INDIA: LAND REFORM BACK ON AGENDA

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NEW DELHI, Nov 22 2007 (IPS) - The month-long march that brought 25,000 of India\’s poorest peasants and farmers to Delhi on October 29 was a dramatic indication that in the midst of its runaway economic growth, India is at war with itself over land and natural resources, writes Aruna Roy and Nikhil Dey, founder members and activists working with the MKSS – a peoples organisation in rural Rajasthan. They are also members of several National Campaigns human rights and democratic rights in India, including the Right to Information and Right to work campaigns. In this analysis, the authors writes that over 170 million are estimated to be landless in India, and another 250 million own less than a fifth of a hectare. Approximately 40 million people have been displaced by land acquisition. The marchers demands, encapsulated in a \”Draft National Land Reform Policy\”, included distribution of land to the landless, protection the land rights of farmers affected adversely by the onslaught of development and industrial projects, implementation of land ceiling provisions, tenancy rights, the right to homestead land for all citizens, and women\’s rights to land titles. The government agreed to the adoption of a National Land Reform Policy and to the creation of a \”National Land Reforms Council\” headed by the prime minister. If the new land reform policy is enacted and its mechanisms work as they should, the October march will be a land mark remembered for turning the tide.

There are many elements to this struggle. The acute state of agrarian distress is driving small and even middle class farmers to suicide in large numbers. There is also increasing resistance from huge numbers of indigenous tribal communities being driven out of land and forests by development projects and extractive industries. Small and marginal farmers are losing their holdings and becoming landless.

In a country that is still based largely on agriculture, where a vast majority of people live in villages, over 170 million are estimated to be landless in India, and another 250 million own less than a fifth of a hectare. Approximately 40 million people have been displaced by land acquisition.

Land ceiling laws have been very poorly implemented: roughly 55 percent of ceiling surplus land distributed to tribal families remains under the illegal control of landlords.

Then there is about 33 million hectares of available arable wasteland. Instead of distributing this to the poor and landless, the government is trying to keep it for jathropha plantations controlled by the agrofuel industry. The landless poor migrating to cities face a daily battle for space, even in slums and on the pavements, and for the right to live and work there.

The government acknowledges there is violent resistance from ‘Naxalite’ (Maoist) groups in almost a third of the districts of the country. Despite New Delhi’s huge expenditure and use of paramilitary forces to fight and eliminate them, Naxalite power and influence is growing, along with rural unrest. The reason for extremism is plain to see: denial of development and justice to the very poor drives them to violence as a final form of protest. Many of the marchers came from these areas of conflict.

Most of New Delhi’s burgeoning middle class is indifferent to public protest, beyond the inconvenience and irritation at the delay it causes them because of the congested traffic.

There was a time when the ruling establishment had a healthy respect for people’s mobilisation. In recent times however, the spaces for democratic dissent have shrunk, and it seemed as if the rulers were succeeding in keeping the reality of distress and expressions of dissent away from public consciousness.

But, this time, the faces of some of the poorest and most vulnerable of India’s citizens marching with determination and discipline introduced respect and discomfort into the growing cynicism and indifference of the capital.

The march was led by the Ekta Parishad, a group that works with the rural poor and believes in the Gandhian tenants of non-violent civil disobedience. It was supported by a coalition of groups working on issues of land rights for the poor. The demands were encapsulated in a “Draft National Land Reform Policy”, drawn up by the Jan Adesh Yatra leadership in consultation with other groups and submitted to the Prime Minister while the march was on. It advocated distribution of land to the landless, protection to the land rights of farmers affected adversely by the onslaught of development and industrial projects, implementation of land ceiling provisions, tenancy rights, the right to homestead land for all citizens, and women’s rights to land titles.

The government agreed to the adoption of a National Land Reform Policy and to the creation of a National Land Reforms Council headed by the Prime Minister. A committee within the Rural Development Ministry would serve as secretariat for the council and take up the “unfinished agenda of land reforms”. Both the committee and council would include representation from outside the government, particularly from members of the land reform movements. They would announce a detailed National Land Reforms Policy that the council would implement.

This achievement must be seen in the context of the offensive launched on land reforms in current economic and development paradigms. Along with market globalization and economic growth, there has been a tidal wave of attacks on the land rights of the rural poor. And there have been sustained struggles by people’s groups to fight back. After almost three decades, land reform has returned to the centre stage of policy making. In the dialectics of democracy, the people must force accountability of governments to promises that it made.

If the new land reform policy is enacted and its mechanisms work as they should, the October march will be a land mark remembered for turning the tide. The atmosphere remains extremely hostile, and the struggle will have to continue to gain success. Nevertheless, a vital issue concerning people’s real priorities has been tabled. And, at a critical moment when India needs to believe that Gandhian methods are still a powerful and effective tool for the marginalized, the Jan Adesh Yatra has once again established the power of non-violent protest. (END/COPYRIGHT IPS)