the year

2008, the Ministry of Rural Development instituted a

'Committee on State Agrarian Relations and

Unfinished Task of Land Reform'. The Committee

submitted its report to the government by end-2009

but there has been little movement on it so far. For

India as a country, land is the key issue, since it

provides a possibility for the poor to live a life of

dignity and well being rather than become dependent

on industrialisation and urbanisation.

2

EVOLUTION OF LAND POLICY IN INDIA

It is not difficult to see why historically land rights have been a flash point and landlessness invariably a cause of

social unrest. Feudal exploitation, the process of colonisation and the passing of natural resources to state control,

encroachments by private, commercial interests and now globalisationare the main historical factors that have

defined contemporary conflicts involving land and land rights. It is perhaps the historical importance of land that

has made the question of the rights to land a very broad and complex subject, instigating administration and

policymakers to rethink the subject over and over again. Land policy in India has undergone broadly four phases

since Independence.

1. The first phase (195072): This was the longest

phase and consisted of land reforms that included

three major efforts, viz., abolition of the

intermediaries, tenancy reforms and the

redistribution of land using land ceilings.

2. The second phase (197285): The focus during this

phase shifted to bringing uncultivated land under

cultivation.

3. The third phase (198595):During this phase

increased attention was paid to water and soil

c o n s e r v a t i o n t h r o u g h t h e Wa t e r s h e d

Development, Drought-Prone Area Development

(DPAD) and Desert Area Development Programme

(DADP). A central government Wasteland

Development Agency was established to focus on

wasteland and degraded land. Some of the land

policies from this phase continued beyond its final

year.

4. The fourth phase of policy (1995 onwards) centred

on debates about the necessity to continue with

land legislation and efforts to improve land revenue

administration and, in particular, clarity in land

records.

In the current phase, land and agricultural

administration is handled by independent

departments at the federal and state government

levels which in a way helps in monitoring land

outside agricultural use separately from

agricultural land. However, several different

departments are responsible for various aspects of

land administration, land data and land legislation

and, unfortunately, these do not work with perfect

co-ordination, which gives rise to various problems

and make land policy decision-making and

implementation difficult. Land legislations and

related reform policies in India sought to reform

the exploitative and iniquitous system and were

centrally motivated by the concern to provide land

as an asset to the tiller. To confer ownership rights

on tenants, it was necessary to first abolish

intermediaries and ensure tenant security. These

measures had the potential in themselves to

realise effective ownership rights but in

themselves they posed a demand for regulation of

rent. Hence, there was a need to accompany these

by fixing a ceiling on landholdings to prevent

excessive concentrat ion of land. S ince

independence, a number of laws have been

enacted across the country to establish the legal

f ramework for land reforms and land

administration.

3

Table 1 Main Provisions and impact of land legislation in Odisha

LAND RIGHTS & RELATED LEGISLATIONS IN ODISHA, BIHAR & UTTAR PRADESHREVIEW OF EXISTING LEGISLATION FOR SECURING LAND ACCESS IN ODISHA

During the past 50 years a number of laws have been enacted in Odisha in order to establish the framework for land

legislation and administration in the state. The initial initiatives in this direction include the Estate Abolition Act of

1952, Land Reforms Act 1960 and Survey and Settlement Act of 1958. The legislations especially aiming to

strengthen land administration include the Orissa Consolidation of Holding &Prevention of Fragmentation of Land

(OCH&PFL) Act 1972 and the Orissa Prevention of Land Encroachment (OPLE) Act 1972 that prevent unauthorised

occupation of government land. The main provisions and resulting impact of the key pieces of land legislations in

the state are given in Table 1.

Name of

Legislation

Main Provisions Result

Orissa Estate

Abolition (OEA)

Act, 1952

- Abolition of intermediaries

- Vesting of all land rights in the state

- Agricultural land l ess than 33 acres

to remain with intermediary for

personal cultivation

- The act aimed at abolishing

intermediaries but did not contain any

provision for tenant security and

protection

- Large-scale eviction of tenants took

place as zamindars(landowners) were

allowed to retain less than 33 acres of

land for personal cultivation

- Owing to the absence of reliable

records, abolition of intermediaries

was not achieved

Orissa Land

Reforms Act

(OLRA), 1960

(Amended in

1965, 1973 and

1974)

- Permanent, heritable and

transferable rights on land for tiller

- Ban on leasing of land except under

special conditions

- Under adverse possession, land in

continuous cultivation for 12 years

or more by a person other than the

owner shall pass on to the

cultivator

- Rent not to exceed one -fourth of

the gross produce

- Ceiling on individual landholdings

reduced to 10 standard acres

- Delay in the enactment and the actual

implementation of the act provided

sufficient opportunities for large

landowners to escape ceiling

restrictions

- By explicitly banning tenancy, the law

has swept the problem of share

cropping under the carpet, no

provision was made to record

concealed tenancies

Orissa Survey and Settlement Act, 1958

- Different laws relating to survey, record of rights and settlement amended and c onsolidated into one uniform law

- Establishment of uniform yet defective systems

- Rights of tenants were not recorded during settlement operations

4

On the whole, land reform legislation has had only limited access in Odisha. Weak land revenue administration and lack of up-to-date land records were important contributory factors. At the same

time, various provisions of different acts were challenged in the courts because of a number of shortcomings in the laws. Often this required amendments to the original Acts and further delayed implementation.

1. http://www.newindianexpress.com/thesundaystandard/article1447159.ece?service=print

REVIEW OF EXISTING LEGISLATION FOR SECURING LAND ACCESS IN BIHAR

Experiences up to now clearly show that the question of land reform is directly related to the state character.

Legislations were formulated time and again in the state of Bihar too in this regard but there has been no change in

the pathetic condition of the masses. Those who have been instrumental in charting the legislation so far have not

taken any interest in implementing them. But, it can be said with some gumption that they might have become

hindrances to the effective implementation. Table 2 gives an overview of the basic land legislations in the state.

Orissa Prevention of Land Encroachment (OPLE) Act, 1972 (Amended in 1982)

- Unauthorised occupation of government land prohibited

- Penalties on encroachers to be followed by eviction

- 1982 amendment for settlement of 2 (later amended to 1) standard acres of unobject ionable land (i.e., government wasteland) with eligible beneficiaries (e.g., landless)

- Flagrant disregard of the Act widespread encroachment on both government & common lands, often by powerful groups. Penalties were too low to act as a disincentive to encroachers

- Encroacher cannot apply to be regularised only RI can initiate regularisation of rights

- Considerable scope for seeking rent by revenue officials

Vasundhara scheme, 2006

- Distribution of 10 decimals of land (revised from 4 decimals as decided in 2004) to people without homestead land.

- Eligible households should not possess more than one standard acre of agricultural land and should earn less than Rs. 15,000 annually. This is apart from the condition of possessing no homestead land.

- Land distr ibution could not be completed within the timeframe of 3 years and not even within the extended period until 2010.

- Progress has remained tardy especially in left -wing extremism -affected districts.

- There are issues of political interference in land distribution, which have been noted1.

Orissa Consolidation of Holdings &Prevention of Fragmentation of Land (OCH&PFL) Act, 1972

- Fragmentation of la nd declared illegal

- First choice of transfer to adjacent farmer

- Little impact on land fragmentation - Occasional land sales but rarely to

adjacent farmer - Consolidation of landholdings ignored

by farmers in western Orissa because of undulating terrain

5

TABLE 2 MAIN PROVISIONS AND IMPACT OF LAND LEGISLATIONS IN BIHAR

2. Report on Right to Homestead Land in Rural Bihar. Conducted by Deshkal Society and sponsored by the Planning Commission.

Name of Legislation

Main Provisions Result

Bihar Privileged Persons Homestead Tenancy Act, 1947

- A privileged person is defi ned as a person who besides his homestead holds no other land or holds any such land not exceeding one acre.

- According to the Act, a privileged person who has built his house on private land given to him by a landowner for residential purposes and has been living on that land continuously for one year has permanent right over his homestead land.

- It is one of the earliest progressive land legislations in the country.

- Even though the act is people friendly with simplified processes and procedures, there has been administrative tardiness in implementation.

- This is marked by the large amount of landlessness in Bihar even though the act came into force in 1947.

Bihar Land Reform Act, 1952

- Landlords were exempted from holding some of the land in the name of pe rsonal cultivation and on some other pretexts.

- Landlords were even allowed to hold farmland as personal assets.

- The definition of personal cultivation was vague.

- It resulted in a way for landlords to appropriate big landholdings by driving out tenants in the name of personal cultivation.

- Legislation so loosely cha rted was enacted after too much delay and faulty implementation.

Bihar Land Reforms (Fixation of Ceiling Area and Acquisition of Surplus Land) Act, 1961

- Lowest ceiling(for irrigated land producing two or more crops a year)fixed at 6 ha

- Act provides for land ceiling only - Ceilings apply to both owned and

tenanted land - No legal provision for informal

tenancies to be recorded

- Legislation exists but implementation is faulty.

- Very little progress in imp lementation since enactment

Mahadalit Awaas Bhoomi Yojana , 2007

- Provision of 3 decimals of homestead land for Mahadalits under the Mahadalit Vikas Yojana scheme.

- It was initially decided that if land for redistribution to Mahadalits is not available, t he government has to purchase land and then proceed with the distribution. But later the provision was changed and Rs. 20,000 was provided to Mahadalit families for purchasing land.

- By September 2009, 20,022 pattas for raiyati land involving an area of 423 .36 acres had been issued to Mahadalit families. It was also ensured that along with the distribution of patta for homestead land, the beneficiaries were issued the current rent receipt 2.

6

Land reform acts or legislations related to the payment of minimum wages were intentionally hindered since the politicians and bureaucrats of the state had hidden interests in it. Wherever the lower classes were mobilised politically in their own interests for enactment of the legislations, they were suppressed brutally by the united force of dominant caste, private mercenaries and the police. The police administration not only worked in collaboration with the landlords but also encouraged feudal private mercenaries. This was an important strategy of the ruling class. The feudal private armies were in fact a powerful tool in the hands

of the state machinery. The old, exploitative set-up was maintained with nominal changes here and there. The landlords extract heavy surplus from agricultural activity and later they hand it over to the big capitalists. In this process a new type of landlordism is taking the place of an old one, which acts the same way when it comes to exploiting and suppressing the poor peasantry. All these facts show that there is no constitutional measure left for land reform. The people's struggle is the only way to get ownership of land. Therefore, it is quite clear that the struggle for land needs to be extended to the state.

REVIEW OF EXISTING LEGISLATION FOR SECURING LAND ACCESS IN UTTAR PRADESH

A desperate picture emerges if one analyses and compares the status of rights of men and women in land in the largest province in this country, i.e., Uttar Pradesh. The following section throws light on the status of property rights in the state in general in terms of the different land-related prime laws operational in the state.

In recent years, the government's land policy interventions have focused on the correction and computerisation of land records, improving the land

survey process and improving land quality through the reclamation of degraded wasteland and forests. Land reform implementation is almost thinning out as a priority. In fact, the important policy discussions now centre on whether certain landreform interventions should be reversed, particularly whether the land ceilings should be increased and whether tenancy restrictions should be liberalised. The marginalisation of landholdings and land administration are also of major concern.

TABLE 3. MAIN PROVISIONS AND IMPACT OF LAND LEGISLATIONS IN UTTAR PRADESH

Name of Legislation

Main Provisions Result

UP Zamindari Abolition and Land Reforms Act, 1950

- Abolishing the zamindari system - According to its provisions , the

entire land in the province, barring certain exceptions, has co me to be vested in the State since then.

- Descendants in the male line of descent inherit in equal shares.

- Three types of tenure holdings created by the Act.

- Right of inheritance conferred to males only

Uttar Pradesh Imposition of Ceiling on Land Holdings Act, 1960

- Lowest ceiling(for irrigated land producing two or more crops per year)fixed at 15 ha

- Act provides for land ceiling only - Ceilings apply to both owned and

tenanted land

- Legislation exists but implementation is faulty

- Very little progress in imple mentation since enactment

UP Revenue Code Act, 2006

- Lease for any period is prohibited - Exemptions allowed for widows,

unmarried women, military persons, students and physically disabled.

- Legislation exists but implementation is faulty with little progres s since enactment.

7

The Bhoodan Movement was initiated by Acharya Vinoba Bhave in the years following

independence to bring in a voluntary transfer of land from large landowners to the landless.

He requested large landowners to donate land to the landless poor. The Bhoodan movement

was initiated in the state of Bihar using Ahimsa as a tool to voluntarily bring in transfer of land.

The movement has also been dominant in Odisha and Uttar Pradesh and is critical to

understanding the situation of land rights in the states.

The Bihar government in 1954 passed the Bhoodan Yagna act to oversee distribution of

Bhoodan land. The Land Reforms Committee in Bihar in 2008 estimated that out of 648,476

acres of land recorded in Bhoodan, 255,347 acres had been distributed to 315,454 families,

while 278,320 acres of land were earmarked as unsuitable for distribution and 114,708 acres

were still available for distribution. However, the Revenue Department has conflicting data

that around 11,100acres of land has not been confirmed for distribution. The major

impediments faced by allottees are illegal eviction, lack of legal awareness, mistakes in survey

documents, unavailability of maps, complexities in dakhil-kharij and shortage of officials, 3Amins and resources.

The Bhoodan act of 1954 was replaced in Odisha in the year 1972 and a new set of rules in 1974

was established. The Bhoodan Yagna Samiti in Odisha was reconstituted in the year 2004. In

the year 2013, the Bhoodan Yajna committee said that it had 58,722 acres land for distribution.

There have been repeated issues of encroachment of Bhoodan land and of illegal occupation.

Additionally, there have been issues of mistakes in the recording of homestead-less people,

which has an impact on land redistribution.

The first Bhoodan Yajna act was passed in1952 in Uttar Pradesh. The act still exists in the state

but the implementation issues have been fairly similar to what was observed in Bihar and

Odisha. Since, the land had been donated by first generation landowners, there were no

proper records. In many cases, the land has been taken away by second generation

landowners. Apart from this, there are issues of usurping land intended for re-distribution.

Status of Bhoodan land re-distribution in the three states

3An Amin is a grassroots-level government functionary of revenue administration of the state who works under the Revenue Inspector. An Amin has the skill of land measurement and drawing sketch maps. The Revenue administration doesn't have sufficient Amins to cater to the demands of claimants.

8

PACS AREA OF WORK

PACS, as part of its strict mandate, is supporting socially excluded communities to claim land rights under various state-level revenue land rights policies. Revenue land (or "commons" land) is non-forest land. Revenue land is necessary for the communities for providing them with food, livelihood and legal security. There are three types of revenue land, under which PACS has made efforts to secure tenancy rights:

! Common Property Resources.

! Agricultural Land: This is land that is cultivated or farmed. It is owned by individuals who tend to be from higher castes.

! Homestead Land. This is land that people live on (including their house, livestock quarters and kitchen gardens).

The following gives an overview of thematic areas of PACS' work on land rights:

Common

Property

Resources

• Land belonging to gram panchayat and used by the whole community

• Socially excluded groups often live and work on land that they don’t own.

• The land is usually marginal – on the outskirts of communities in unproductive or

undesirable areas.

• Cut off and discriminated against, many communities are therefore completely

unaware of their rights and entitlements.

• Excluded communities regularly face discrimination in accessing common property

land. For example, Scheduled Caste (SC) commu nities may not be able to wash or

collect water at the same time as higher caste communities, or may be prevented

from using specific ponds or grazing areas.

Agricultural

Land

• Without the rights to agricultural land, anything a household grows legally belongs

to the landowner.

• But the land that is cultivated by socially excluded households tends to be marginal,

productivity is low and so it is often not enough to make a living from.

• Many landless people therefore work as agricultural labourers, being paid a

pittance to work on someone else’s land.

Homestead

Land

• Without the rights to their homestead land, landless households are at constant risk

of eviction.

• There is therefore little point in these families invest ing in a permanent house and

other assets, as they could be thrown off the land at any time.

PACS is working on revenue land rights with 41 civil society organisation (CSO) partners in 6 states (Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha and Uttar Pradesh) covering 54 districts and are thereby supporting the communities to claim their revenue land rights and entitlements. The action points adopted under this strategy are indicated below:

9

Activity 1 • Helping households from socially excluded groups to apply for legal land titles to

the land where they live (homestead land).

Activity 2• Supporting socially excluded groups to speak out against discrimination they face in

accessing revenue land (such as the denial of agricultural land or demands for

higher rent).

Activity 3 • Promoting non-discriminatory control over common property resources like village

grazing lands.

Activity 4 • Assisting families to register for tenancy rights so that they cannot be evicted

without warning.

Activity 5 • Ensuring that surplus land (und er the Land Reform and Ceiling Surplus Act) is

allocated to landless households from socially excluded groups.

Activity 6 • Helping socially excluded households to access inputs to enable them to develop

their land and turn it into a productive asset.

The PACSprogramme worked at scale on land rights to help excluded communities to claim land rights on homestead land. Under this programme, 33,749 claims were made. Work was done on convergence land models in West Bengal such that 55,228 households got rights on homestead land. 14,163 claims were filed to get legal right to till revenue land, of which 2,639 claims were received. Most claims for agriculture land were filed in Madhya Pradesh, but the most land that was claimed was in Uttar Pradesh. Work in Madhya Pradesh was done within a wider campaign on right to land for Tribals and Dalits, whereas the right to include women's names in already private owned land and to get fresh grants in the name of the woman of the household was attempted in Uttar Pradesh.

10

“The most important concern that any CSO working on land issue faces is the perception of being anti-government. Sometimes you have to confront the administration, sometimes you have to resist something wrong which you see in front of your eyes. But we all know that the only change that will survive and last beyond us is the change which is brought about by the government. When we are fighting for proper implementation of the laws, for people to get their entitlements, for better governance, how can we be against the government? We want the government to be responsive, to be just, to hear people because that is when people will start getting their rights. If we keep looking at the government as an enemy, then how will we get work done? The most sustainable changes can be brought in through engagement with the government because they have the formal power to get work done. Relationships must be developed, they have to be developed. Try-Try-Try”.

Naheed, Director, Prayatna Foundation, Uttar Pradesh

12

Arti is a young and dynamic leader who is leading the PACS work in Bihar. When she talks, people sit up and listen.

She talks of the state in which she works, the CSO partners she has carefully engaged with for years, the people

whose lives have changed over the course of time and the issues that are still unresolved. But Arti has the most to

share about a small committee she co-convenes in Bihar, which can be said to be a landmark in the long and often

contested route of engagement between civil society and the state.

The establishment of the Land Reforms Core Committee (LRCC) in Bihar is a milestone in itself and testimony to the

fact that constructive engagement with the state government is both possible and desirable. But the process

towards the institutionalisation of this committee was not easy and nor was the process of its constitution free

from roadblocks. It is important to understand the demands that led to the formation of such a committee. The

progressive Bihar Privileged Persons Homestead Tenancy Act of 1947 has been stymied by the non-responsiveness

of many actors at the sub-district level. The work of PACS partners like Pragati, Deshkal and Samagra Siksha evam

Vikas Sansthan (SSEVS) revealed that there is a gap between the cup and the lip as reflected in the provisions of the

law and its implementation. In spite of having a progressive law, there were millions of people with no entitlement

or no possession of entitled land. The apathy was seen on the side of governance and there was a felt need to make

the governance more committed to the people and to bridge the gap between the people and the government.

Section 2 : Confrontation, Co-operation or Co-option? Re-defining engagement with the state

Land Reforms Core Committee (LRCC) in Bihar

The LRCC is operational under the chairmanship of the

Principal Secretary, DRLR, Bihar and is co-convened by the

Director of the A. N. Sinha Institute of Social Studies and State

Manager of PACS, Bihar, Arti Varma. All the PACS partners

working on the issue of land in Bihar were part of the core

committee. There are 26 active members of the committee

who work in 4 sub-committees on various issues of land. The

four sub-committees are:

· Land-related legal issues

· Homestead land

· Surplus/Ceiling land

· Bhoodan land

The most significant contribution of the LRCC has been the

launch of two critical programmes by the DRLR.

Operation Bhoomi Dakhal Dhyani was started in the year

2014to ensure that people who have received legal titles to

their land under various government schemes are allowed to

take possession of the land. On the advice of the committee,

instructions were provided to the local administration and

the police to support the process.

Abhiyan Basera was launched by the DRLR in the year 2009-

10 to purchase 3 decimals of land for landless Mahadalit

families. With the establishment of the LRCC, other

marginalised groups like SC, ST, EBC and BC were included in

the scheme and its operational period was extended to the

year 201617.

Arti points out the silver lining in this otherwise

gloomy state of affairs. It was not just the community

or the CSOs who had expressed concerns with the

governance that was sorely lacking. The Department

of Revenue and Land Reforms (DRLR) in Bihar had

itself acknowledged its loopholes and had expressed

a desire to collaborate with PACS partners and other

CSOs working on land issues to promote more

effective policy design and robust implementation. In

line with the PACS objective of bringing in sustainable

change by making the state more responsive, a

workshop was organised by PACS and the Dalit

Adhikar Manch, which saw the participation of the

Principal Secretary of the DRLR. In 2013 at a

subsequent workshop organised by PACS, Dalit

Adhikar Manch and the A.N. Sinha Institute, the

secretary endorsed the formation of the land reforms

core committee. This committee was to be a

collaborative set-up between the state and civil

society with stakeholders from both domains. The

committee was expected to fill knowledge gaps based

on field interventions, build pressure from below and

ensure the proper implementation of the law to

facilitate homestead land entitlement .4

4. From“Land Reforms Initiative in Bihar-A document on collaborative initiative by Government and Civil Society for land reforms in Bihar”, jointly published by Government of Bihar and PACS. 13

The Land Reforms Core Committee did not limit itself to an advisory role but also capitalised on its experience as a collective to constructively capacitate government officials. This not only provided a much-required interface between civil society and government officials but also allowed forsharing of views and opinions. The training of the revenue officials at various levels by the Revenue Department was facilitated by the LRCC. The 3-day training programme was designed by the A.N. Sinha Institute and PACS core team members were part of the training programme.

The land reforms core committee is the first of its kind

at engagement between state and non-state actors

aimed at bridging the gap between the realities of the

field and the response of the government. The model

is currently working smoothly with the repercussions

of the engagement positively impacting other rights-

based areas as well. Arti talks of how the committee

provided space for discussing the issue of forest rights

in the state of Bihar, which has very little visibility even

within civil society. There is some hope of work on the

Forest Rights Act (FRA) being taken up in the districts

of Gaya and West Champaran based on the learning of

the LRCC.

But Arti celebrates the initiative while laying down a stark picture of reality. “There is an assumption on which this

committee has been formed,” she says. “The success of this committee depends on how proactive the

stakeholders are. If the bureaucracy goes back to being disinterested and civil society slackens in putting pressure,

then the intervention will collapse.” Both the state and the non-state actors need to be vigilant of their own

positions and responsibilities while continuing to coalesce and collaborate to meet a common minimum agenda.

Is it a tall task? Only time will tell.

FLUX AND EQUILIBRIUM: STRIKING THE BALANCE IN ENGAGEMENT

Each decade since the early 1990s, which in the true

sense saw the proactive articulation of CSOs speaking

a rights-based language, has leaned towards a

different kind of politics. The CSO space in the 1990s,

right during its peak,took a confrontational attitude

towards the government. Spurred by the new and

unfamiliar environment in the newly liberalised and

globalised nation, this mode of work found favour

with the numerous marginalised communities. It was

the time of charismatic activists, of the performance

of protest and of asserting the idea of a different kind

of development. By the early 2000s, both the

articulation of rights and the engagement with the

state had taken a different turn. The focus now was on

institutionalising change at the level of policy. A slew

of movements with a focus on legislative advocacy

dominated the civil society space. Movements for the

Right to Information (RTI) and the Mahatma Gandhi

National Rural Employment Guarantee Act

(MGNREGA) were the most significant milestones of

this period. The late 2000ssaw a further change and

was marked by the civil society space being almost

subsumed under the government. From the National

Advisory Council (NAC) to the expert panels for

MGNREGA and the National Rural Health Mission

(NRHM), civil society became a part of the

implementation plan of the government and lost the

space that it had earlier as a bipartisan critic. The

current decade is gradually seeing the state dictate the

agenda for civil society and a shift from the pure rights

perspective. Both in the communities and in the

corridors of power, there is an undercurrent of moving

towards more economic models of work, focusing on

service delivery rather than on demanding rights.

In this ever-changing political space, the critical

question is: How does civil society continue co-

14

operating with the state to make it more responsive

without getting co-opted?Civil society needs to

engage with the government at all possible stages

while not becoming an arm of the state. Once the onus

of implementation and of policy design comes on civil

society, it does not have sound moral ground to act as a

critic of the government. Unfettered criticism of the

government has to co-exist with a pragmatic and

sustainable process of discursive engagement with the

state. This is a balance very difficult to strike. Though it

is too soon to pass final judgment on it, the PACS

intervention has managed to strike this balance in

most states.

The most successful interventions in land have been

those that have tried to engage with the state. The

success of these interventions is not in terms of

numbers but in terms of the sustainability of the

impact. The end is as important as the means and the

creation of new spaces and new channels of

engagement has institutionalised many a change

which was envisaged. The creation of a niche in an

established and impenetrable institution of power like

the government is testament to the shifting power

equations, to the movement towards more pro-

people and the acceptance of a diversity of realities

and opinions.

While the land reform core committee is a road map

for the future, numerous other engagements with the

government by other PACS partners have led to

sustainable change. One significant story emerging

from the work done in the past two years is the training

and engagement of community resource persons

(CRP) in the piloting on land entitlement done by

Landesa in Odisha and scaled up subsequently by

PACS. The CRPs have been linked to the Odisha Tribal

Empowerment and Livelihood Project (OTELP) and are

paid by the government. This is a major breakthrough,

because the CRPs function with the authority of being

government personnel and have a greater role in

getting things done while retaining the character and

the critical responsibility of emerging from civil

society. These CRPs identify people, especially

landless women,from the lists that have been

prepared by Woman Nodal Officers (WNOs) at the

cluster level and they network with Revenue

Inspectors (RI) and the Tehsildars for quick

dispensation of the entitlements. The CRPs bridge the

gap between the people and the sub-district-level

government functionaries, which is often found to be

the most difficult area of engagement. Apart from this,

they also provide handholding to people in the

community to collectivise and demand their rights.

This is a second model of engagement with the

government that has been tried and has been received

well by both the government and the communities.

“You might think that all the PACS work has tried to engage the government because it is built into our design that a certain number of meetings should be conducted with government officials, a certain number of discussions should be held. But all these organisational heads have never been bound to do anything. We have always allowed the space to keep changing strategies while experiencing new facets of reality. Strategies that work, last. Strategies that do not work automatically get discarded. That a large number of organisations have taken up engagement with the government so actively is testament to the fact that they believe it works and works well. PACS has only given them the support they need. The rest they have worked out themselves.”

Prashant, State Manager, PACS Uttar Pradesh

15

Interface and bureaucratic advocacy efforts

On being asked to share an experience about dealing

with the government, Vijay Prasad of the Gorakhpur

Environmental Action Group (GEAG) laughs and

narrates an anecdote. “There were these members

from the Ministry of Agriculture at an agricultural fair

that I was a part of. Some of them wanted to vet me

because they thought my organisation could be a front

for money laundering.” If one starts from this position,

then one wonders about the road ahead. How does

one bridge the distrust and reach a space of

engagement? “The only way to overcome this is to do

good work and have the change in people's lives speak

for itself. Over time, our work as a bridge between

people and the government manifests itself through

direct contact between the two stakeholders,” says

Vijay.

Trust through motivationA major component of the work of Prayatna in Uttar Pradesh focusing on securing land rights for people entailed making allies out of Lekhpals. Lekhpals are the direct point of contact between the government and the people and are responsible for recce-ing land and the final allocation. The organization did not just work on making alliesof the Lekhpals, but also worked for them. The difficulties faced by the Lekhpals at the grassroots were acknowledged and taken to the DM for resolution by the organization. On many occasions, Lekhpals were publicly acknowledged and awarded for their work for the community. This approach was not limited to Lekhpals but was extended to other frontline workers like ANM, AWW, ASHA and teachers. This motivation and acknowledgement encouraged frontline workers and helped build their trust. When the time came to address critical work like comparing the data gathered by Prayatna with the DM's records, the Lekhpals extended their full support, making the arduous task much more systematic and simple. A little motivation went a long way in building trust.

There could be distrust right from the level of the PRIs

to the BDO and the state secretaries. To combat this,

the PACS programme encouraged regular interface

and meetings with government stakeholders at

various levels. GEAG conducted bi-monthly meetings

at the village resource centre and even sent their

trained women farmers to facilitate government

programmes as master trainers. This not only played a

part in empowering women further but also played a

role in bridging the gap between the community and

the government, which they experience on a day-to-

day basis at the local level. The Society for Promoting

Rural Education and Development (SPREAD) in Odisha

conducted regular interface meetings with block and

tehsil officials to build rapport. This proved

particularly beneficial for them during follow-up

meetings after filing claims. The relationship

established with the officials helped their

bureaucratic, advocacy-based work to be more

“The villages in this part of the state are dominated by Mahadalits. They are the most marginalized and most vulnerable population in the state today. We are trying in every way possible to give them their right to land. But there are others more powerful than us and they have the ability to bring in a change much faster. Unless we try to engage with them, we cannot say that all doors were closed on us. There are always good people in the government and we have to keep trying to reach across to them and help them come to us. Now, my aim is to get the Chairman of the Bihar Mahadalit Commission who is himself a Mahadalit to come and visit this area and talk to his own people, The villagers will also know that people can achieve whatever they want despite the circumstances of their birth and the Chairman can also see that things in so many years have not changed much. Maybe something productive can come out of that interaction.”

Anil Ji, Pragati Gramin Vikas Sanstha, Bihar

16

Often, it is important to go back to the larger vision of the PACs programme and ask ourselves what it is that we want to see. Do we see land rights as an end or do we see rights as the means to a dignified life with equal access and opportunities for people? Do we see participative decision-making, decentralised governance, transparency and accountability in administrative structures as a way towards empowerment? Do we see people speaking up for all rights? Do we envisage a responsive and responsible government that listens and learns? Then, engagement with governments of various ideologies from various political parties and with bureaucrats with various levels of responsiveness is a beacon of hope for the future. There is a line between a government for the people and a government of the people. Perhaps it is time to cross that line. The PACS programme facilitated various strategies for that jump. The future will be decided on how far these strategies can be replicated and sustained.

productive. Pragati in Bihar followed a similar process

where investing in developing the relationship with

government officials was accorded top priority.

Naheed of Prayatna talks of 'Tehsil Divas' that are

aimed at quick resolutions of the concerns of people at

the level of the tehsil. These events are conducted

with the involvement of government officials and

show that sustained engagement with government

officials can definitely lead to institutionalised best

practices.

5517

“Whenever any poor person talks of her right to own land, there is more doubt than sympathy for that person. We initially thought that if we are together then we have power to stand up to discrimination and land alienation. But now we have learnt that it is true only to a certain extent. If one person can be branded, a group of people can also be branded. Many people in the past have been branded as Naxalites for fighting for their rights and have been persecuted. If we just speak without backing up our words, they will speak louder than us. The one thing that can give us power is proper evidence. We have stressed on gathering evidence for all our land rights claims wherever possible and have used it to reach across to all government officials. Without proper documentation of evidence and proper communication, these poor people would have been branded Naxalites. But, now with proper evidence, no one can dare ignore their voice and their demand.”

Vishnudhar, Pragati Gramin Vikas Sanstha, Bihar

18

Golaganj in the district of Bahraich is a small village as

insignificant as most other villages in the area. But

what stands out in this village is the turbulent

relationship it has with the mighty Ghagra River. The

village lands are inundated and lost to the river on an

annual basis, while its residents stand hopeless and

helpless. Once one loses the land to the river, one also

loses the right to the land. Then begins the process of

running to government authorities and pleading with

them to take a look at the land lost and help restore it.

But as an elderly gentleman narrates, no one likes to

hear stories of pain, loss and suffering. Your voice does

not count if you just have a story of loss to narrate.

Everyone wants evidence and proof to back your claim.

And generating evidence is not easy. It requires an

unambiguous and thorough understanding of what

you seek, from whom you seek it and from where you

derive the power to seek it. In short, it requires a

thorough understanding of your land, of the law and of

how you can seek accountability. Armed with this

information through the Panchsheel Development

Trust, a PACS partner working on the rehabilitation of

people displaced by the Ghagra River in Uttar Pradesh,

the villagers of Golaganj started working on an

information aided campaign. They started gathering

every land document that was available with the 80

displaced families. Armed with this information, they

again reached the Tehsildar and told him about their

situation. The reaction was different and the response

was immediate. Their voice had finally gained some

weight. Their voice had certainly mattered.

Section 3:

Information and Evidence: Making voices count

Numerous strategies have been used by the partner

organisations to secure land rights for the

marginalised population across all seven operational

states. But a key learning emanating from all the

programmes was the use of information and evidence

to strengthen advocacy efforts with the government.

There has been a shift from the demand of land being

articulated in terms of inviolable and universal rights

pegged to concepts of equality and dignity to one that

is linked to the proper implementation of existing

rights and entitlements. In terms of implementation,

this has also resulted in a shift in the nature of

campaigns, which are now based not just on

information dissemination but also on using that

information to build evidence to make your demand

more robust. In cases like forest and land rights,

information-aided evidence generation has played a

critical part in securing rights because it has laid bare

the loopholes in the implementation of the law by the

local administration. Evidence gives more weight to

the claims of people and shifts the balance of power.

From sensitisation about rights granted under the

constitutional framework to specifics of legislations

and entitlements to creating an understanding about

the tools and skills required to create evidence,

organisations have used multiple strategies in the last

phase. A direct impact of the information-aided

evidence advocacy has been the surge in the number

of claims filed for pattas and the number of pattas

(both homestead and agriculture) awarded to people.

5519

The strength and the confidence

expressed by many community

members when talking about issues

of land and legal entitlements testifies

to the fact that the long and intensive

process of training has largely been successful.

The PACS programme has not moved ahead with any

blueprint for training people on legislations but has relied on

feedback, which is an iterative process that allowed strategies to be tweaked based on the findings

from the field. Therefore, the stress on evidence was not just linked to the implementation plan of

the programmes of the partners but was built into the design of the programme. Each of the partner

organisations conducted baseline studies, which provided a clear indication of the lack of awareness

of the concept of rights and of specific legislations like the RTI Act and other state-specific land-

based legislations.

The first round of information dissemination was built into the mobilisation plans of organisations

and each organisation had its unique way of providing it. Frontline workers of the organisation

reached out to various villagers and tried to introduce the work of the organisation and PACS. But an

important learning is this process was to dignify the knowledge of the community members

themselves and not allow the programme design to overshadow the process of mutual learning.

Satyendra of the Shramik Seva Kendra said that knowledge transfer always has to be a mutual

process. If one just keeps passing information without learning from the people and drawing from

their wisdom and criticisms, then the process is bound to be a waste. The young CSO leader believes

that a key learning in the course of this work was to listen to people before speaking because it is at

that point that knowledge gets crystallised. With regard to land-based work, each organisation

adopted this process. All the organisations conducted their individual baseline studies to identify

issues of landlessness and homelessness. This gave their work more teeth because they could easily

validate other information in the public domain and fill in the gaps wherever data was not available.

This baseline data proved to be extremely important for the organisations in their advocacy work as

they could substantiate their claims with proper numbers and figures. The organisations further

validated the baseline findings right at the inception of the programme through pointed grassroots

BUILDING A VILLAGE-LEVEL CASE

There were some core issues on which organisations

had to build evidence in order to strengthen advocacy

efforts. The first aspect was the absolute number of

landless people in villages, that is, people without the

patta. The second aspect was to document the people

who had been allocated land on paper but in the

village the plots measured were smaller in size. The

third aspect was where in spite of getting land

entitlement, people did not have possession of the

land. The final aspect was the provision of other

schemes for landless people like insurance schemes in

Uttar Pradesh or allocation schemes in Odisha and

West Bengal.

20

discussions. Naheed of the Prayatna Foundation

believes that elders of the village are a repository of

information and using them as the first contact point

for land issues is beneficial. One of the strategies used

by her organisation was to reach across to ex-village

heads because they proved to be more vocal than

current village heads. The Director of the Panchsheel

Development Trust believed that women as a first

point of contact for information was beneficial since

women are more vocal than men and are more in tune

with the happenings in the village.

“Ask me about any map, any document about this plot of land and I will be able to tell you everything. And I am illiterate. This has happened only because of the work of the organisation. We knew nothing, so people could tell us whatever they wanted and get away with it. Now, I can challenge them with facts”

Muni Didi, Village Barah, Bihar

Anu Devi of Pathratola Dwarikachat is a

slight woman who keeps smiling through

conversations. She tells us how Bihar

with its feudalism is not just Bihar's past

but also its present. 49 acres of the land

on which the villagers had traditionally

been cultivating for decades was in the

hands of a local political leader and they

could do nothing. Sitting silent would

mean the end of 35 families in the

village. They would have lost their land,

their crops and their source of water. In

short, their land and livelihood and their

future were captive. They wanted to take

it to higher authorities but why would

anyone believe them when they said

that they were the fifth generation using

that land. Anu Devi says that they got to know the power of documents only when PACS entered the village. Their

collective might not work because the political leader had 78 guards who did not outnumber but were physically

stronger than the women. In such a situation, the only way out was to go back to the old documents and

consolidate them. Each household was visited and days were spent looking at the documents and finding old

pieces of rejected paper that could save these members of the marginalised Bhuiyan community. Anu Devi says

that with the evidence in hand, they have approached the DM and are confident of justice. But, if they do not get

justice here, they will approach the courts. “Those old yellowed pieces of paper are way more powerful than this

man and his guards.”

EVIDENCE GENERATION FOR FILING CLAIMS

5521

The second and more critical level of evidence

generation and consolidation was during the process

of filing claims. Filing claims for ownership of land and

entitlement through pattas is an arduous process and

organisations that have a better track record of

Kanhaiyaji is a frontline worker of Deshkal Society and

has many stories to narrate about the difficulties of

generating evidence. But he is sure that it is the

dogged persistence in making the paperwork perfect

that has led to a nearly 75 per cent success rate in the

area. Kanhaiyaji believes that the intensive land-based

training for community members played a huge role in

helping them generate evidence. When an

organisation starts talking about a critical issue like

land, it needs to see that their workers and the

community members are on the same page and

proceed in a participatory manner. The land-based

training created that space and allowed those

conditions to take root in the operational areas. The

training focused on a range of issues starting from the

types of land to operational issues like how to access

and submit forms to complex issues like the

accountability structure in confronting land issues.

Apart from this, PACS had published a booklet on the

provisions of the Bihar Privileged Persons Homestead

Tenancy Act, 1947 that had immense success in the

state. This booklet was not limited to community

members but was accessed by many circle officers

who became re-acquainted with their responsibilities.

Evidence-aided success story

Through a long-drawn process of community engagement that resulted in the formation of 480 CBOs, Deshkal Society has been able to secure the land entitlement of 10,125 households. Their work has been the most successful across the states and is the result of a long-drawn community engagement process with the help of three other networks.

The evidence generation process is long-drawn, labour-intensive and extremely complex. Sanjay Kumar, Director of the Deshkal Society explained the paperwork behind this immense success.

“We had to make a list of the landless people with the help of the local Amin and then submit the lists at the block headquarters. After physical verification and inspection, the block employees and the circle officer identified lands and endorsed it. Then they sent it to the sub-divisional deputy collector and the SDO. Then they had to endorse it and forward it to the District Magistrate and then to the Divisional Commissioner. The process is so complex that no person could have accessed their lands by themselves without support. We provided that support and facilitated the process. But this process has to be simplified.”

More than 10,000 households getting access to their land documents is a huge success and the strategy of Deshkal Society to focus on good paperwork and routine follow-up with government officials has clearly passed the test.

converting the claims to awards have relied heavily on

immaculate paper work. The most successful story

was carved by Deshkal Society in Bihar where 10,426

claims were filed and 8,129 claims were awarded.

22

With the dissemination of this basic information, it was easier to operate on a common platform and the various

collectives formed at the village, block and district levels could focus on preparing stronger claims for the landless

people. One of the major difficulties that Kanhaiyaji recalls is procuring the maps from the government press. The

most important aspect of demarcating land and providing accurate measurements is getting foolproof maps.

Mohd. Kaif of Prayatna Foundation talks about the way in which Lekhpals were engaged in the process of evidence

generation. The one priceless thing that Lekhpals could give them access to were the cloth maps they carried,

which would be the most valid basis of land identification and demarcation. Apart from this, the organisations

helped the communities procure forms, draft the claims and submit them. The crucial step after this was to keep

the pressure on the officials through follow-up meetings and reminders so that individual attention on pattas can

be ensured. There was an investment of time not just in preparing good claims but also in building relationships,

which together resulted in better conversion of claims to awards.

TRAINING AND CAPACITY BUILDING

There was a marked difference between the baseline

and the midline on the levels of awareness among

people on the RTI Act. Compared to 5.6 per cent

people across the states who were highly aware about

RTI provisions during the baseline, the midline figures

showed that 26.3 per cent of the population was highly

aware of the same. The RTI Act has been one of the

primary tools handed over to the people through

sustained legal training efforts by PACS. The use of the

RTI to file claims has been found to be one of the first

steps of empowerment in the process. In Malihabad,

Uttar Pradesh the community members had an RTI

training workshop facilitated by PACS where a simple

but comprehensive format was circulated. When

people start using the tool and especially when they

see a response to their RTI query, it is a huge

confidence boost for them. This opens the door for

them to access many other opportunities and tools to

gain more information and evidence.

23

The training and capacity building of community

members to build a village-level cadre deserves special

mention. The creation of this skill cadre at the village

level filled in the knowledge gap and allowed

community members with easy access to skilled

personnel to handle

their concerns. The

g o v e r n m e n t h a s

numerous provisions

for community-based

monitoring at the

l e v e l o f t h e

panchayat. Although

the provisions get

announced, there is

not much emphasis

on creating a skilled group of people who would be

able to properly access these provisions. PACS tried to

fill this gap not just in the domain of land but also in all

other domains it worked in. One of the better

interventions was seen in the state of Odisha by the

PACS partner, Institute of Social Sciences (ISS). A cadre

of Bhu-mitras(friends of the land) was created and

capacitated by PACS. All 46 Bhu-mitras received

residential training on RI/Amin training course. The

skills provided to this

c a d r e i n c l u d e d

knowledge on land

s u r v e y s a n d

s e t t l e m e n t s ,

knowledge on land

related acts/laws and

s c h e m e s a n d

application filing and

s u b m i s s i o n . T h e

empowered Bhu-

mitrasnow work on government assignments, private

services, PACS activities and their own agricultural

activities.

“One area that has been a position of struggle with regards to evidence generation in Koraput of Odisha is tackling cases of partition. Partition cases refer to land left to multiple members of the family where there is no clear ownership. We found families where a small plot of land is to be divided among 50 members. These cases are difficult to document because tracking down all family members and getting their consent is a big task. So, no one attempted it. But, our work showed that it is a major reason behind landlessness, so we had to make an attempt. Our cluster co-ordinators visited village after village identifying families, documenting them and teaching

It is important to understand that the switch to evidence-based advocacy was not immediate and the flexibility in the PACS programme design was critical in bringing about this switch. For CSOs to adapt to new strategies there needs to be a pre-condition. An environment marked by heightened awareness, a heightened sense of rights and heightened motivation needs to be present before instrumental capacity building on evidence generation can start. The support provided by PACS during this initial phase through legal training and workshops, leadership training, support in networking and help for collectivising were of paramount importance. The many interfaces between the PACS team and the partner organisations were intended specifically to facilitate this process of cross-dialogue and iteration so that the evidence to be generated is context-specific. There was no 'one idea to fit all', because each partner was operating in a different context. A thorough study of the process of claims, awards and rejections gave each organisation an idea of the missing link and the PACS team helped capacitate them to fill in that link.

24

“CBOs at the Gram Panchayat level consisting of 25 members named the Gram Panchayat-Level Land Rights Committee (GLRC) has been a very effective instrument in identifying and assessing different issues related to land and forests. For instance, during the land survey and settlement work in Keonjhar district, the physical visits to households in villages were done by the CBO members of the villages who were trained in GLRC meetings at the Gram Panchayat level. GLRC members took the responsibility for filling applications and submitting them to the appropriate local authorities. During the interventions in model villages, they played an important role in identifying issues and collecting and submitting applications. This collective submission of applications by people from the grassroots who are mostly uneducated had a profound and positive impact on the government machinery. This led to the speedy processing of applications. This is a distinct improvement in their approach to self-rule and self-governance and it shows the path towards the sustainability of the project goals and objectives. Addressing issues collectively is a great achievement by constituting CBOs under the PACS programme.”

Pramila Patnaik, Programme Manager, Institute of Social Sciences, Odisha.

26

NOT ME, BUT USSection 4

Bala must be around 40 years of age. He is joined by his friends Ram Sanjivan and Changur. The three men look

dapper in their white kurtas and green turbans. “We have been singing for years now,” says Ram Sanjivan. “You just

need a platform to speak.” “But, often speeches and dialogues are not enough. Leaders come and speak.

Bureaucrats come and speak and then they leave. When you talk to people, you need to speak their language, you

need to share their stories, you need to make them feel that you understand them and you are there to stay with

them. I have just come to realise that if you perform this speech in some artistic and creative way, then they

remember you longer,” says the old and wizened Changur. Bala, Ram Sanjivan and Changur are three of the most

active members of the 15-member Kala Manch (Art Group) of the Jan Sahyog Manch in Uttar Pradesh. This PACS

partner primarily works in the domain of MGNREGA but has not been able to distance itself from the issues of land

in their operational areas. “When you start working with people in a participatory manner, you cannot pick and

choose issues. You need to listen to what hurts them the most. Wherever we go in this state, the poor will first

speak of land alienation. We cannot stay blind to the elephant in the room,” says Vishwatma, the director of the

Jan Sahyog organisation.

Land is the source of power and is the repository of

power. All other sources of power coalesce on the

issue of land, showing us just how significant it is in

perpetuating a state of alienation and discrimination.

In states like Odisha, Bihar and Uttar Pradesh with a

chequered history of land-based agitations and a

feudal present that sometimes cannot even be

disguised, power drawn from caste, class, political

clout and gender converge on the issue of land

ownership. So, when a person tries to challenge this

power structure by seeking her right to land

guaranteed by the law of her land, she is still a lone

voice burdened by her other multiple albeit all

marginalised identities. The constitution, the laws

and the evidence in her hand can counter this larger

power base converged around land to a certain

“After the collective was formed, we have gone up to the RI and even the DM. Earlier also there were the same issues but how can a single woman have the courage to go up to so many officials and speak out? Now, when I walk there I am joined by 10 men and 10 women. They can ignore me, but can they ignore all of us together? No work can be done without the people becoming one voice. With or without the PACS programme, our group is formed. No one can break it now.”

Chamela Devi, CBO Leader, Uttar Pradesh

27

extent, but more often than not, an individual voice is

swept away or slowly silenced. One voice, no matter

how strong, no matter how sincere and no matter how

just, does not seem to matter when it comes to issues

of land in particular and rights in general. Therefore,

the PACS motto, “Our rights, our voice”, sums up the

strategy and the key learning imbibed from the

strategy. There needs to be a voice, a powerful one,

that no one can ignore. And this voice needs to be not

that of one person but of many more like her. When

voices coalesce, it becomes difficult to ignore. The

PACS model stressed coalitions and collectives at

Solutions and strategies are organic and cannot be administered in a top-down manner. The PACS programme

looked at creating a space where information and skill-based support is provided in a trickle-down manner from

the PACS team but the strategising, the deliberation and even the implementation happens in a participative and

consultative bottom-up approach. Therefore, the first step of every organisation working in the domain of land

rights was to mobilise people based on the common issue of land, and through skill and leadership enhancement

organise them into community-based organisations. The next step was to link these numerous CBOs under a larger

umbrella and create federations or alliances to consolidate the work and learning of all the collectives and give it

the character of a larger movement. These alliances were not limited to PACS partners within and outside the state

but were also extended to a large number of non-PACS partners. The wider the coalition gets, the larger the gamut

of issues covered becomes. The PACS programme has seen a large number of coalitions formed on the broad

agenda of rights-based development that has encompassed forest, land and livelihood issues and has presented a

common action plan for ensuring better service delivery and accountability.

various levels for the following reasons:

a) Community-led initiatives are more sustainable

because they are participatory and discursive.

b) The voice raised by peoples' coalitions have

more social legitimacy than that raised by CSO

leaders.

c) Collectives amplify the voice of the people and

put pressure on duty bearers to respond and

resolve issues.

d) Coalitions and collectives add to the bargaining

power of people with other institutions of

power due to both visibility and accountability.

28

Some organisations have been immensely successful in collectivising people and forming multiple stakeholder-based coalitions. Their main achievements are highlighted here.

Panchsheel Development Trust

Uttar Pradesh

• 90 farmers’ groups formed

• 90 women’s clubs formed

• 90 child rehabilitation committees formed

• 90 village rehabilitation and development committees formed

• 2 CBO federations formed (Federation of people displaced by

the Ghagra River, Federation of people displaced by the Raapti

River)

Institute of Social Sciences

Odisha

• 408 land rights committees (CBOs) formed,working on both

revenue and forest land

• 350 village-level land rights committees formed

• 50 panchayat-level land rights committees formed

• 6 block-level land rights committees formed

• 2 district-level land rights committees formed

Deshkal Society

Bihar

• 480 village development committees (CBOs) formed

• 54 panchayat development committees formed

• 4 block development committees formed

• 1 district development committee formed

• Networking with three organisations: Gram Nirman Kendra, Lok

Shakti Shikshan Kendra and Prakhand Gram Swaraj Sabha

“There are thousands of activities whthatich can be conducted with people. Once the CBOs are formed, with the right amount of handholding and skilling, the possibilities could be endless. But it all depends on how efficient the beginning was. When you enter a new area and meet new people and try to win their support, it is not always smooth. The beginning matters the most.” Siddharth is a young, second-generation leader in the PACS programmewho is leading the land rights-based struggles in the very volatile West Champaran district of Bihar. His views are echoed by all the CSO leaders we speak to. The beginning does matter. Getting people to collectivise based on issues means first addressing their internalised biases. In districts like West Champaran, caste was a major concern for the SSEVS team. In the initial days of the programme, upper caste frontline workers used to go into the field to talk to lower caste landless farmers about their right to land. The lack of spokespersons from within their community meant that the process took much longer than anticipated. But the resolve and assiduousness of the frontline workers, including old veteran activists, bore fruit and leaders from within the community were slowly identified. This made the mobilisation efforts much smoother, though tackling caste issues and even inter-personal feuds within the community was a huge bridge to cross.

THE PROCESS OF MOBILISATION AND ORGANISATION

29

The move from mobilising to organising people is not

easy and nor is it quick. Organising the people into a

CBO would mean providing them with a common goal,

a road-plan to reach those goals (one objective at a

time), a community-based leadership to fall back on

and importantly the motivation, confidence and skills

to sustain the long fight. Advocacy is a long-term

process and sustaining the CBOs and encouraging

them to continue is one of the most difficult processes

for CSOs. Pradeep Priyadarshi has been a veteran in

the civil society space and has seen the evolution of

CBOs and collectives. “I have seen both the power of

collectives and the momentary lapses that see

months of your effort collapse. I think the legacy of the

PACS programme is the vibrant and informed CBOs

formed at the level of so many villages. But like

everywhere else the shift in our rural belts is also

towards a very utilitarian, individualist thinking. It is

difficult to stop that process of thought. Until people

think like a community, like a collective, they cannot

be expected to behave like one. That was the biggest

role of the PACS programme. Making people think,

reason and act together. Their issues are the same and

they can be the strength for each other. One just needs

to spend time making that very clear to them.”

“There are regular visits to the field

for awareness generation and stock

taking. After the organisation of the

CBOs comes the long journey with

the people. We have to give them

support for their work, troubleshoot

their issues. Constant engagement

brings in definite changes. Now

CBOs still require some support but

are not as helpless as they were as

individuals. They can get things

moving.”

Shyam Manohar Xavier, District Co-

ordinator, VICALP, Odisha.

30

The thoughts of Pradeep and Siddharth are taken to the field by Bala, Changur, Ram Sanjivan and hundreds of

frontline workers like them. There are multiple tasks to be done in a new area. Getting the attention of people and

drawing them to your message seems to be the most difficult. “When we sing about our pain, when we sing about

land, when we sing about poverty, people get curious and join the meetings. Gradually, they pick up some songs,

hum with us and eventually feel comfortable enough to speak to us,” says Bala. Deshkal Society in Bihar also has an

active Kala Manch. The organisation and its partners have trained 10 folk artists with songs highlighting various key

legislations. This troupe has now travelled across 54 Gram Panchayats and performed in villages, speaking directly

to the people. “It is just one of the ways of generating interest in people. We have to constantly mix methods and

come up with new strategies to keep people motivated,” says Vishwatma.

The process of organisation does not end at this.

Larger coalitions have been attempted in many states,

bringing in both PACS and non-PACS partners. One of

the best examples isthe constitution of the Land

Reforms Core Committee (LRCC), which is provided in

a previous section. This civil society-based

collaboration involved not just PACS partners but also

other CSOs and educational institutions such as the A.

N. Sinha Institute of Social Studies. In Uttar Pradesh

also, the Prayatna Foundation constituted the

federation, Prayatna Manch. It brought under its

umbrella CBOs in 31 villages spanning 12 Gram

Panchayats. The idea was to bring together diverse

micro-scale grassroots efforts going by different

names and pitch for land reforms as a larger

collective. This was done to leverage the high recall

value that Prayatna's name carried among officials.

“Many times when our friends and partners met

some official or entered a village to talk to people,

they were asked about their legitimacy to intervene.

We thought that people know of our credibility by

now. Why not extend this credibility to more like-

minded allies? That is how we thought of the

Prayatna Manch,” says Naheed, the director of the

Prayatna Foundation. Leadership skills were

imparted to heads of these CBOs, who were

periodically elected by members of the Manch.The

idea at the beginning was not only to engender a

trickle-down leadership training process but also to

have these elected leaders learn on the job. Once

these leadersalong with members of the Manchwere

sensitised to the importance of going through a well

laid-out government process to access a right that has

been denied, rather than just agitating and

sloganeering, these grassroots outfits took a more

methodical, organised and logical shape.

“When one is working on the larger issue of land, we cannot limit ourselves to just PACS partners. The programme structure provided enough space and even created space to network and engage with multiple stakeholders. GEAG conducted thematic forums on various issues of land and gender and invited all like-minded CSOs to it. Work on awareness building in campaigns at advocacy meetings was divided between the members of the forum. Each group brought their own experiences and their own expertise and ideas into the engagement, which has made the process very enriching. This has opened up many possibilities for the future.”

Vijay Pandey, Director, GEAG, Uttar Pradesh

31

“Once you encourage people to talk, you will see that they will give you their own problems and even provide

solutions for the same. There is a strength in every person, but when you are alone, you sometimes miss that. If

there are more like you speaking in one voice, then they can do the impossible,” says Vishwatma. Mihir, the state

co-ordinator of PACS programme in Odisha sums up the key learning from this phase of the programme: “We hear

of all these pattas that people have managed to secure during this PACS programme. All the positive results in

Bihar and Odisha, the inputs into policymaking. But if you come down to think of it, nothing could have been done

if the people were not there on the same page.

PACS is but the voice of the people. Alone we

could not have done anything. The collectives

speaking from every village, the new leaders, the

women who have come out and spoken, the

coalitions that made the government sit up and

take notice have secured these pattas, have given

us the strength to be more proactive at every

level. When we are gone, this is the only thing

that will last. These people cannot go back to

where they were. They are aware now, they are

together now. We have learnt it and they have

learnt that speaking together in one voice is

better than speaking alone. This will reflect in all

we do in the future. This power is the one true

legacy of PACS.”

Mihir's words ring true when one sees the spirited CBO leaders and members join Bala and his troupe on stage for one last guttural cry of “Hamara Adhikar, Hamari Awaaz” “Our rights, our voice”.

32

“They are powerful people and we are dirt poor. This land is the only thing we had and losing this would have meant losing everything. They were creating camps within the village and trying to buy off people and weaken our collective. When we went out for defecation to the fields, they used to beam torches at us and embarrass us. They thought they would shame us into silence. But we decided to answer back. We were not doing anything wrong. We knew the land belonged to our ancestors.

150 of us women took out a rally one day. We walked around the entire plot of land with posters and shouted slogans. We wanted to show that you might be powerful but we have solidarity among us and we will fight this out in court. You cannot shame us or scare us. Women led the struggle for land. From evidence generation to the campaign, we women were at the forefront. We were the leaders.”

Dulari Devi, District Gaya, Bihar

34

“My husband never used to let me out of the house. He did not force me to stay at home also but it was just that no woman in the community was that active. But that day, I decided to go and meet the SSP. And my husband came to see me off and wished me luck.” Manju Devi is the young mother of two boys and two girls in Khajwati village of Gaya district, Bihar. Manju leads the Bhumi Adkhikar Morcha, a CBO in her village and her exploits have been covered numerous times in the local newspapers. Manju with her toothy smile introduces us to her friends and fellow leaders, Lalita Devi and Neeru Devi, who are equally vocal and clear-headed. “When the PACS team came to the village, we did not know what to say to them. Ganouriji, the

SECTION 5:

THE BIRTH OF A LEADER

frontline worker, was very friendly and slowly all the women started talking to him. The men initially resisted but once they got to know him, they also joined the discussions,” says Neeru, the youngest of the three women. Ganouri, the frontline worker who helped create the CBO in the area, talks of how the village had only women when he entered it because the men were out at work. “They were living like animals. There was no space to even move and they called those spaces 'homes'. We realised that since women are the only ones around and the ones who suffer the most due to land alienation, we had to make leaders out of them.” Lalita was the first person that Ganouri managed to convince. She helped mobilise other women to attend meetings conducted by the PACS partner, Pragati Gramin Vikas Sanstha, in the village. As the days passed, more women and men joined the meetings and heard about rights, laws and entitlements. From the churning discussions and the sharing of experiences, Ganouri identified three women who could lead the process of change. The three women were sent to attend the women leadership camp organised by PACS at the block headquarters in Gaya. “The meetings and the camp were the first time when I heard about the RTI and land laws and our rights. It was something no one of us had any idea about at all. I will not say I know everything now. I am still learning. But I know enough not to keep quiet,” says Manju.

35

The PACS programme had a clear and strong focus on the creation of leaders from within the community. For land

rights advocacy to be successful, the approach had to be as decentralised as possible and that can be done by

giving collectives more strength. The important learning in the PACS process is that strong collectives and strong

leaders are mutually dependent and one cannot exist without the other. In order to sustain an organisation based

on common goals and lived experiences, there needs to be a leader who irons out glitches, who keeps people

motivated and who takes the initiative. Without a leader there is no rallying point for a collective and the possibility

of collapse is high. Similarly, no one, however vocal and charismatic, can be a leader in the true sense unless she

derives strength from the collective. Therefore, the processes of strengthening collectives and building leadership

go hand-in-hand. PACS has organised numerous leadership training workshops across the seven states to build the

skills and potential of self-selected leaders. The primary skills imbibed have been awareness of basic rights, land-

based entitlements, governance structures, accountability measures and strategies to engage and reach out to the

government.

forums and capacity building workshops for CSO functionaries. Another indicator tracked to see the impact of the

programme was the diversity and the representation of socially excluded communities in the organisation profile

of the CSOs. Most of the organisations have a strong and diverse human resource base with a significant

representation of marginalised communities. The participation of women is still limited and has been identified as

an area where much more needs to be done.

The aim of the PACS project in these

meticulous and well-designed training

programmes was not just to create strong

CBO leaders but to ultimately increase the

v i s ib i l i ty and say of marg ina l i sed

communities in institutionalised forums

within and outside the village. The baseline

and the midline data tried to record the

participation of socially excluded groups in 5decision-making forums and in Gram Sabhas .

Between the baseline and the midline there

was a nearly 20 percentage point increase in

the participation of excluded communities in

the Gram Panchayat. There was a trend of

increased participation of women in Gram

Sabhas but the overall participation of

excluded communities in the Gram Sabha

proceedings were slow to pick up. Apart from

strengthening leadership at the level of the

community, the programme also aimed at

strengthening leadership at the level of the

CSOs. There were legal trainings, exposure

5. Village panchayat-level meeting

36

6. Head of the village local self-governing body (panchayat).

In the operational area of Prayatna Foundation, 10

people have contested and won various village-level

elections. Across states, most organisations after four

years have come to realise that the focus should not be

limited to increasing the participation of community

members in village-level meetings but on making

them active members of decision-making committees.

Siddharth of the SSEVS says, “The point is introducing

people to positions of power by empowering CBOs.

People who could never imagine being in power are

now leading CBOs. But, after that we have to let them

know that this is not the end of the road. Land issues

and rights-based issues cannot be resolved till the

marginalised get a stronger voice in decision-making.”In most areas, it has been observed that it is mainly

women who are emerging as the strongest CBO

leaders and who are also moving on to contest village-

level elections. The focus on building women

leadership and women collectives in the states has

been onemajor reason for the emergence of women

leaders. There is a critical mass of people who are now

aware of their rights and have honed their leadership

skills. The efforts now would focus on positioning

them in better roles and working on developing a

second rank of leadership in the project areas.

“CBO leaders, especially women leaders, have

been leading their communities constructively.

They now have the confidence and the skills to

constructively engage with government

institutions. The members of the district-level

women federations have emerged as the voice of

the community and are successfully leading as

Sarpanch and ward members andchairman of

block committees. Our biggest learning is that

some of these community-based leaders will be

the torchbearers of the future. Our job is to help

them scale new heights and build more such

leaders.” Raghunath Khara, Land Co-ordinator, SPREAD,

Odisha

NEW FRONTIERS, NEW GOALS, NEW LEADERS

Brijwala Devi and Chamela Devi live in the Suryawah block of Uttar Pradesh. Both are CBO leaders and have been

leadingthe work on land-based issues in their respective villages. It has been four years since the beginning of the

PACS programme and the two women have breached many barriers. From leading padyatras and marches to

directly approaching Revenue Inspectors and DMs to building coalitions with CBOs in other villages, they have

experienced some successes and some failures. “We are CBO leaders. We have learnt something new but this is

not enough. The pradhan of our village is the biggest roadblock in us accessing pattas. He clearly discriminates on

the basis of caste. Everyone knows that but this time he won the election again. Now, we have exhausted our

options. So, we have to think of new ways. Till we win local government elections we will never get more power

and we will never be a part of decision-making,” says Brijwala Devi. She and Chamela Devi both contested elections

for the village development committee this year. Chamela Devi won the election. Brijwala Devi lost, but she is

undaunted and is preparing to contest the elections for Pradhan. “I will need to win the election to bring some

long-term change. We all have to fight these elections sincerely and try to win,” says Brijwala Devi.

6

37

The process of building confidence among leaders and of helping them discover their own leadership skills is not easy. From a place of marginalisation to speaking the language of rights is a long road to travel. The interface with PACS and the numerous training sessions have used small steps to change their understanding of power and possibilities. Apart from inculcating a feeling of community-based inclusiveness and equality, some of the aspects covered in the leadership training are:

Knowledge of land rights and entitlements

Knowledge of public information campaigns and advocacy strategies

Skills to lead community-based monitoring of services and using channels of accountability

Confidence building for interaction with multiple stakeholders

Ganouri of Khajwati talks of how he organised meetings and discussions between various female CBO leaders of nearby villages so that Manju and her friends could learn of the activities conducted in other villages. This also helps by drawing from the confidence of other CBO leaders who have battled similar situations and emerged victorious. “I met the women from Sindwar village who had actually been pushed and verbally abused by upper class landlords for taking possession of their land. They were so strong. They even used the SC/ST atrocity act against these people. If they could do it, even we can do it,” says Manju.

!

!

!

!

“Should we live in the jungle after the PACS

programme ends? They have helped us fight for our

rights but now we have to take charge ourselves. It is

scary and I am doubtful of what the future will be like,

but we cannot be dependent on them completely.

They have taught us to stand up for ourselves”. Nand

Rani, a member of the Prayatna Manch in the

Scheduled Caste-concentrated village of Chihota in

Mohanlalganj block in Lucknow district, talked of

routine harassment by the police for her land. Her

young son says that the police targets poor people in

conjunction with the local tehsil workers. Nand Rani

shows us the ancestral piece of land that has been torn

down by the police, despite laws being in place. “This

is the discrimination we face here. We were never able

to speak up about it but through the village collective,

people are slowly raising voices. I will also speak up.”

Nand Rani is far from the fiery Manju and Lalita of

Bihar. She is old, demure and sometimes scared. She

fondly remembers the march against illegal

possession and acquisition of homestead land that

was led by Prayatna and wonders if things will be the

same when they move away. But she is determined

not to cower like earlier and is confident that she is not

alone. She is not leading from the front and speaking

to a large group but is egging herself on to not give up.

There are thousands of women like Nand Rani in the

PACS areas who might not be leading CBOs and

standing up to the police and government officials but

have been challenging their own fear and ignorance.

The thousands who sit and speak at meetings and rally

behind their community leaders are also leaders in

their own right. They will not allow themselves to be

silenced anymore and, like Nand Rani, will not retreat

into their shells once the PACS programme is over. But while drawing from the strength of Nand Rani, her

words of caution should also be heeded.

Discrimination is so rooted in issues of land that the

current evolution of leadership just does not seem to

be enough and needs more interventions. Sometimes,

one wonders if the strengthening of leadership has

happened more at the level of the individual than at

the level of the community.In the words of the

Prayatna Head, Naheed Aqueel, a self-made leader, “If

I were to quantify it on a scale, we are only about a

quarter way through towards completely empowering

people at the grassroots level.” She says there are

various stages to this movement, of which perhaps

one has been covered. There need to be more leaders.

Another member of the Prayatna field team agrees:

“The second rung of leaders who can take this

movement forward is yet to emerge,” she says. “A lot

has been done but there is still a long way ahead.”

THE LONG ROAD AHEAD

38

Manju finishes the conversation, “Do you know what

happened when we reached the SSP office and told

him to give us our parchas that day? He taunted us and

said, 'Do you want to do politics'? Do you want to be 7

netas ?' I told him that we just want to live and to live

we need what is ours. But if we have to become

politicians to get what is ours, then so be it. We will be

leaders.”

Lalita Devi is preparing to contest the Pradhan

elections this time. She travels from village to

village, meeting women, talking to them

about their issues, giving them advice on land

concerns andnarrating her numerous stories.

“We went to the court to get land maps, we

stood all night in our land near our burnt

houses so that the goons would stay away, we

gathered the whole village and camped in

front of the DM's office till he was forced to

listen to our voice 2 days later. I am not scared

of anything now. I cannot write and that is a

problem but we will see what we can do about

that. There are others in the position we were

in. Landless, homeless and marginalised.

Maybe if I become the Pradhan, I can do more

for more people. I will give a good fight,” says

an extremely confident Lalita Devi.

7. Political leaders

39

“Strategies have to change with time. We have to

take care of socio-political realities, the direction

of civil society activism, the demands arising from

the community and accordingly think of a road

map ahead. In-between negotiating all this, we

have to keep true to our rights-based perspective.

So, the focus should be on merging our rights-

based work with broader global discourses on

development. The direction of work globally is

moving towards efficient service delivery,

accountability of institutions, capacity building

and skill enhancement of community members and

livelihood enhancement opportunities. Keeping in

tune with this trend, we have also identified that

livelihoods have to be spoken about much more in

the context of land rights. There is a move in that

direction and there have been some good results

also. But it is still incomplete and the road ahead is

long. This will definitely be something that has to

be worked on in the future. Land and livelihoods

cannot be spoken of separately now.”

Arti, State Manager, PACS Bihar

40

Section 6

“The confidence and the strength of a

marginalised household definitely increases

with access to and ownership of homestead

and agricultural land. But unless the land is

utilised properly and the family is able to earn

revenue out of it, the intervention is

incomplete. If the person does not get any

productivity out of the land, then she will start

accessing it less. If she accesses it less, then her

possession weakens and there can be a

situation when she might lose the land again.”

Wakil Manjhi of village Shekhwara in Bihar

paints a stark picture of the realities of land

ownership in the area. His friend Baljit Manjhi

adds, “Organisations now have to focus on

thinking of land differently. We have to make

sure that the person can both own land and use

the land. Otherwise it will be a wasted effort.

We have seen that happen with our own eyes.

We have to change the way we think and act about land now.” Baljit and Wakil Manjhi have a long and brave history

of struggle in their small village dominated by the Musahar community. They have worked hard networking with

all government officials, even meeting the Chief Minister in the process of advocacy. They have managed to secure

the parmana (deed) for 35 families in the village. But when asked about their major learning, they narrate a

different story. They talk of how they used the tax-receipts of community members as evidence to link them to

different agricultural services being provided by the government. They successfully managed to provide

agricultural services to about 300 families in the area through a long-drawn and intense advocacy process with the

agricultural officers of the government. They even managed to get the agricultural extension officer to visit the

village and take stock of the situation. Wakil Manjhi does not smile much but one cannot miss the sense of

satisfaction in his voice when he talks about the various agricultural extension services that he has been able to

bring to people. “There are three bore wells in the area now. Nearly 30 acres of land that was barren earlier can be

irrigated now. That is a major help for people. After the agricultural extension officer visited the village, we

managed to secure Kisan credit cards for all farmers within a month. We have also been able to get diesel subsidy. It

is with these things that a plot can actually be productive. We want changes in the life of people. Changes will only

come if their income changes,” says Wakil. His friend Baljit adds, “Now people are happily growing lentils, paddy

and vegetables in their fields. They have small plots but with all the additional support including fertilisers, they are

trying to become self-sufficient. There is still a long way to go but this is a good start.”

LEADERSHIP AND EMPOWERMENT

41

“Land forms the crux of any villager's identity,” said the

young field worker from the Prayatna Foundation,

Lucknow. “There is a world of difference between a

landless labourer/sharecropper and a farmer who

owns landyou can't miss the difference in their status”,

she added. The significance of land as a resource is

amplified primarily because of its link to livelihood.

Land remains a remunerative asset for some, while for

most others in this country it is the link to

subsistence. Landlessness is seen as the systemic

reason behind the permeation of poverty, because

with land alienation people in a primarily village

economy get alienated from a subsistence-based

livelihood. Being landless increases dependence on

others for alternative sources of livelihood. There is a

vicious cycle of disempowerment that needs to be

understood. Land ownership in India is often linked

to ascribed identities, primary among them being

caste and gender. The landless belong to

marginalised communities and women have

traditionally been kept away from land ownership. In

the absence of land, there is a dependence by

marginalised people on the landed for share

cropping and agricultural labour work. This

dependence further perpetuates caste and gender

differences and again normalises marginalisation.

Landlessness and its link to livelihood and

dependence leads to the increased voicelessness of

the marginalised. For instance, the bargaining power

of people with respect to wages differs based on

their land ownership. Even participation and

speaking up on issues in village-level meetings is

dependent on land ownership. It is difficult for

people to speak up against discrimination in their

day-to-day subsistence. This shows that for the

marginalised it is not just the ownership of land but

also the use of the land that is of immense

importance.

42

Not all the PACS programmes working on land had proceeded with

highlighting the livelihood aspect of land ownership. Most of the

work was concentrated on securing land entitlements and ensuring

possession of allocated land. But, through the course of the

programme of four years, the understanding among all project

partners and the PACS team about the linkage between land and

livelihood has been enhanced. Almost all the organisations working

on land have in some way moved towards bringing livelihood linked

to land to the forefront. Speaking about livelihood concerns would

mean scaling down the coverage from what can be covered when

working on land entitlements. This is because securing livelihood

rights mean more intensive coverage in terms of capacity building

and skill enhancement of farmers and securing of agricultural

extension services. OnePACS partner that has since the beginning

used this understanding and has built its work around it is GEAGin

Uttar Pradesh.

From Land to Livelihoods: Learning from GEAG interventions

Archana Prasad of the organisation says that it is

difficult to sustain the motivation of marginalised

farmers without having an economic model to

implement. “People cannot keep fighting on an empty

stomach. When they see tangible financial

improvements in their lives, they have a clear motive

to sustain their collectives, to keep learning and keep

engaging. The biggest motivation in any case is

economic. We cannot deny that. It is of major

importance for poor people. When you want to hurt

people, you impose economic sanctions. When you

want to motivate them, you provide economic

incentives. That is the nature of man. We have just

understood that and given them all the support so that

they can earn their living and lead a dignified and self-

sufficient life.” Archana and the women farmers

around her are not worried about the closing of the

PACS programmes. One farmer says, “We learn so

much from the farming schools. We have benefited so

much already. Why would we discontinue it? We will

43

keep participating and learning.” Vijay Prasad, the

Director says, “This is a sustainable model and that is

because there is a strong demand within the

community for the kind of work that we do. If there is a

demand, then the funds will somehow work out. We

already work in an SHG model where people are

funders. They will continue doing that if they see that

they are getting returns. I am not worried about the

future. People will never stop desiring more strong

livelihood alternatives.”

GEAG's Farmers Field School (FFS) is a major intervention along the lines of KrishiVigyanKendras (KVKs) except there is more grassroots-oriented training on the site in addition to monthly and need-based training at a centre in the GEAG district project office. Training is conducted not only by the existing pool of trainers, but also by agricultural scientists roped in from outside. Some of these beneficiaries go on to become master trainers themselves, thus setting in motion entire villages of trained farmers who are equipped enough to pass it on to fellow farmers. Thus, what ensues is not just a mechanical process of training, but an act of empowerment in itself. GEAG's focus on having women collectivise and form SHGs and pass on their external training to the community has proven beneficial and the ground reports are testament. A Master Trainer, Yashoda Devi, reveals how within one year of training, a tremendous spike in agricultural productivity was noted. Now, she feels empowered, both economically and socially.

In the predominantly Scheduled Caste villages of

Barhya, PirarKalan and Bankasia in Mehdawal block of

SantKabir Nagar district, the beneficiaries of GEAG's

intervention have benefited immensely from the

linking of land to livelihood. Even in cases where actual

pattas have not been provided, farmers have made

substantial gains on their ancestral agricultural lands.

For instance, Sharda Devi, who also happens to head

an SHG called PirankarSanstha, proudly describes how

she had never heard of mushrooms and is now not

only producing loads of these edible fungi, but is also

selling them to local traders as part of the mushroom

supply chain worth Rs. 1,000 crore in India.

Most farmers in the GEAG operational area hold less

than 2 hectares of land and struggle against the

vagaries of nature. GEAG trains farmers on climate-

resilient agricultural practices to help them battle

unreliable weather. The farmers are trained in Low

External Input Sustainable Agriculture (LEISA) and

include techniques on mixed cropping, crop

diversification, inter-cropping and multi-layered

cropping. Yashoda Devi, flanked by her husband and

daughter, narrates how she battled last year when the

district was hit by drought. She managed to grow

wheat by using the climate-resilient practices that she

had learnt at the GEAG training. Her husband was

sceptical at first but is now part of both the SHG and

training sessions. Land rights,when linked to

livelihood like this,becomes not a movement in itself,

but an enabler, an instrument in bringing about social

and economic empowerment in the lives of countless

small and marginal farmers.

44

THE ROAD AHEAD

When asked about the future course of action, most of the organisations working on landsaid that they have through the course of their work realised the need to move towards stronger articulation on livelihood while talking about land rights. Organisations like Prayatna, Navejeevan, SSEVS and Pragati Gramin Vikas Sanastha have moved in that direction and plan to continue working in that direction. Livelihood enhancement opportunities through access to land can counter trends of distress migration and thus address a lot of the drudgery that is associated with forced migration. Pradeep Priyadarshi of Pragati Gramin Vikas Sanstha talks of 56 livelihood pilots that they plan to implement in areas where they are working on land. Some of these ideas have been implemented partially but need to be put to scale. Some of these ideas include collective farming and setting up grain banks and SHGs for women farmers.

8. A lekhpal is a low -level bureaucrat in the revenue department of Uttar Pradesh who is primarily responsible for maintaining land records

This points to a larger point about how land in itself

does little to serve the 'beneficiaries' except filling a

certain identity gap, which the villagers don't see as

tangible enough to consider a change worth

celebrating. For instance, while Pratima Devi

maintains that due to the allotment of agricultural

land she manages to do subsistence-level agriculture,

she belies any sense of economic empowerment. “We

grow just enough wheat to feed ourselves and don't go

hungry like before, and that's all.” The Pradhan

mentions how the villagers are sometimes unaware

about how to go about making the land productive,

and in other cases even with information at hand, too

poor to afford urea/fertiliser, gobar or manure.

Prayatna Manch has decided to explore this new

articulation of land rights and work towards

enhancing livelihood opportunities. That is the

direction for the future. As Naheed of the Prayatna

Manch says, “How long can people keep up hopes on

an empty stomach?”

45

Some recipients of agricultural land pattasin

Prayatna Manch's intervention area, Chihota

village in Mohanlalganj tehsil, report that their lives

are better now compared to their earlier state of

landlessness when they worked as landless

labourers for less than subsistence wage. However,

the provision of land alone as an end in itself is

visibly proving to be inadequate. In one case, due to 8

a numbering error by the Tehsildar and Lekhpa , a

household, whosemembers are all part of the

Manch, were assigned a barren piece of land. But

the reality is that other plots are only slightly

bettergiven the lack of land development

(levelling, on-farm work, soil reclamation, pasture

land management, etc.).

“If you say the word 'teacher', one imagines both men and women dealing with children. If you the word 'doctor', one also imagines both men and women wearing white scrubs. But if you say the word 'farmer', people will first think of a man. There was a book on women farmers which I once bought, and on the cover of the book was a picture of a man. This makes us think about how much we have alienated women from land that we cannot even have a picture of a female farmer in our minds without a moment of doubt.

Women are responsible for 80 per cent of the work done on farmlands. They maintain their own homestead lands also to draw income from it in whatever way possible. They have never shied away from putting in as much labour as possible to make a barren land productive. But it is strange that we are okay with the work women do on fields but not okay with making them owners of that land. We want them to take directions on using the land, but not as owners decide what they want to do with the land. We do not want to give them the identity of being a landowner, of being a farmer. In short, we do not want to give them the identity of being equal.”

Vijay Prasad, Direc tor, Gorakhpur Environmental Action Group

46

Section 7:

There is a chasm between the legal entitlement of women to own land and the realisation of this entitlement. The

right of women to own land should ideally translate into women having control over the land and using the land as

an asset, which would have a longer and lasting impact on their social and economic standing in society. While

trying to comprehend the concept of equity, women can be seen to be the victims of multiple marginalisation

where they carry not just the burden of the ascribed caste identity but also the patriarchal construct of their

gender. Land is at the centre of livelihood, is the symbol of privilege and hence, is the repository of power in almost

all rural societies. In such a set-up, women being allowed to gain control over this source of power skews

traditionally held gender roles and is resisted by society. Therefore, it is not just the legal domain but also the

political, social and religious structures that perpetuate patriarchal gender constructs that need to be aligned in

order to work towards more equity in land access and ownership.

The PACS programmestarted work with the critical understanding that access to land unlocks economic benefits

that could translate into more equitable relationships within the family and the empowerment of women within

the community. Women have been identified as one of the critical

marginalised groups that were intended to be empowered by

securing their access to land. The intervention objective in

this case was to amplify the voice of women not just in

decisions related to land use but also to increase

their control over decisions affecting their

own lives. The important learning

emerging from the second phase of the

PACS programme was that working

w i t h w o m e n a l l o w e d

organisations to penetrate the

community more inclusively

and address a larger number

of issues that went beyond

the domain of land. This

u n d e r s t a n d i n g w a s

iterative and was based

on the experiences of the

organisations in the field

through the inception

HER MARCH AHEAD:WOMEN AND LANDHER MARCH AHEAD:WOMEN AND LAND

47

phase. It was seen that women were more

active and more engaged stakeholders and

were more motivated to bring in a change to

their lives. Additionally, many of the

organisations realised that the cycle of

poverty and landlessness could only be

stopped by making more women landowners.

All the states where work on land rights was

dominant, through the course of the past four

years started engaging with women actively

in order to make the work more sustainable.

But the work in Uttar Pradesh and Odisha

particularly stands out because of the way in

which a gendered understanding of land was

mainstreamed into it. The work in Bihar also

gradually moved into a space where women

became the dominant stakeholders in the

process and the process of joint titling of land

gained traction in the operational areas.

There are three ways in which the gendered

understanding of land was translated into practice in

the PACS states:

1. Work towards ensuring joint titling of land in the

name of both men and women. The focus was

also on securing entitlements for destitutes,

widows and single women.

2. Work towards securing not just ownership but

increasing sustainable usage of land by

capacitating women marginal farmers

3. Setting up women-friendly resolution forums

like Women Support Centres to provide more

single and destitute women with the

opportunity to avail of the land allocation

schemes provided by the state government

“We ask men to stay at home and we go to meet

government officials ourselves.I think women handle

heated situations much better than men. They can

talk about sensitive issues like land much better. Once

a government officer asked me for a bribe. I went to

his senior and told him to pay his junior a salary,

because he is asking poor women for bribes! They

never asked for a bribe again.”

Bedamiya Devi, CBO Head, Village Pathratola

Dwarikachat, Bihar

48

“It is good if there are titles in the name of the man and the woman. After the death of the man, no one can dare remove the woman from her house and her land. It is a sense of security and a sense of happiness. Even if no one misbehaves with you, owning your own land is not the same as depending on the mercy and good nature of someone else.”

Alai Mandika, Village Bariguda, Rayagada, Odisha

While all these strategies were different in flavour and reach, the underlined input from

PACS was capacitating women by addressing the knowledge and skill gap that does not

allow them to access key government schemes. This entailed making them aware of

their entitlements in both a gender-neutral way, i.e., as an equal citizen and also

through a gendered lens, i.e., by making them aware of the position of women in

relation to men within the family and society. Reducing the skill gap was a significant

input that was more tangible in the case of marginal women farmers in Uttar Pradesh.

But even in cases where livelihood enhancement options were not built into the

strategy, there was a component of skill enhancement through the creation of women

collectives. Around 60 per cent of the CBOs formed by CSOs working on land issues have

women as leaders. These CBOs have provided a platform not just to share multiple

experiences and challenges but also to draw from the strength of a larger collective to

put up a unified front to access rights. The CBOs have not just generated strong women

leaders but have also created a cadre of trained and vocal women who through

multiple, small steps have overcome many spatial barriers and challenged many

stereotypes. From not being able to venture out of the kitchen, to managing their own

fields and working towards securing the rights of other women, huge strides have been

made in many PACS operational areas.

Some key strategies adopted in different states are highlighted in the next sections.

Joint Land Titling in West Bengal and Odisha

PACS was involved in scaling up the work piloted by the

partner organisation Landesa in both West Bengal and

Odisha. In the former, the attempt was to secure joint

titles for women so as to legally allow them to be

owners of land. But instead of stopping at securing the

pattas, a convergence model was used where women

were capacitated to develop the plot of land that they

had come to own. This convergence model aimed at

linking other basic services like Indira Awaas, toilet

construction, drinking water supply, development of a

kitchen garden and provision of seeds after accessing

the patta that could holistically change the life of a

family. Women were envisaged to take the lead in

these minor livelihood opportunities that would

augment their income, allow them to save and

gradually create an asset base that could lead to their

overall empowerment. The process followed was to

take the government services to the people and

address the bureaucratic red tape, so that women

could access what they are entitled to.

In Odisha, the model was more nuanced to meet the requirements of vulnerable women in accessing land. Women support centres were established in every block to identify and support single women and female-headed households, to disseminate more knowledge about land entitlement and to help them reach out to block-level officials to seek accountability. The centres have Women Nodal Officers who are responsible for locating all landless women in the area with the help of frontline workers in the community. Apart from the WNOs, there are community resource persons drawn from within the community in every village to visit the women who have been identified and help them get connected to the respective RIs and land administrators for securing their pattas.

49

Increased access to land and ownership of land has a significant impact on women, giving them the confidence and asset-based support for unforeseen exigencies. With tenure security and thorough documentation, women are able to negotiate for better wages and be more vocal in village-level institutions, and through increased livelihood options many women have become part of economic collectives. Kitchen gardens have supplemented incomes as well as diets and the documentation has opened doors towards accessing other schemes like housing, sending children to residential schools and even mortgaging land for loans.

Empowering Women Farmers

The Gorakhpur Environmental Action Group (GEAG)

has worked in the past few years by identifying,

training and capacitating nearly 3,000 women farmers

to get the best out of the agricultural land that they

possess. Women not being identified as farmers in

spite of doing nearly 80 per cent of the work on

farmlands is a classic case of discrimination that

prevents women from being economically

independent and socially resilient. The focus of the

organisation was on identifying and empowering

3,000 women farmers by training them through

farmer field schools, which gave them knowledge

about organic and sustainable agricultural practices.

GEAG linked issues of land, economic and social

empowerment of women and climate resilience to

take forward their work.

Walking around GEAG project areas introduces one to

hundreds of women like Yashoda Devi who have left

their old worlds behind, breaking a million stereotypes

along the way. Yashoda Devi easily switches between

Ambedkarite articulation of power and the benefits of

organic farming. When her husband tries to answer a

question posed to her, she smiles and says,“This is how

women have lost their voice.” Yashoda tells us how

women farmers have significantly started contributing

to agricultural production and are no longer passive

entities sitting at home and waiting for direction from

male members.

The lack of an identity as a farmer does not just mean

sullying the work that the woman puts in on the field.

This lack of identity is reflected in providing women

with thekind of help that farmers should have access

to, which includes training through the Appropriate

Rural Technology Institute (ARTI), capacity building,

passing across institutional knowhow, etc. This skill

gap is then used as an excuse to further validate that

women can be direction takers but not decision

makers. The PACS programme tried to plug this critical

gap by providing women farmers with capacity

building avenues and enhancing their skill sets. These

skills have helped the women to deal with situations of

agricultural stress and mitigate agricultural disasters.

Archana Prasad of GEAG sums up the change in the

women under the PACS programme. “The biggest

change,” she says, “is that a woman is known beyond

her home and beyond her gender. She has discovered

herself beyond the constraints of her gender but

people have also recognised her might and her ability

as a woman.”

With the end of the PACS programme, there are a lot of

new stories that women like Yashoda Devi have to

narrate. Women are now being introduced in

International Climate Conferences as successful

farmers and women are also being introduced to their

children as owners of their land. Women are being

featured in farm and food magazines where their

indigenous knowledge and their enterprise is being

acknowledged and women who never ventured out of

their houses are travelling to block headquarters to

access land maps. There are big strides and there are

small steps. But each step is a step forwarda step

towards equality where women are shaping their own

lives rather than toeing the line of a patriarchal society.

50

“We are meeting here not just to conclude the

PACS programme. We are imploring you today at

the end of this programme to take forward this

journey of empowerment. The PACS programme

has taken thousands of people ahead. The

empowered communities and persons are in no

way going to end their journey. This is the

celebration of the process of empowerment, not the

end of the programme. The end of everything is the

beginning of something new and better.”

(At the Inclusion Utsav, Bihar)

“Initially, we believed that fighting social

exclusion would be very difficult but through the

course of the programme it did not prove to be so.

Today, we have more than one crore people

fighting for their rights. This is a programme that

will never end in spirit because it is sustained by an

organised society. If we feel that we have changed

and our villages have changed, then that is the

biggest achievement of the PACS programme.”

(At the Inclusion Utsav, Odisha)

Anand Kumar Bolimera, PACS Country Director

Swati Kundra, Head of Finance, PACS

52

Section 8:

Nearly 2,000 delegates from across Uttar Pradesh had

gathered for the three-day event being conducted in

Lucknow by PACS. This event marked the closure of

the PACS programme in Uttar Pradesh. This was not

just the case in Uttar Pradesh; every single PACS state

organised such three-day events marking the closure

of the PACS project and the celebration of the long

journey. Keeping true to the multitude of people

sharing the packed auditorium and having their meals

together and nodding in agreement to the stories of

strangers who were still allies in their struggles, these

events were called 'Inclusion Utsav' or a celebration of

inclusion. These closing ceremonies were organised in

each PACS state and saw wide representation by

c o m m u n i t y m e m b e r s a n d g o v e r n m e n t

representatives. The event in each of the states went

on for three days and was seen as an occasion to look

back at all that had been achieved and all that

remained to be done. The inclusion events were not

just an occasion for reflection and introspection but

also an occasion for celebrating the long journey and

Legacy of the past and possibilities for the future

the organised efforts. Walking through these vibrant

and loud events, one could see a lot of heartening

sights. There were people both shy and vocal. Some of

them were sharing stories loudly, while some were

absorbing the sights and smells of the new city around

them. Some people were seeing their faces propped

up in posters and smiling, and some were selling wares

from their local areas. There was music, there were

conversations, there were concerns raised but all

around there was a sense of optimism. The Inclusion

Utsav in all the states gave a picture of a legacy of unity

and of courage, which needed to be continued.

So, what could be seen as the most lasting legacy of

the PACS programme in the domain of land rights? The

following exhibit sums up the most lasting legacy of

the PACS programme, which has opened doors for

further rights-based work funded by multi-lateral

donors and the effective implementation of the

numerous government programmes.

53

Land Rights Act work of

PACS

Bihar Jharkhand WB MP OD UP National

Number of homestead

land rights claims received

18,272 5,683 9,559 196 33,749

Number of homestead

land rights claims applied

for

10,009 35,717

3,146 6,143 196 55,228

Number of agriculture

land claims applied for

167 6,799 3,839 1,367 14,163

Number of agriculture

land claims received

40

39

17

1,991

179 966 430 1,024 2,639

The most clear and tangible answer is reflected in the figures below.

Capacitated, informed and competent

collectives formed at various levels that can

be mobilised for different programmes

Legacy ofthe PACS

Programme

Instituationalisation of CSO space within the

government

Effective leadership developed at multiple levels, especially with

regard to the emergence of women

leaders

Decrease in discrimination and

increased vocalisation among marginalised

communities

Realisation of land ownership for more than 34,000 families

54

Over the course of the programme, more than 55,000 homestead claims and more than 14,000 agricultural land claims have been filed across the PACS operational states. Of these, 33,749 claims for homestead land and 2,639 claims for agricultural land have been received. This is a huge number and, if understood in human terms, translates to nearly 34,000 families getting ownership and possession over land. The effects of land ownership are not just titular; the entitlement has a spiral effect on livelihood opportunities and access to many other entitlements. Ownership of homestead and agricultural land not only provides security of tenure but also augments livelihood opportunities through the convergence of schemes attempted in the states of Odisha and West Bengal. But the most important legacy of these processes is the sense of accomplishment and empowerment experienced by the communities.

“I have gone through immense struggle to reach this position and I know what it means to be born in a socially excluded community. We have to understand that the need to work with civil society is more important in the context of today. I appeal to everyone to continue one's work for socially excluded communities”

Ms. Manju Varma, Social Welfare Minister, Govt. of Bihar

The process of understanding the right to land, empowering oneself with knowledge about land laws and the subsequent process of filing claims and following up with government officials has been rooted within the community. Community members and even CSO leaders have been active agents in the process of change and the road towards attaining these tangible changes has been built brick by brick through a discursive and iterative process. The entire process has been empowering in more ways than one.

The knowledge and confidence gathered through the process has changed the articulation of the people due a heightened sense of their rights and entitlements. The successful culmination of the process along with the benefits accrued after winning the claim has f u r t h e r i n c r e a s e d t h e confidence of the people, which will last beyond the life cycle of a programme.

Awareness of rights-basedapproaches

Informationabout legal

entitlements

Support structurewithin the

community through

organisations

Confidence to articulate

concerns within the community

Confidence tointeract withgovernment

officials

55

Drawing from the first point, the second lasting legacy

of the programme is the organised and capacitated

groups of people formed across the states on issues of

land rights. The soul of the PACS programme lay in the

collectivisation of efforts in order to increase the

bargaining power of people and help them put up a

unified front to access their rights. The focus on

mobilisation and organisation of people was a well-

thought-out strategy not only to increase the

legitimacy of the demands of the people but also to

tackle internalised discrimination and alienation in

villages. The mobilisation efforts begin by countering

entrenched discrimination in the homes of people and

the alienation of people within the community. This

move towards inclusion has changed the nature of

social interactions in many villages and has gradually

blurred the lines between communities, castes and

even genders. With this level of inclusiveness achieved

through establishing a common coalescing point

between communities, the formation of collectives

has become easier. Thus, the first legacy of the PACs

programme through the formation of collectives has

been the increased confidence among marginalised

communities like SCs, STs and women. This process of

empowerment has happened through the balance of

ascribed power by providing the power of information

and through a support structure provided by the

community, the CSO partner and the PACS team. The

struggle to reach above one's immediate personal

identity was bypassed by a different process marked

by discussion and repeated engagement. There is still a

long way to go for this discrimination to be completely

resolved. For instance, even though the CBOs saw

large participation by women and many strong women

leaders, issues of autonomy and decision-making

within the household still remained the same in many

quarters. While some changes were experienced on a

larger scale, many changes were gradual and are still

unfolding. But the collectives have challenged the

status quo and have altered the way in which people

think and react to alienation and discrimination. This is

a legacy that can be drawn upon for many future

endeavours.

The CBOs have been at the heart of the PACS

interventions and have spearheaded the efforts in the

land domain. The collectives have been armed with

knowledge and skill sets to take on advocacy on land,

but the capacity building efforts have not been limited

to that. The members and leaders of the CBOs are well

acquainted with the rights-based discourse, their

entitlements under various laws and the overall

administrative structure. The collectives have been

organised at various levels like the village, block and

district and there have been regular meetings, action

plans and sustained advocacy efforts at every level.

Apart from this, federations like the Prayatna Manch

have been formed, which is a larger alliance of PACS

and non-PACS partners working on issues beyond the

scope of land rights. In effect, these coalitions and

collectives can be considered to be a capacitated,

motivated and engaged critical mass of people who

can easily be used for the cause of greater

accountability in governance. These collectives have

already been organised and have crossed the basic

threshold of competence that is required by many

government and non-government organisations to

scale up their activities. A level of trust has been

established with these organisations and people

through the work of PACS and this competence and

trust together can be capitalised upon to take forward

the work on de-centralised governance, rights-based

advocacy, community-based monitoring and

accountability.

The fourth legacy of the PACS programme is the

emergence of strong leaders from within the

community. The land-based work in most states has

successfully mainstreamed the issue of gender,

bringing the issue of joint titling of land and

recognition of women farmers to the forefront.

Because of the crucial significance accorded to

women in the process of land rights and entitlements,

it became important to develop leadership skills

among women and include more women in CBOs. This

meant addressing their internalised fears and

concerns that did not allow them to take up leadership

positions.

56

Acrucial strength of this programme has been the number of women from marginalised backgrounds who have ventured out of their houses for the first time and took up their concerns with the government. Empowered and vocal women are not an end in themselves in making inclusion a reality, but are a means to healthier, more educated, more responsive and more inclusive households. Their strength of purpose, newly discovered confidence and the increased level of awareness about governance and legal entitlements could be optimally used for further initiatives. The strategy is not just suited for replication in similar land-basedprogrammes but also for programmes in the rights-based domain.

Apart from the women leadership that has emerged, the CSO partners have gone through a clear change of direction during this programme. Through discussions, engagement and advocacy, they have become leaders in their own right, gaining the trust of the community and effectively managing their organisation without compromising, even for an instant, on the larger goal. The PACS programme identified the need to make these organisations sustainable so that their expertise in the domain of specific rights was not impeded by a lack of ability or competence to generate funds for the necessary work. The capacity building efforts focused on both increasing legal awareness and domain expertise while equipping them with knowledge on financial management, MIS management, HR management, etc. All the organisations were supported to set up and maintain their own websites in order to give more visibility to their work; their commitment to work was never derailed by lack of funds. These organisations are a gateway into the community; they have closely worked with the community, handled their concerns and cultivated local leadership. There are frontline workers who lead women support centres in Odisha and even community resource persons who have been encouraged by the CSOs. Apart from this, community leaders are now venturing into local self-government beyond the realm of simple CSO activism, which further strengthens the impact of the PACS initiative.

“There is definitely some concern about the road ahead

now that the PACS programme has ended. But the

commitment among the people will make sure that

resources will never be an impediment to good work. This

programme is ending but what is going to be taken

forward by the people is not just experience but hope.”

Rajkumar Bidla, Head of Programmes, PACS

The District Collector, Gaya (Bihar) was aware of PACS

initiatives on homestead land and appreciated PACS

support on the issue. The District Collector was

instrumental in scaling it across the whole district in

mission mode to ensure everyone entitled to

homestead land was given the necessary title papers in

a time-bound manner. This is just one of the examples

of how government initiative and responsiveness was

increased through sustained engagement by the PACS

programme.

57

The most significant legacy of the PACS programme in the domain of land is definitely the strides made in engagement with the government. The formation of the Land Reforms Core Committee in Bihar is a perfect example of the outcome of a sustained process of engagement. This collaboration between CSOs, including both PACS and non-PACS partners,and the government is a landmark, showing that the government can be responsive and that a collaborative effort can be institutionalised. The formation of this committee has led to some exemplary policy-leveladvocacy, which has led to initiatives like Operation Dakhal Dhyani and Operation Basera. The Core Committee has also paved the way for civil society to play an active role in deliberating on the Right to Homestead Bill and gave it an impetus through legislative corridors. But it is not just the Land Reforms Core Committee but smaller steps like engaging with the local administration, capacity building of revenue officials, building rapport with Lekhpals, reaching out to agricultural extension

OPPORTUNITIES FOR THE FUTURE

officers, collectors etc. that has cleared the way for taking forward many efforts with the government. The programme, through sustained efforts at discussion and engagement with the government, has been able to get not just their attention but also their trust, and has in many ways acted as a bridge between the people and the government. The programme has been able to make the government responsive to the demands of the people and, though it is in many ways dependent on the people in power, there has been a shift in the attitude of people. Several CBO leaders in the Inclusion Utsavs talked about the visibility of their villages and even the recognition of some villages as 'PACS villages'. The legacy of the PACS programme is this space created and this recognition of the value of the work done by PACS partners. This needs to be both cultivated and nurtured in the future so as to develop this relationship and expand into areas of work beyond the domains where PACS has been working in this phase.

The DfID-funded PACS programme has left a legacy of work that has been validated and recognised by the government, of trust and motivation within the community and, importantly, of an aware, confident and organised group of people.The goal of bridging the gap between the government and marginalised people has seen major returns in many quarters and at the end of four years there has been much more space created for engagement with the government.But much more is left to be done and, like any process of social change, the goals are still at a distance. The focus of the PACS work on land was the realisation of land rights through ownership and possession of land based on legal entitlements. While there has been substantial change on that front, the sheer number of homeless people in the PACS operational states speaks for the momentous work that still needs to be done. The work on securing agricultural land has not scaled up as envisaged because agricultural land is more intrinsically linked to livelihood and thus feudal remnants have a strong grip over it. With the end of the PACS programme, it is an appropriate time to channelise the work done through this phase and re-package it to meet the demands of the changing times.

58

The best way to repackage the rights-based work on

land can be drawn from some of the past work of

PACS. The move could be towards holistically linking

land with livelihoods and working towards not just

securing land ownership and possession but also

ensuring that community members are well trained

and supported to draw economic benefits from this

land. The PACS programme moved towards this model

and has also realised that this is a way forward in the

future. The organised collectives in villages across the

seven states and the governments could be engaged

as partners to help build programmes that impart

multiple skill sets to people to work on land in a

sustainable and environment-friendly manner. By

linking land rights to sustainable agriculture and

climate change, the focus will not just remain on land

but also converge with food security and improved

nutrition for families with greater economic freedom.

The legacy of the PACS programme can be drawn upon

to work on the first two Sustainable Development

Goals by a continued focus on land, not just through

the lens of ownership but also through a focus on

livelihood generation.

The following SDGs can underlie the work that could

be attempted in the future because the basic

framework and foundation for achieving these goals

has been laid down through the PACS programme.

SDG 1- End poverty in all its forms everywhere

SDG 2- End hunger, improve food security and

improved nutrition and promote sustainable

agriculture

SDG 5- Achieve gender equality and empower all

women and girls

Corporate Social Responsibility

While repackaging the work in the rights domain,

there is not merely a need to look at the government

as an ally but also to reflect upon and acknowledge the

role of the market in the social development space.

With the introduction of the Corporate Social

Responsibility Act in 2013, there are more resources at

the disposal of civil society to do meaningful work.

While there is usually a reluctance to fund rights-

based work, there is a need to capitalise on this huge

opportunity and work out a plan of action to

meaningfully engage with the corporates to work

towards resolving contentious issues of land. Speaking

at the Inclusion Utsav in Odisha, the Director, Not-for-

Profit, Grant Thornton India, Mr. Vikas Gambhir said,

“Companies are increasing the funds committed to

CSOs, although the number of CSOs working with

them is less. However, a trust deficit is there when it

comes to CSOs. Companies find it difficult to trust the

CSOs. There needs to be very clear demonstration of

the capacity of governance and financial handling.”

The painstaking process of capacity building of the

CSOs with knowledge provided on financial

management, HR management, MIS management

etc. is a huge asset base that organisations could

benefit from through association. Apart from these

management-based skills, the PACS programme has

been able to build the social capital of a large number

of partners, which could be used by the corporate

firms to enable a process of engagement with the

communities. Avenues like the Land Reforms Core

59

Livelihood Convergence Programmes insync with sustainable development goals

Committee could be institutionalised by rising above

entrenched negative views of engaging with the state.

A space could be created, leaving behind the usual

scepticism, and an effective alliance with the state

could be created. There is no reason to believe that

this cannot be attempted with the corporate sector

and a meaningful and mutually beneficial

engagement can be achieved in the domain of land

and livelihood.

One major work in this phase on the issue of land

concerned joint titling of land or securing land

ownership for women. Evidence shows that women

getting ownership over land translates into personal

and community-based empowerment. But the real

economic benefits of this have yet to be studied. In

order to push for a policy-level change, there is a need

to thoroughly document social and economic changes

at the level of the individual, the household and the

community through women's ownership of land.

There are still several legal and social issues such as

inheritance of land, decision-making with regards to

land, control of the asset base and maintaining the

earnings from the land that need to be studied from a

gendered perspective in order to push for any policy-

level change. There is a need to work towards securing

women's rights over land and access to livelihood

opportunities through a thorough investigation into

the current status in order to design a strategy for the

future.

Several initiatives could be tried out to increase the

actual access and ownership of women on land by

creating alternative institutions to cultivate land.

Some of the approaches include joint cultivation,

group ownership, group cultivation, group leasing,

cultivation management programmes and training

programmes. These efforts could go a long way in

addressing gender inequality in land access,

ownership and management.

“For the first time in Bihar, I can see some sort of congregation among government officials, NGOs and political organisations. The PACS-aided organisations should not abruptly withdraw from their work. Core committees should be formed at the district and the block levels and these committees should be institutionalised so that CSO and CBO members get stability, support and confidence. This institutionalisation will take place only with legal and administrative support and provisions should be made for the same in the Land Bill itself.”

Prof. K.B Saxena, Former Union Secretary, Government of India

Addressing gender inequality in issues of land

60

The best and most sustainable way of making a lasting

impact through the organised and skilled collectives

formed at various levels is through their gradual

absorption into various government programmes.

There are many rights-basedprogrammes in operation

today that have aspects of decentralised planning,

management and monitoring. While the role of the

Gram Panchayat and Gram Sabha in all these schemes

is clearly elucidated, there is no attempt to capacitate

people to take on these multiple roles and thus realise

the goal of decentralised governance. The trained

collectives empowered through the PACS programme

are well suited for these roles and in some quarters,

especially in the domain of forest rights, have already

taken up such roles. There could be further work on

enabling community members to seamlessly get into

these roles while retaining their critical focus on

transparency and accountability. This would also

require advocacy with the governments to adequately

integrate PACS beneficiaries into such roles and have

well thought-out plans to keep improving their skills

and resolving their concerns.

Apart from this, there are mandatory and

discretionary land management roles of Panchayats

that differ from state to state. The collectives formed

by PACS at various levels could take on the role of

scrutiny of these land management issues. PACS

expertise in capacity building and training on land

issues could be used to draw up more specific

programmes on training Panchayat officials to

dispense these responsibilities.

IN SUMMATION

In every Inclusion Utsav in the PACS states, there is

some buzz about what happens next and where the

road leads.The end of the familiar, the known, the safe

space is troubling. But it is liberating at the same time.

The PACS programme has meant many things to many

people. From finding their voice, to owning their land,

to experiencing power for the very first time, to having

a real and breathing hope for the futureit has carried

together a lot of smaller individual aspirations with a

larger societal goal. The end therefore seems

unsettling to many. But the moment of fear, of

scepticism does not last long. In the course of these

four years, collective hope has steeled resolves and

there seems no time to wait. There are ideas in every

mind that need to be spoken out loudly, there are new

plans to be charted, new alliances to be made and a

new journey that must begin. The PACS team, CSO

partners and CBO members at the end of such

celebrations break into an impromptu song and dance.

It is then thatthe mood and the spirit of the

programme is palpable. There is less sadness of seeing

something end but more excitement about seeing

something new begin. There will be no friends lost,

there will be no slackening of pace, there will be no

going back to the place where one started. The journey

still continues.

61

EMPOWERING GRAM PANCHAYATS AND DECENTRALISED GOVERNANCE:

Annexure

List of organizations who were engaged through consultations and field visits:

List Of CSO's Working on Land rights

State CSO

Bihar Deshkal Society

Bihar Pragati Grameen Vikas Samity

Bihar Samagra Shikshan Evam Vikas Sansthan

Chhattisgarh Prayog Samaj Sevi Sanstha

Chhattisgarh Rachna Manch

Jharkhand Lok Chirag Sewa Sansthan

Jharkhand Shramajivi Mahila Samity

Madhya Pradesh Ekta Foundation Trust

Madhya Pradesh Jan Sahas Social Development Society

Madhya Pradesh Mahatma Gandhi Seva Ashram

Madhya Pradesh Navrachna Samaj Sevi Sansthan (NRSSS)

Odisha Centre for World Solidarity (CWS)

Odisha Institute of Social Sciences

Odisha Janasahajya

Odisha Society for Promoting Rural Education and Development (SPREAD)

Odisha Society for Welfare, Animation and Development (SWAD)

Odisha Visionaries of Creative Action for Liberation and Progress (VICALP)

Uttar Pradesh Gorakhpur Environmental Action Group (lead)

Uttar Pradesh Panchsheel Development Trust

Uttar Pradesh Prayatna Foundation

62