Story 1 : Abhijit my childhood friend lives in a remote village of India who owns one bigha land. He is a hardworking farmer able to grow 3 crops here on his land. This land is the source of livelihood for him and his family. But he don't have any documents Since his father exchanged the land with local Zamindar without taking money. Zamindar already registered the land but his father unable to do so due to financial crisis. Vande government announced a highway project goes from the village. government acquired the tiny land of Abhijit with no compensation as he hasn't any documents regarding the land. The land was belong to Zamindar so they got the compensation Abhijit alienated from his land and source of livelihood.
Story 2 : Shyam Lal on a 5 Bigha land in a small village of India and he do farming in it. Land is the only source of livelihood for him. But his produces is less as owns small land. The Government of India started blue revolution scheme to increase farmers income and giving up to 75% subsidy on fish farming project. Shyam Lal have all the documents regarding land and decided to dig up a pond in place of his land and started fish farming under the scheme. Now Shyam Lal on thrice income than before.
story of Abhijit showed us land land is the lack of clear land rides can bring my Siri to common man and on the other hand clear land rights can bring prosperity in common man just like Shyam Lal. Land is the head of development of any Nation. Land is the source of power and vital for livelihood security. India is predominantly agrarian economy as agriculture has 54% job producing sector. So, for India land is the central part of rural Development. if the agricultural production is enough then manufacturing sector will get more trust as well as service sector.
Ex ; Jute(agriculture) ->
Bags(manufacturing) ->
Marketing(service)
Apart from development land is also the source of status in the society. It provides Security at the crisis moment in the family. Thus the land is providing so many things the land writes automatically become more significant for so many reasons
First, as we see in the first story Abhijit was eliminated from land due to lack of cogent land rights, many farmers also lost their land because of clear land rides and tend to live in poverty.
Second, if farmers have the land rights (like Shyam Lal) they can mortgage their land papers for fulfilling their dreams such as paying fees for children, marriage expenditure etc. Small land owning farmers still more secure than landless farmers.
Third, clear land rights can help the farmers from the conflict of ownership, land disputes. millions of civil cases are pending in our judicial system related to land dispute.
Moreover land rights can bring gender equality in society presently 80% of rural women in India are engaged in agriculture but only 13 % own land. If If they have land right there will be more confident and empowered.
after discussing the importance of land rights now take a glance of India's cycle of land rights. Shirley Pali text of Pre mauryan period land or villages granted subrahamanya by the ruler of kosala and Magadha. however the earliest epigraphic record of a land grants in India is a satvahana inscription of the first century. Gautamiputra satakarni included rights such as royal troops could not enter such land granted, government officials and district police was not supposed to disturb such lands. In course of time Britishers came in India and rule for nearly 2 century brought the private property phenomena in Indian society. Before 8 India had jajmani system which was based on reciprocal activities. King gave green to service providers in term of receiving services from them. Jajmani system maintain good social relation which later win by private property phenomena. Zamindari mahalwari and ryotwari brought much grief to pigeons as they still did not have clear land rights.
After independence government abolished the zamindari system. Many small and landless farmers and peasants came direct in contact with government. father tenancy reforms and tenancy rights also initiated which improve the condition of tenants. Besides this feeling of land ownership and redistribution of land under land Reform Act brought prosperity for landless farmers. The government did work a lot but the success of land rights far ahead. government failed to provide cogent land rides to people due to many reasons like of uncommitted Bureaucracy, lethargy in judicial system, hand in glove of the bureaucrats.
I want to share my experience regarding mutation. Though there is a public service Act 2013 under this act any mutation must be completed under the maximum 30 working days in case of delay the official will be liable to answer. but unfortunate that in next one 190 days I did not get the mutation paper in between I had to submitted the same file/case for four more time because they miss out the file. Can you imagine how much negligencey happening in governance? I complain higher authority but no action has been taken. There is many rules and regulations, law are available in governance but there is very few who abide by those law. Message for those corrupted lazy officials: I request you on behalf of all Indians honesty is expected of you honestly makes the heart lighter, less burden. Be honest, keep working your honesty intact the country will progress alongside.
There was a huge lecunae between government policies and execution. So governmentneeds to work out on this.
If a farmer get the land rights he will put more effort but tenet farmers will Not put that much of effort to increase production. Recently Orissa Government (first of its kind )ruled out a project to give land title to slum dwellers in the Ganjam district. It will ensure slum dwellers the freedom from fear of eviction. so in a society every people wants security and land is the prime of them. This types of initiative (Government of Odisha) can put the Thrust in the development. In general government can stop loan waiving and provide land rights to our farmersr free of cost. Above all government needs to evaluate the employee credential and scrutinize their work.
Father, land rights also help in reducing disaster risk and building climate resilience infrastructure. people lost their homes after disaster and also lost their livelihood sources but if they have clear land rights they can again claim their past lands and homes and can restart there life after disaster (Kerala Flood).
Recently, Indian government decided to modernize the land record with the help of technology. Andhra Pradesh have gone one step ahead using blockchain technology to update land records. Orissa Government with the help of Tata Prestige distributor in deland write certificate to slum dwellers. Sach initiative can bring prosperity for the nation.
To be precise, land and development are the sides of the same coin. Without the presence of won any Nation can't march on the way of progress. Land is the trunk of a nation and land rights are the stalks that can prosper the tree like Nation by inclusive resilience development.
