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ILC's National Engagement Strategy
NES Promoting people centred land governance
INDIA
International Land Coalition Secretariat at IFAD Via Paolo di Dono, 44 , 00142 - Rome, Italy
tel. +39 06 5459 2445 fax +39 06 5459 3445 [email protected] | www.landcoalition.org
ILC Mission
A global alliance of civil society and intergovernmental organisations working together to
promote secure and equitable access to and control over land for poor women and men.
ILC Vision
Secure and equitable access to and control over land reduces poverty and contributes to
identity, dignity, and inclusion.
Ekta Parishad (Mahatma Gandhi Sewa Ashram)Mr. Ajoy Chaudhuri, www.ektaparishad.com
South Asia Rural Reconstruction Association (SARRA)Ms. Rohini Reddy, [email protected]
Foundation for Ecological Security (FES)Mr. Jagdeesh Puppala, http://fes.org.in
Jan Kalyan Sansthan (JKS)Mr. Ram Bhuwan, [email protected]
Maladhari Rural Action Group (MARAG)Ms. Monikka Agarwal, [email protected]
Vanvasi Seva Kendra (VSK)Dr. Sadanand Rai, [email protected]
Society for Development of Drought Prone Area (SDDPA)Mr. Stephen Livera, [email protected]
Social Development Foundation (SDF)Mr. Vidya Bhushan Rawat, [email protected]
BJSA Bharatiya Jan Sewa Ashram (BJSA)Mr. Daulat Ram; [email protected]
SWADHINAMs. Saswati Roy, www.swadhina.org.in
The contents of this work may be freely reproduced, translated, and distributed provided that
attribution is given to the International Land Coalition, and the article’s authors and organisation.
Unless otherwise noted, this work may not be utilised for commercial purposes.
For more information, please contact [email protected]
or go to http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0
Edited by David Wilson. Design by Federico Pinci.
Printed on recycled/FSC paper.
ILC is a membership-based network, opinions expressed in this document are the result of
a national multi-stakeholder process and therefore its contents can in no way be taken to
refl ect the offi cial views and/or position of ILC, its members or donors. The ILC Secretariat
would appreciate receiving copies of any publication using this study as a source at
ISBN: 978-92-95105-15-7
ILC wishes to thank the following donors, whose support made this research possible:
The National Engagement Strategies
The concept: what is a NES?In recent years, equitable access to land, particularly in rural areas, has been high on the
international policy agenda and is recognised as a crucial element attributing to sustainable
development and poverty reduction. Innovative and progressive land policies and laws,
particularly at the national level, are key to determining equitable access to, use of, and
control over land and other natural resources.
The National Engagement Strategy (NES) is the first step of an approach being promoted by
the International Land Coalition at country level, in order to create conditions for inclusive and people-centred land-related policy change. Jointly formulated and co-owned by
ILC members and other relevant actors at national level, the NES itself is a framework
for identifying key priority areas on which land-concerned actors see opportunities for
catalysing change, either at the level of policy formulation or at the level of implementing
existing progressive policies. The NES process also involves the establishment of a multi-
stakeholder platform that accompanies the implementation of the NES, and makes
necessary adjustments on the basis of lessons learned. A NES process is therefore aimed at
facilitating collaborative and coordinated action amongst different stakeholders involved
with land at the national level to promote people-centred land governance. Through these
NES processes, opportunities are increasingly made available to national civil society actors
to collaborate among themselves and with international actors, both governmental and
non-governmental, and to engage with local and national governments.
Why a NES?Political will is a fundamental prerequisite for addressing inequalities in land access and
fighting poverty. However, the effective development and implementation of policies,
laws and institutional frameworks requires the inclusion of a wide range of actors working
together and sharing different perspectives and expertise.
A NES arises in recognition of this reality; that corrections in land inequalities, in favour
of poor and marginalised groups, are more effectively achieved through the collaborative
and coordinated efforts of multiple actors, rather than adopting overlapping or even
confrontational approaches.
Experience has proven that NES processes have strengthened partnerships and the
mutual recognition of diverse actors, producing a momentum for improved land rights. By
fundamentally changing the quality of interaction between CSOs and Governments, NES
processes have helped increase the political weight of civil society and vulnerable groups,
shifting perspectives of Governments to see CSOs as credible sources of knowledge and
experts on land related matters. National use of international instruments, such as the
VGGTs and F&Gs have also fostered improvements in collaborations, as well as promoting a
stronger focus on women’s land rights and gender justice.
How?A NES is developed in two phases, the first being formulation, and the second being actual
implementation of the strategy.
The formulation phase of the NES is carried out through regional and national multi-
stakeholder consultations and workshops, where participants – identified amongst the key
national players – identify priorities, potential synergies and agree on joint actions to be
undertaken resulting in an action plan that will guide the implementation phase of the NES
for the following years.
Who?While national civil society members of ILC represent the starting point and main promoters
of NES during their initial stages, NES are to be considered open and living processes for
knowledge production and sharing, policy dialogue and coordinated action, and are
therefore open to any civil society, public or private land actor willing to participate and
contribute to working towards a united goal, that is: the realisation of people-centred
land governance.
Contents
Executive summary 7Introduction 9Formulation of the NES in India 10
Challenges relating to land and resource, legal, and policy issues 11Comprehensive land reforms 12
Forest rights 13
Commons/pastoralism 14
Commercial pressures on land 14
Land and livelihoods 15
Women’s land rights 16
Analysis of land stakeholders 17National and state governments 17
Land purchase 17
Vested land allocation 18
IAY land purchase scheme 18
Implementation of forest rights 18
Bilateral and multilateral agencies 19
International organisations in India 19
Civil society 20
ILC members in India 21
Strategic action plan for NES 23Comprehensive land reform 23
Forest rights 24
Pastoralism/commons 24
Commercial pressures on land (CPL) 25
Land and livelihoods 25
Women’s land rights 26
Timeline and delivery of proposed activities 26
AcronymsBJSA Bharatiya Jan Sewa Ashram
BPL Below Poverty Line
CBO Community-based organisation
CSO Civil society organisation
CRP Community resource person
DFID Department for International Development (UK)
DOR Department of Revenue
EC European Commission
FAITH Food Always In The Home
FAO UN Food and Agriculture Organization
FCA Forest Conservation Act
FDC Forest Development Corporation
FES Foundation for Ecological Security
FPIC Free, prior, and informed consent
FRA Forest Rights Act
GP Gram Panchayat
HSA Hindu Succession Act
IAY Indira Awaas Yojana
IFAD International Fund for Agricultural Development
IKP Indira Kranthi Patham
ILC International Land Coalition
IP Indigenous peoples
JKSS JanKalyan Samajik Sansthan
NES National Engagement Strategy
NGO Non-governmental organisation
NREGA National Rural Employment Guarantee Act
NSSO National Sample Survey Office
NTFP Non-timber forest product
PACS Poorest Area Civil Society programme
PESA Panchayats (Extension to Scheduled Areas) Act
PO Producer organisation
PRI Panchayati Raj Institution
RDI Rural Development Institute
RGRHCL Rajiv Gandhi Rural Housing Corporation Limited
RoR Record of Right
SARRA South Asian Rural Reconstruction Association
SC Scheduled Caste
SDDPA Society for Development of Drought Prone Area
SDF Social Development Foundation
SHG Self-Help Group
ST Scheduled Tribe
VSK Vanvasi Seva Kendra
WGWLO Working Group for Women and Land Ownership
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Executive summary
Land issues in India are extremely complex as land falls under the jurisdiction of individual states
or provinces, whose practices differ widely, and a wide variety of stakeholders are involved.
In April 2012 Indian members of the International Land Coalition (ILC) came together to
begin the process of formulating a National Engagement Strategy (NES), in partnership
with the Landesa Rural Development Institute (RDI). A national-level meeting was followed
by a series of workshops, which involved a range of participants, including community
organisations, networks representing women and minorities, government representatives,
and international agencies.
Institutions that govern land, markets, and society in India face challenges affecting poor
rural communities that involve a combination of systemic legal and institutional failures. The
key land challenges identified at the NES workshops included comprehensive land reforms;
forest rights; commons/pastoralism; commercial pressures on land; land and livelihoods;
and women’s land rights.
Land reform in India remains much to be achieved. Millions of households have no access
to land, and the number is rising. Some state governments have introduced land purchase
and allocation programmes for landless families, and the central government has a social
welfare programme that provides housing for the rural poor, but none of these schemes
provide adequate any legal protection. Land currently held by powerful vested interests
could be recovered to be redistributed to landless families.
For forest-dwelling communities – many of whom are Scheduled Tribes or indigenous
peoples (IPs) – the Forest Rights Act (FRA) of 2006 was a landmark reform that gave them
individual and community rights over forest land and produce. However, implementation
remains a challenge and, despite attempts to devolve local government, such communities
are often left behind in terms of development. The story is similar for common resources
(land, water, and forests), where there is no clear jurisdiction or policy, and common land is
increasingly being encroached upon.
Large-scale land acquisitions for commercial purposes are another pressing problem.
The recently introduced Land Acquisition Amendment Bill has given rural communities a
number of new protections, which are to be welcomed, but significant loopholes remain
concerning land acquisitions by private investors or by actors acting in the name of the
“public good”.
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IA The livelihoods of IP communities are often at risk because they lack legal protection and
adequate documentation of their land ownership. Women’s land rights are also limited,
particularly property rights in marriage.
National and state governments have made attempts to address land issues. Some states
have introduced land purchase programmes with the aim of distributing land to the poor,
with some degree of success, while others have initiated rural housing schemes. However,
the main challenge remains a lack of resources. Meanwhile, a number of international
agencies and NGOs are working on land issues in India from the perspectives of the poor
and marginalised, along with Indian CSOs and individuals, including the members of ILC.
All these stakeholders were represented in the 2012 workshops held to formulate the NES.
As well as detailing these organisations and their concerns, this paper lays out the strategic
action plan that was agreed for implementation of the NES. The plan is based on three
general objectives: (i) to engage in a multi-stakeholder platform of ILC members for advocacy
and knowledge exchange; (ii) to review and support the implementation and enforcement
of existing land and related laws and reforms; and (iii) to engage in the formulation of land
and related laws and reforms when opportunities are available, and for which members
have capacities.
Under each of these general objectives, a number of specific objectives and activities are
described in the areas of comprehensive land reform, forest rights, pastoralism/commons,
commercial pressures on land, and land and livelihoods. Gender is treated as a cross-cutting
issue throughout, and all activities will attempt to ensure the participation of both women
and men at the grassroots level.
To achieve the plan’s goals, the Indian members of ILC will work closely together, deepening
their engagement with each other and, it is hoped, leading to wider contact with a greater
range of stakeholders.
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Introduction
Over the past decade, factors such as large-scale land acquisitions for industry and mining,
multinational investment in farmlands, international food crises, spiralling food price
inflation, competing demands from biofuels, challenges emanating from climate change,
and people’s struggles for access to land and forests in many countries across the globe
have refocused attention on the issue of land.1 The climate of policy and governance has
altered radically over the past two decades, including the emergence of international
development agencies, strong civil societies within and beyond national borders, farmers’
organisations in many countries, and aggressive market forces that play a more critical role
in shaping the agenda of the future.
The International Land Coalition (ILC) is a global network of civil society organisations (CSOs),
farmers’ organisations, intergovernmental organisations, and research institutions working
on land issues to address the concerns of poor and marginalised people. ILC recognises
the need to build strong civil society voices and wider engagement with states and with
markets on the issue of land. To aid this effort, a clearer understanding of land governance
structures, legal and policy challenges, current capacities of ILC members, and the scope
of future engagement are required to structure the Coalition’s work on land and related
resource issues in India.
The need for a National Engagement Strategy (NES) for India arises out of this context. This
NES paper is country-specific, but it continues ILC’s core mission of focusing on the poor
and marginalised in order to create a stronger civil society voice, generate empowering
knowledge, and deepen engagement in influencing land policy and governance systems
both nationally and globally.
1 ILC Strategic Framework 2011–2015.
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Formulation of the NES in India
In order to establish an appropriate process for delineating a National Engagement Strategy
(NES) in India, the Indian members of ILC met on 27 April 2012. Land issues in India are extremely
complex as land falls under the jurisdiction of individual states or provinces, and there is a huge
diversity in their practices. Further, there are many other players working on different aspects
of land issues whose perspectives and experience would be necessary for the formulation of
the strategy. Therefore, in order to capture the complexity and diversity of the issues involved
and to ensure the participation of a wide range of actors, it was decided that ILC India
members would partner with the Landesa Rural Development Institute (RDI), an international
organisation working on research, advocacy, demonstration projects, and large-scale impact, to
help formulate the strategy. This meeting was followed by two regional workshops, one in the
north of India and one in the south, to discuss land-related challenges, and then a national-level
workshop was conducted to prioritise the issues that would be focused on in the NES.
Participants in the discussions included a range of stakeholders, among them community-
based organisations (CBOs), women’s networks, academics, policy-makers, international
agencies, government representatives, activist organisations, and identity-based networks
such as those representing Dalits and Scheduled Tribes (STs). The Indian members of ILC
participated actively in formulating the NES. In the formulation process, it was noted that
these members work at different levels – at community, district, provincial, and national
levels – and there were difficulties in coordinating a workable action plan due to the physical
distance between members’ working areas. Such challenges informed the components and
activities that were finally decided by ILC members as part of the strategy.
At the initial stage, members hoped to begin exchanging their knowledge and experience
through various activities and to work closely on a concerted basis with different levels of
government in the formulation and implementation of national land and related laws and
policies. Before the NES was conceived, ILC India members had at best only minimal interaction
with one another. Following this initial year, however, members are aiming to increase the
visibility and reach of their work by further engaging with other interested stakeholders.
This strategy paper outlines the important challenges on land and related issues facing
ILC members in India, briefly analyses the main stakeholders who potentially can have an
impact in addressing those challenges, and then identifies what ILC members in India can
do in terms of working together to address some of these challenges.
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Challenges relating to land and resource, legal, and policy issues
This section provides a perspective on practical land governance challenges in India;
these challenges were discussed during the ILC NES formulation workshops. Information
gleaned from these workshops informed discussions on prioritising the issues that ILC India
members will attempt to work on.
Many of the challenges identified under each of these issues involve a combination of
systemic legal and institutional failures. Institutions that govern land, markets, and society
have fundamental weaknesses when it comes to addressing the land and property issues
that face poor rural women and men, STs, and Dalits. For example, the land administration
of revenue and forests has not been effective in addressing the control of forest ownership
by state and powerful private land owners. Likewise, there is no incentive to identify
constitutencies communities such as those who are landless or without a homestead,
tenants, single women, STs, and Dalits, who face multiple deprivations, including absolute
landlessness, illegal tenancy, land alienation of all kinds, and failure to implement land ceiling
laws. In addition, the logic of the market demands more land for industry, infrastructure, and
mines and thus leads to large-scale land acquisition by both the public and private sectors,
without just and adequate information or compensation. Furthermore, social institutions of
caste and patriarchy and their politics create and maintain social barriers against women,
Dalits, and ST communities, particularly in the ownership of land. Wider trends, such as
the atomisation of society and private ownership as opposed to communal custodianship,
leave even the traditional social institutions of village-managed commons vulnerable. The
institutional challenges are therefore fundamentally systemic, and are accentuated many
times over by existing legal frameworks.
These key land challenges are discussed in detail below. For the sake of clarity, the discussion
is divided into specific sections on comprehensive land reforms; forest rights; commons/
pastoralism; commercial pressures on land; land and livelihoods; and women’s land rights.
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IA Comprehensive land reformsLand (re)distribution, or land reform, has been a significant challenge in India. The country’s
land reform experience has largely been a failure, due to lack of political will, weak laws, and
even weaker enforcement. While between 15 million and 21 million acres of ceiling surplus
land are technically available, the actual performance on vesting and redistribution has
been far from satisfactory. So far, only 5.5 million households have received “surplus land”
amounting to 1.9 million hectares.
Weak political will to address absolute landlessness: Amidst the general failure of land
reform to distribute land to the poor, the increase in the number of absolutely landless
households across the country is alarming. Nearly 15 million households are absolutely
landless at present, and the number is rising.
Landless households are usually defined as those having less than one standard acre of
land, including homestead land. The basic issue with the adequacy of the legal framework
is that it hides or neglects the most vulnerable category, those who are absolutely landless.
The National Sample Survey Office (NSSO) identified absolutely landless households across
a number of states in its 2004–2005 survey of land and livestock holdings (59th Round), and
earlier in the 48th Round, providing a basis for input into policy. However, none of the states
have taken any particular action to change any part of their laws or policy. The legislation on
land ceilings and redistribution continues to define landlessness in the same way.
Lack of legal protection in government-led land allocation programmes: In 2005–2006
a number of state governments launched land purchase programmes and special land
allocation schemes for the absolutely landless. However, none of these programmes has
any legal protection. Later, in 2009, the central government designed a land purchase
programme for absolutely homesteadless households under the Indira Awaas Yojana
(IAY) social welfare programme, which provides housing for the rural poor, but again
this was not backed up by legislation. Similarly lacking in legal support are schemes
launched by several state governments since then to purchase homestead land for
absolutely landless people. All of these programmes have had the potential to invoke
and resurrect the Land Ceiling Act and the legal provisions it contained, but have failed
to do so due to a lack of political will.
Accordingly, a large part of the land technically “vested” and/or “redistributed” to the poor
is still not actually possessed by them. Such land either remains with erstwhile landlords, as
can be seen with a lot of Bhoodan lands, or is in the possession of powerful local individuals.
A critical challenge is to make the state work to recover these lands and to hand over
possession of them to the landless, including the absolutely landless.
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IAForest rightsNatural forests are an important part of the biosphere and a vital instrument in maintaining
life on earth. Historically, tribal or indigenous peoples (IPs) and other forest dwellers have
lived naturally in such areas. However, ever since forests came under state management,
there has been a shift from conservation of forest ecosystems and tribal people’s ways of life
to a market-driven approach of acquiring and divesting forest resources, without adopting
adequate conservation practices.
To address this situation, the framework of forest governance began to change with joint
forest management in the 1990s and, later, the Forest Rights Act (FRA) of 2006. This was a
landmark reform that acknowledged the historical wrongs suffered by forest dwellers and
recognised their rights as an integral part of forest management. The FRA provides forest
dwellers with individual rights, community rights over forest land, and the right to manage
minor forest produce.
Difficulties in implementing the FRA: The systemic challenge lies in implementing the FRA
(2006), and there are several specific challenges that are impeding progress. Chief among
them, community rights are not recognised; non-tribal people living in forest areas have to
prove residency for at least 75 years, in effect making them the new landless; and even the
extent of the land area claimed by tribal communities has not been agreed upon. Moreover,
the management of forest produce by forest dwellers comes into direct conflict with the
existing control of these assets by Forest Development Corporations (FDCs).
The FRA 2006 also conflicts with two other pieces of legislation relating to forests, the
Forest (Conservation) Act (FCA), 1980 and the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972. These two acts
essentially consider human beings as intruders in forest areas, and seek their relocation.
Lack of local land governance capacity: The Panchayats (Extension to Scheduled Areas)
Act of 1996 (PESA) poses another challenge. The law was introduced to enable Gram Sabhas
(local governments) to govern their own resources in areas where the ST population is
significant, and many of these areas are natural forests. PESA provides for strong Gram Sabha
supervision of these lands, but in practice these bodies lack capacity and the states’ efforts
to lease these lands out for mining often violate PESA norms. Resistance by the political
class and state bureaucracy to extending decentralisation also aggravate the challenges
involved in implementing PESA.
A legal framework that leads to development deficits: Another challenge inherent in
the legal framework is that the jurisdiction of the Panchayati Raj (local assembly) and
Development Block administration of local government does not cover forest areas.
This means that residents of forest areas cannot access any of the development or social
security support offered by the Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRI) or Development Block
administration. Typically, those dwelling in reserve forests are unable to access rural
housing under the IAY scheme, old age or widows’ pensions, work under the National Rural
Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA), and many other supports. Such factors contribute to
a development deficit in forest areas.
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IA Commons/pastoralismCommons are traditionally a village-managed resource (land, water, or forests) that provide
households with fuel, fodder, water, food (such as fruit), and grazing. Around 70 million
hectares of land in India are classed as commons, and between 48% and 75% of the rural
population depend on commons in one way or another.2
No clear institutional jurisdiction over commons: Jurisdiction over commons differs, with
pasture land vested with the Gram Panchayats and revenue wasteland under the custody
of the Revenue Department. As traditional village norms are fast eroding, institutional
protection of the commons is also weakening and as a result commons are increasingly being
encroached upon by the rich and powerful, poor land users, and even state institutions. The
biggest losers are women, as they use the commons much more than men to discharge their
domestic duties, as has been shown by numerous studies. While decentralisation of powers
and functions to the Panchayat Raj may be one systemic answer, there is no commons policy
that gives the panchayats a clear mandate on their responsibilities.
New policy on commons may not be effective enough: In October 2011, in a landmark
case for the legal framework governing the management of commons, the Supreme Court
ruled in the case of Jaspal Singh & Others vs. the State of Punjab (under section 22) that all
states must prepare schemes for the eviction of illegal or unauthorised occupants of Gram
Sabha/Gram Panchayat/Poramboke/Shamlat land and that these lands must be restored to
the Gram Sabha/Gram Panchayat for the common use of villagers. In line with the Supreme
Court ruling, state governments and their High Courts and lower courts have issued orders
for safeguarding the commons.
The Government of Rajasthan was the first state government to prepare a draft policy on
commons land, which places responsibility for identifying, developing, and managing
commons entirely with the Gram Panchayats and Gram Sabhas. One significant part of
its policy was to identify a grazing area of one-eighth of a hectare per head of livestock
for common land, implying that larger areas must be identified for grazing to match the
increase in livestock numbers over the years.
Commercial pressures on landLand acquisition is a widely debated topic in India. For the past five years, the legal
framework governing land acquisition has been discussed from multiple perspectives,
and recently the Land Acquisition Amendment Bill was passed in Parliament. This came
with increased recognition that the existing law of 1894, amended in 1950, was grossly
inadequate to address the new realities whereby development has to acknowledge human
rights, justice, and sustainability.
The new bill offers improvements but challenges to be addressed: For the purposes of
the NES, the new law has brought many improvements over the past, but challenges still
remain. Among its benefits, the bill provides a tool to CSOs, farmers’ organisations, and
2 M. Ajit and V.G. Ananda: “Common Property Resources in different agro climatic landscapes in India”, Conservation and
Society, Vol. 4, No. 1, March 2006.
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IAhuman rights groups, who hope that it will pave the way for fair compensation for farmers
whose land is acquired. A clause that requires approval by 70% of the people who face
losing their land is also to be welcomed.
However, while this clause is beneficial and the process for acquisition has been toughened,
the bill is problematic as it does not rule out complete acquisition altogether. In this regard,
partners have stated the importance of ensuring that farmers are not left landless, without
other livelihood options.
Additionally, questions remain over land acquisition for public use or benefit: for example,
for power plants (including nuclear), military projects such as army missile ranges,
railways, universities, national highways, and so on. Usually much more land is acquired
for such projects than is actually required. It is important to address this in potential future
amendments, as the bill is unclear on the acquisition of land in the name of the public
good. It is rare in such cases that free, prior, and informed consent (FPIC) is obtained from
the people affected.
Land and livelihoodsTribal (indingenous peoples–IP) communities have limited means to secure their livelihood rights: Due to pressures from powerful actors – such as land owners or
commercial enterprises – poor people are deprived of access to and control over land
either by policy, illegal or immoral practices, leading to the loss of livelihoods. Legislation
does exist to protect IPs against illegal or immoral land transactions that deprive them of
their land, but in many cases they do not have adequate paperwork to prove their claims.
For example, they may possess a title without possession, or possession without a title, and
at times there may be a mismatch between possession and titles in the Record of Right
(RoR). This has led to the creation of a new landless class by IPs being denied their forest
rights, with only the usual appeal procedures available to the poor.
The Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act 1989 has not
in any substantive way prevented the alienation of tribal land or the commensurate loss
of livelihoods. As for RoR or title corrections, the existing mechanisms are inefficient,
extremely bureaucratic, expensive, and unfriendly to the poor. This is coupled with
widespread ignorance about land matters among such populations, which is a
determinant of their alienation.
Infertility of land leads to loss of livelihoods: In some cases, land assigned to landless
people by the government is not fertile or productive. The overall health of the soil needs
to be improved to promote food security for poor and marginalised populations.
Ineffective implementation of NREGA: The National Rural Employment Guarantee Act,
designed to assist poor and marginalised individuals, faces a number of challenges including
lack of funds, local corruption, and other issues related to its effective implementation.
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IA Women’s land rightsThree legal areas need to be examined where women’s land rights are concerned: property
rights in marriage, inheritance of parental property, and farmers’ definitions of policies
and laws. Of these three, the succession laws have come closest to achieving the desired
condition, when women’s equal rights to all parental property were recognised through a
2005 amendment to the Hindu Succession Act (HSA) of 1956.
Women’s property rights following marriage are limited: Property rights for married
women remain an unresolved issue. Marriage does not give a woman any rights to her
husband’s property, including land.
Women farmers may have a greater guarantee of land rights under the Women Farmers’
Entitlement Bill 2011, which gives all woman married to farmers (including land owners,
sharecroppers, and labourers) blanket rights to their husbands’ agricultural land. The same
bill seeks to address another historical injustice by recognising women as farmers in their
own right and entitling them to all the agricultural support policies that hitherto have only
been available to men. However, enforcement mechanisms for such rights are weak, if they
exist at all.
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Analysis of land stakeholders
The sections above have briefly described the land scenario in India. The question therefore
is what is being done to address these challenges. This section briefly describes attempts by
different stakeholders to address the issues outlined above.
National and state governmentsThough there has been no radical political approach to land reform, national and state
governments have made a number of attempts to address issues relating to equity in land.
Land purchase
In 2005–2006 several state governments, including those of West Bengal, Andhra Pradesh,
Karnataka, and Bihar, introduced land purchase programmes with the aim of distributing
land to the poor. State governments purchased land in rural private land markets and
distributed it to poor farmers. Various approaches were applied:
» In Andhra Pradesh, the leadership of the Self-Help Group (SHG) Federation identified
land and beneficiaries and the Indira Kranthi Patham (IKP) programme then supported
them to buy the land.
» In West Bengal, staff of the Land Reforms Department, with informal assistance from the
Gram Panchayats, identified beneficiaries and land and then purchased and distributed
a cluster of land to absolutely landless families.
» Karnataka did almost the same as West Bengal, except that it purchased and distributed
both crop land and house plots.
These programmes showed some initial success and still continue, for example, in West
Bengal and Bihar. However, the challenge everywhere is the lack of resources. For example,
Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh have halted their programmes due to a lack of resources,
while West Bengal has recently tweaked its programme to revive vested land distribution.
In general, however, the potential of land purchase for distribution has not been fully
exploited. The main challenges lie in using Department of Revenue (DOR) staff to identify
appropriate land and beneficiaries and to manage programmes without corruption.
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IA Vested land allocation
Of India’s 15 million absolutely landless households, roughly 40% occupy public land and
are encroachers in the eyes of law. They may be residing, for example, on vested land,
objectionable land (which is not easily convertible), former forest land, river embankments
and lakesides, unused railway land, roadsides, river floodplains, or commons. It is possible
to identify these households and a good percentage of them can be settled on these
public lands without generating conflicts with the law. For instance, the government of
Odisha is conducting an exercise of this kind to settle absolutely landless households on
such lands. To overcome capacity challenges in the DOR, community resource persons
(CRPs) are employed to identify landless families and the area of land they are squatting on,
and then to assist Revenue officials to measure the land, process cases, and then provide
families with the patta, an official document of ownership for land distributed to the poor.
The identification and listing of beneficiaries and the measuring of land are done in a
transparent manner, and involve the community, to avoid social conflicts. This process has
the potential to be scaled up in many states and could be used to address the land issues
of the absolutely landless in a manner that avoids conflict.
IAY land purchase scheme
Indira Awaas Yojana, the Government of India’s rural housing scheme, provides house
allocation grants to women in poor households in the Below Poverty Line (BPL) category,
on condition that some land is available and is owned either by the woman, her husband,
or her in-laws. However, this conditionality has prevented millions of absolutely landless
households, arguably poorer than those who have land, from accessing the scheme’s
benefits. The Ministry of Rural Development, which administers the IAY scheme, realised
this deficiciency and in 2009 established an IAY land purchase fund with Rs. 1000 Crore
corpus. It asked state governments to identify suitable households and to buy 3 decimals of
land for them and provide housing grants through the IAY scheme.
Karnataka’s state government has established an innovative institution in the form of the
Rajiv Gandhi Rural Housing Corporation Limited (RGRHCL), which combines land purchase,
IAY grant allocation, and even the construction of houses on behalf of beneficiaries. The
RGRHCL works directly with PRIs to identify land and beneficiaries and then oversees the
construction of houses. This arrangement is working and has already provided nearly 50,000
households with land plots and houses.
Implementation of forest rights
By 31 March 2012, 3.2 million claims for forest rights had been received under the FRA
2006, of which 1.2 million had been recognised and accepted. The major constraints to
implementation are to do with forest departments that have been slow and reluctant to
implement the Act and in some cases obstructive. The Ministry of Tribal Affairs, the main
ministry responsible for implementing the FRA, captured this issue well in a notification
dated 12 July 2012, and has been categorical in pushing for implementation of the FRA
provisions. However, we will have to wait to see the impact of this on the ground.
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IABilateral and multilateral agenciesThe most valuable contribution made by international agencies such as UN Women,
the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the International Fund for Agricultural
Development (IFAD), and the World Bank has been, and continues to be, researching and
generating new knowledge on emerging issues and raising these in international forums. A
number of reports have been produced over the past decade on issues such as women and
land, the scope of land reform, and liberalisation of land leasing. Some organisations, such
as the European Commission (EC) and the UK’s Department for International Development
(DFID), have also supported work by CSOs that covers revenue and forest land issues in India.
International organisations in IndiaA number of international agencies were present at the national workshop in July 2012 and
presented their perspectives and engagement on land issues in India. Before looking at
each organisation in detail, a few general remarks are in order. These agencies tend to look
at land issues from the perspectives of the poor, in particular groups such as Dalits, tribal
communities, women, and other marginalised sections of society, and typically support
CSOs and CBOs in their work on land issues. They do not usually support government.
Their approach combines financial and technical support for civil action, capacity-building,
research, support for policy advocacy by partners, and networking between partner
organisations, academics, and others. Another important aspect of their work is to support
research and documentation that creates evidence for pro-poor policy change.
ActionAid India
ActionAid looks at land from the perspective of human rights, livelihoods, and political
power, with a focus on the poor, including tribal communities, Dalits, women, and other
marginalised communities. ActionAid’s strategic priority in India is to promote people’s
control over natural resources: land, water, forests, coastal areas, marine resources, minerals,
commons, and livelihoods. This it does by supporting all types of civil action by NGOs, CBOs,
social movements, and indigenous people’s movements. Its key promises are on women’s
land rights, sharecroppers’ rights on land, domestic workers, street vendors, and the land
rights of homeless people in urban areas. It works in three ways: partnership support to
CSOs, CBOs, and social movements; fellowship support to activist individuals; and assistance
in stakeholder dialogues with the state. It works through partners and fellows in Andhra
Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Bihar, Jharkhand, Odisha, Uttar Pradesh,
Madhya Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Rajasthan, Gujarat, and North-Eastern States. Its work covers
the thematic areas of the FRA 2006, Bhoodan land, commons, and the land and resource
rights of Dalits, women, coastal communities and sharecroppers.
Oxfam India
Oxfam India’s target constituency includes Muslim, tribal and Dalit communities, and women.
Its land rights work focuses on the implementation of the FRA 2006, women farmers’ access
to and control over land, land alienation, and land grabbing. This is done by supporting CSOs
and helping them to network with one another, and through direct advocacy on policies. In
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IA the area of policy advocacy, Oxfam is currently working on the Women Farmers’ Entitlement
Bill 2011 and the Mining and Mineral (Development and Regulation) Amendment Bill 2011
to ensure that both are robust enough to protect the interests of the poor. In addition, Oxfam
India supports women’s groups in Bihar, Odisha, Uttar Pradesh, and Uttarakhand to claim
their land rights, and works to strengthen the economic agency of women.
Christian Aid India
Christian Aid’s work in India is focused on reducing poverty, social exclusion, and social
inequality from the perspective of Dalits, tribal peoples, and women. Its approach is based
on strengthening civil action by its target constituency, and it supports CBOs, grassroots
social movements, and NGOs that work closely with Dalits, tribal communities, and women.
Christian Aid recognises that the struggle of tribal and Dalit people is centred mostly
on their identity and dignity, and that both these factors have the closest connection
with access to and control of land. Land rights are therefore a critical part of its agenda.
Christian Aid supports a large network of single women in Rajasthan and Gujarat who work
primarily on land and housing rights and also supports the work of the national Dalit Action
Forum and Ekta Parishad (an ILC member). In addition, it leads a consortium that runs the
DFID-supported Poorest Areas Civil Society (PACS) programme in seven northern states,
partnering with 90 CSOs that include land and forest rights in their programme agendas.
Landesa Rural Development Institute
The RDI’s focus is on land rights for the poorest, in particular women. It works with four state
governments – Andhra Pradesh, Odisha, Karnataka, and West Bengal – supporting them in the
implementation of homestead land purchases and land allocations, combined with livelihoods
packages and legal aid to resolve issues of land insecurity. Its programmes have clearly
established that it is possible to motivate state governments to work for the poor, provided that
research-based advocacy and demonstration are anchored within programme interventions.
At the national level, the RDI conducts research and advocacy on a number of land-related
issues such as larger homesteads, the liberalisation of land leasing, and women’s land rights.
Civil societyThe three workshops held at Lucknow, Tirupti, and New Delhi also provided a good
opportunity for those taking part to understand and capture what Indian CSOs are doing
on land rights. Participants included individuals, organisations, and networks involved in the
land-related issues, needs, and interests of poor and marginalised communities. Including
ILC members, there were participants from 10 states – Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Kerala,
West Bengal, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Jharkhand, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat, and
Odisha. Overall, there were five broad threads discernible in the work of the CSOs.
» People-based organisations – for and of the poor and marginalised, including Dalit and
tribal groups and their various associations and networks – have taken up land rights as
part of their agendas. Such organisations are mobilising to take civil action at the local,
regional, national, and international levels, depending on their individual capacity and
resources, and have succeeded in establishing dialogues with different stakeholders on
the land and forest rights agenda.
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IA » Women’s groups and networks are emerging with an agenda of women’s land rights.
Women appear to be strongly applying their own agency and creating their own
leadership, and are working with the land administration to advance these processes.
» Interesting innovations are emerging in community land mapping, community
paralegal work, and women’s land rights, which have potential for wider scale-
up. Community land mapping is being used with a number of purposes in mind:
identifying landless people, including women; finding available land for allocation;
identifying commons and areas of encroachmen; identifying land that can be used for
NREGA work, etc. Paralegals are being used to resolve problems of land insecurity. Ways
in which women’s agency is being demonstrated include women’s support centres,
associations for single women, and women’s networks working to sensitise Patwaris
and pushing the state to recruit female Revenue inspectors.
» It is indeed possible to work with the government on technical cooperation, as shown
by the experience of the RDI, the South Asia Rural Reconstruction Association (SARRA),
the Working Group for Women and Land Ownership (WGWLO), and the Foundation for
Ecological Studies (FES) in addressing issues of land insecurity, absolute landlessness,
and women’s rights.
» CSOs and NGOs have undertaken the task of promoting appropriate and sustainable
land, water, and forest development with community groups for local food and
livelihoods security.
The NES formulation process included engagement with these various stakeholders, but
there were also a number of challenges concerning what could be included within the
action plan under the strategy. For instance, as mentioned previously, the Indian members
of ILC had only minimal interaction with one another prior to the NES. Therefore, it was
decided that for the first stage of the NES, ILC members would attempt to deepen their
engagement with each other, exchanging knowledge and information, and work closely
in a concerted manner with different levels of government to support the formulation of
policy on land and related law and its implementation on the ground. It is hoped that such
engagement will lead to wider contact with a greater range of interested stakeholders. To
achieve this, the ILC members in India listed below will work together on the NES.
ILC members in IndiaThe Foundation for Ecological Security (FES) works towards the ecological restoration and
conservation of land and water resources in the uplands and other eco-fragile, degraded,
and marginalised zones of the country by putting in place coordinated processes of
governance. The FES works either directly or with and through a range of democratic
village institutions, their federal bodies, and CSOs, set up through initiatives that are
ecologically sustainable and socially and economically equitable, and which provide relief
to the poor in particular. Women are an important section of the community who depend
on common property and their involvement in institutions is important, and the FES works
towards ensuring this.
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IA Ekta Parishad is a social movement that aims to bring together an ever larger grouping
of poor people calling for reform and structural change. The structural change that Ekta
Parishad is calling for is a complete redistribution of land to enable the marginalised and
downtrodden to escape from poverty. The movement advocates for joint entitlement of
land property rights for women.
JanKalyan Samajik Sansthan (JKSS) stimulates processes of social change by organising
resource-poor communities through resource management, skills development, and
knowledge building.
Bharatiya Jan Sewa Ashram (BJSA), based in Uttar Pradesh, focuses on land entitlement
and ownership rights and the wage rights of women, with a special focus Dalit women’s
entitlement to the Patta.
MARAG works with pastoralists, with a focus on the formation of a just, dignified,
and equitable society (healthy, self-reliant, educated, and self-governed) through the
empowerment of marginalised communities and collective ownership of natural resources.
Vanvasi Seva Kendra (VSK) supports innovation in agriculture and irrigation. Its interventions
focus on the empowerment of women, land reform, and food security, through engagement
with communities and with 400 self-help groups (SHGs).
SARRA, with its focus on tribal rights, puts women at the centre of its interventions.
Initiatives have included strengthening women’s role and participation in local governance
and capacity-building for sustainable farming systems in partnership with traditional or
community leaders and women’s CBOs.
The Society for Development of Drought Prone Area (SDDPA) focuses on community
empowerment, poverty alleviation, and the documentation of land conflicts involving
women’s property rights through the formation of self-help groups which are federated at
the village and mandal level. These SHGs use their collective bargaining power to work with
policy-makers and government officials.
The Social Development Foundation (SDF) works on land rights and natural resource
management, especially for women and Dalit and tribal communities. SDF focuses on
mobilising women to claim their rights at local level, and has mobilised communities for
the formation of the Uttar Pradesh Land Alliance (UPLA). This network advocates for the
rights of women and organises training to build their leadership skills.
SWADHINA supports the empowerment of women for self-reliance through a number
of programmes: women’s empowerment (formation of groups, gender training, women’s
literacy); sustainable development (non-formal education, health, environmental
awareness, capacity- /institution-building); livelihood promotion (natural resource
management, income generation, market promotion, savings); and non-violence and social
empowerment (peace education, social awareness).
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Strategic action plan for NES
The previous sections have attempted to capture the processes of prioritising challenges on
land and related resource, legal, and policy issues, along with an analysis of the stakeholders
involved in these challenges. This same process of examination has provided a perspective
for the Indian members of ILC to locate the NES within the overall scope of the country’s
land discourse and within their own organisational mandates, priorities, and capacities.
To that end, the ILC NES for India has set out the following general objectives to be achieved:
» Engage in a multi-stakeholder platform of ILC members for advocacy
and knowledge exchange.
» Review and support the implementation and enforcement of existing land and related
laws and reforms in various states of India.
» Engage in the formulation of land and related laws and reforms in various states of India,
when opportunities are available, and for which members have capacities.
Accordingly, based on these general objectives, the following specific engagements by member
organisations have been set out for each of the identified issue areas.
Comprehensive land reform
Lead: Ekta Parishad (EP)
Partners: SDF, BJSA, JKSS » Participate in the comprehensive land reform process by systematically documenting
information/data on land ownership and utilisation status in selected areas and using
this information for advocacy/dialogue with state governments and Panchayats.
» Build awareness among communities on existing land laws and the proposed
comprehensive reform agenda and its processes.
» The villages, Panchayats, and Blocks to be engaged with under this plan are those
where ILC partners have been active over the years and where a good measure
of trust and organisational capacity already exists amongst poor, excluded, and
marginalised communities.
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IA Geographical area covered
No. Organisation State No. of districts No. of Blocks
No. of GPs
No. of villages
1 Ekta Parishad Madhya Pradesh 4 4 4 10
Bihar 2 2 2 6
Jharkhand 2 2 2 6
Odisha 2 2 2 6
Chhattisgarh 2 2 2 6
2 SDF Uttarakhand 2 2 2 6
3 JKSS Uttar Pradesh 1 1 1 3
4 BJSA Uttar Pradesh 1 1 1 3
TOTAL Coverage 7 16 16 16 46
Forest rights
Lead: FES
Partners: SARRA, SDDPA, VSK » Ensure the effective implementation of the Forest Rights Act (FRA) by explaining the
land and related resource rights of forest dwellers enshrined under the act through
district- or Block-level information sessions in forest communities (these information
sessions can form the basis for future policy dialogues).
Geographical area covered
No. Organisation State No. of districts No. of Blocks No. of GPs No. of villages
1 FES Orissa 3
2 SARRA Andhra Pradesh 1
3 SDDPA Telangana 4
4 VSK Bihar 1
TOTAL Coverage 4 4 1 0 4
Pastoralism/commons
Lead: MARAG
Partners: FES, SDDPA » Sensitise national, state, and local leaders on the needs and rights of communities on
pastures and commons.
» Lobby for more effective implementation of existing policies.
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IAGeographical area covered
No. Organisation State No. of districts No. of Blocks
No. of GPs No. of villages
1 MARAG Gujarat 8 16 320 320
Rajasthan 4 8 80 80
2 FES Rajasthan 4
3 SDDPA Telangana 1 5 10 10
TOTAL Coverage 3 17 29 410 410
Commercial pressures on land (CPL)
Indian members of ILC will work together to record violations of the land rights of poor and
marginalised communities due to commercial pressures on land, and will advocate through
policy, local campaigns, and training to promote awareness and actions in response.
Lead: SDF
Partners: MARAG, Ekta Parishad (EP) » Increase awareness of national large-scale land acquisitions undertaken without free,
prior, and informed consent (FPIC).
» Review existing policies and laws, and lobby for more effective formulation and
implementation of those policies.
Geographical area covered
No. Organisation State No. of districts No. of Blocks
No. of GPs No. of villages
1 SDF Uttarkhand
2 MARAG Gujarat 4 8 80 80
3 Ekta Parishad Madhya Pradesh
TOTAL Coverage 3
Land and livelihoods
Indian members of ILC will work together to improve land and related resource productivity
and support schemes in poor and marginalised communities in forest and rural areas to
ensure sustainable food security for their households.
Lead: SARRA
Partners: SDDPA, JKSS, BJSA, VSK, SWADHINA » Training sessions for women and men to gain access to government and other land
and livelihood schemes.
» Lobby for more effective implementation of existing policies.
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IA Geographical area covered
No. Organisation State No. of districts No. of Blocks
No. of GPs No. of villages
1 SARRA Andhra Pradesh 1
2 SDDPA Telangana 1 1 1 10
3 JKSS Uttar Pradesh 1 1 1 4
4 BJSA Uttar Pradesh 1 1 1 4
5 VSK Bihar 1 2 3 3
6 SWADHINA Jharkhand 2 2 2 4
TOTAL Coverage 6 7 5 6 25
Women’s land rights
ILC India members will work together on gender as a cross-cutting issue in their various
programmes and projects. Moreover, activities undertaken as part of the NES will attempt
to ensure the participation of both women and men at the grassroots level.
Additionally, SDF India aims to submit a Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of
Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) highlighting issues related to women’s land rights
in consultation with the NGO CEDAW Committee of India and other members, including
new ILC member SWADHINA.
Timeline and delivery of proposed activitiesBased on the strategic action plan set out in section 5, the following timeline and delivery
of proposed activities have been identified.
TimelineAll activites are planned to take place between November 2013 and September 2014.
DeliveryLead organisations have been identified for each of the five issue areas. These organisations
will serve as primary contacts and will coordinate between members for reporting, grants
submissions, and delivery.
The contents of this work may be freely reproduced, translated, and distributed provided that
attribution is given to the International Land Coalition, and the article’s authors and organisation.
Unless otherwise noted, this work may not be utilised for commercial purposes.
For more information, please contact [email protected]
or go to http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0
Edited by David Wilson. Design by Federico Pinci.
Printed on recycled/FSC paper.
ILC is a membership-based network, opinions expressed in this document are the result of
a national multi-stakeholder process and therefore its contents can in no way be taken to
refl ect the offi cial views and/or position of ILC, its members or donors. The ILC Secretariat
would appreciate receiving copies of any publication using this study as a source at
ISBN: 978-92-95105-15-7
ILC wishes to thank the following donors, whose support made this research possible:
ILC's National Engagement Strategy
NES Promoting people centred land governance
INDIA
International Land Coalition Secretariat at IFAD Via Paolo di Dono, 44 , 00142 - Rome, Italy
tel. +39 06 5459 2445 fax +39 06 5459 3445 [email protected] | www.landcoalition.org
ILC Mission
A global alliance of civil society and intergovernmental organisations working together to
promote secure and equitable access to and control over land for poor women and men.
ILC Vision
Secure and equitable access to and control over land reduces poverty and contributes to
identity, dignity, and inclusion.
Ekta Parishad (Mahatma Gandhi Sewa Ashram)Mr. Ajoy Chaudhuri, www.ektaparishad.com
South Asia Rural Reconstruction Association (SARRA)Ms. Rohini Reddy, [email protected]
Foundation for Ecological Security (FES)Mr. Jagdeesh Puppala, http://fes.org.in
Jan Kalyan Sansthan (JKS)Mr. Ram Bhuwan, [email protected]
Maladhari Rural Action Group (MARAG)Ms. Monikka Agarwal, [email protected]
Vanvasi Seva Kendra (VSK)Dr. Sadanand Rai, [email protected]
Society for Development of Drought Prone Area (SDDPA)Mr. Stephen Livera, [email protected]
Social Development Foundation (SDF)Mr. Vidya Bhushan Rawat, [email protected]
BJSA Bharatiya Jan Sewa Ashram (BJSA)Mr. Daulat Ram; [email protected]
SWADHINAMs. Saswati Roy, www.swadhina.org.in