Introduction : –
- Land is a perennial source of conflict in all societies and even more so in predominantly agrarian economies where apart from being the principal asset, possession and ownership of land is the sine qua non of social respectability.
1) Land related Agrarian Issues :-
Farm, Farmers and Suicide
- The average size of land holdings for India as a whole declined from nearly 2 Hectares (Ha) in 1951 to 1.32 Ha in 2000 . Holdings below 2 Ha is considered to be marginally economical.The decrease in land holding is the result of explosive growth of population, which resulted in economically non-viability of farming, reduced capacity of farmers to withstand stress.
- The situation is aggravated due to climatic distress and fluctuations. India’s farmer being heavily dependent on monsoon and monsoon due to it’s very nature of dry spell and wet spell aberration pushed the farmers to the edge that often result in farmer suicide.
- Market fluctuations, slight increase in input cost and aforementioned climatic factors leaves the farmers of India in a perpetual cycle of crisis.
- Unavailability of institutional lending , farmers often enter in to the debt trap of private Money lender. Lack of resources to repay outstanding loans often forces the farmer to go in for fresh borrowings, creating a vicious circle which causes deep distress. This debt burden often drives the farmer to suicide.
- According to National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), during the period 2001-05, 86922 farmers committed suicide , out of whom 54% were from four States, viz, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala and Maharashtra.
- To sum up the cause of large incident of suicides are indebtedness, crop failure, decline in economic status, crop failure, dent in social position and inability to meet social obligations.
Solution
- Expanding the agricultural base by giving more support to small and marginal farmers primarily through ‘Self Help Groups’ (SHGs) and Cooperatives.
- Transferring informal debt to formal institutions.
- Rejuvenation of natural resource base particularly in rain fed areas.
- More effective risk coverage to protect the farmers from risks like price and demand fluctuations, vagaries of weather and natural calamities.Farm insurance ad social security net.
- Increased public investment not only in agriculture but for diversification of the non-farm sector within the rural areas to generate alternative livelihoods for farmers.
- Poverty alleviation schemes to more specifically cater to the needs of poorer farmers with farmers’ organizations being involved in the design of such schemes.
- Tenurial reforms, including empowerment of the tenants on the lines of ‘Operation Barga’ of West Bengal are still highly relevant for empowerment of poor farmers,particularly for giving them access to credit from financial institutions and increasing their stake in the growth of agriculture.
- Consolidation of Land holding
2) Displacement related Issues :-
Displacement
- Displacement of people from their lands has been a source of conflict, even when government acquires land for a public purpose under the provisions of the law.Acquisition of land is necessary for the larger socio-economic development of a country.
- Putting land to more economic use and thus increasing the economic returns to the society is the underlying principle for acquisition of land.Acquisition of lands is generally problematic as the persons dependent on the land are deprived of various benefits they derive from it – at times even livelihood.
- The land acquisition laws provide for a reasonable compensation to be paid to the land losers. But generally the compensation so paid is inadequate because the evaluation of the market value of land is based on techniques which do not reflect the actual value of the land to the land loser. Land Acquisition Officers follow the prevailing prices as indicated by the registered sale transactions. This ‘official’ value of land is a suppressed value of land.
- Absence of robust resettlement and rehabilitation plan, low compensation for land acquired coupled with bureaucratic hurdles brings a feeling of deprivation among the land losers and marks beginning of conflict.
Solution
- There was no National policy on Resettlement and Rehabilitation until 2003 , since 2004 the policy is in place and provides the broad framework to counter the land acquisition conflict. The policy focuses on :-
- To minimize displacement and to identify non-displacing or least-displacing alternatives.
- To plan the resettlement and rehabilitation of Project Affected Families (PAFs), including special needs of Tribal and vulnerable sections.
- To provide better standard of living to PAFs.
- To facilitate harmonious relationship between the Requiring Body and PAFs through mutual cooperation.
- Displacement is not unique to India.Studies around the world reveal key solutions on how to lead a no-conflict land acquisition.
- Colombia introduced benefit transfer , by which the displaced population will be given one time land acquisition cost at market value with an agreement on proportional share of revenues , otherwise known as benefit transfer by the project or company in years to come.
- Brazil also introduced the royalties transfer to the displaced population.
- China introduced Post-resettle development fund(PRDF) , the project or company deposits funds in to it which are ultimately transferred to the displaced community.It also created Provincial resettlement Bureau , with professionals having expertise to look after resettlement and mandated to to look at virtually all aspects of Development-caused Forced Displacement (DFDR) operations in that province.
- Canada introduced equity-sharing , there by making the land losers as investors in the project or company.This equity enables the communities to receive a share of project benefits as a partner, for the long term, proportionately with their land share in the construction of the project
- Japan introduced two prong strategy :-
- Payment upfront to the land owners leasing land for the reservoir, which would enable those farmers to develop for themselves alternative livelihoods, and invest the money received into non-land-based income generating activities.
- Regular rent payments for the leased land, to be continuously paid to the local small holders for the life of the project. This way the leased land, although now deep under the reservoir waters, remains nevertheless a source of constant income for the affected farmers and their children. Rent payments supplement the initial upfront compensation and help to ensure livelihood sustainability even if the new alternative economic activities do not succeed from the outset or do not produce adequate returns.
3)SEZ- Special Economic Zone Issues :-
SEZ
- With a view to overcome the shortcomings experienced on account of the multiplicity of controls and clearances; absence of world-class infrastructure, and an unstable fiscal regime and with a view to attract larger foreign investments in India, the Special Economic Zones (SEZs) Policy was announced in April 2000. This policy intended to make SEZs an engine for economic growth supported by quality infrastructure complemented by an attractive fiscal package, both at the Centre and the State level, with the minimum possible regulation.
- The main objectives of the SEZ Act are:-
(a) generation of additional economic activity;
(b) promotion of exports of goods and services;
(c) promotion of investment from domestic and foreign sources;
(d) creation of employment opportunities;
(e) development of infrastructure facilities - The establishment of Special Economic Zones (SEZs) has become a source of conflict,leading frequently to violence.
Solution
- The SEZ conflict is also a land acquisition conflict and the solutions for this are:-
- Industrial activities and SEZs are located in areas where they cause the least displacement and dislocation.
- Do not usurp productive agricultural lands
- Comprehensive lad use plan and searching for alternate sites.
- Emphasis on more brownfield project than greenfield projects.
- Minimizing the land allowed for ‘non processing’ with in SEZ.
4)Land Records Issues :-
Land Recods
- The unsatisfactory state of land records is a major source of dispute between individuals as also between individuals and the government.
- Such disputes sometimes take a violent turn.The problems of displacement of families by large scale acquisition are further aggravated because of the poor status of land records.
Solution
- Land records management through digitization will not only help in the conflict resolution but also can help public from victimized by Land Mafia.
5)Solution to the conflicts arising out of Land management :-
- Renewed impetus to land reform measures like redistribution of surplus land, vesting title in tenants and carrying forward consolidation of land holdings
- Augmenting the banking system in the rural areas and make them more responsive to the farmers’ needs.
- Redesigning poverty alleviation programmes to make them more relevant to the needs of small and marginal farmers
- Helping farmer to find alternative means of livelihood by promoting public investment in non-farm activities.
- Measures of increase SHG- Self Help Groups and credit lending.
- Diversify risk coverage measures such as weather insurance schemes and price support mechanisms
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Steve Ovett, the famous British middle-distance athlete, won the 800-metres gold medal at the Moscow Olympics of 1980. Just a few days later, he was about to win a 5,000-metres race at London’s Crystal Palace. Known for his burst of acceleration on the home stretch, he had supreme confidence in his ability to out-sprint rivals. With the final 100 metres remaining,
[wptelegram-join-channel link=”https://t.me/s/upsctree” text=”Join @upsctree on Telegram”]Ovett waved to the crowd and raised a hand in triumph. But he had celebrated a bit too early. At the finishing line, Ireland’s John Treacy edged past Ovett. For those few moments, Ovett had lost his sense of reality and ignored the possibility of a negative event.
This analogy works well for the India story and our policy failures , including during the ongoing covid pandemic. While we have never been as well prepared or had significant successes in terms of growth stability as Ovett did in his illustrious running career, we tend to celebrate too early. Indeed, we have done so many times before.
It is as if we’re convinced that India is destined for greater heights, come what may, and so we never run through the finish line. Do we and our policymakers suffer from a collective optimism bias, which, as the Nobel Prize winner Daniel Kahneman once wrote, “may well be the most significant of the cognitive biases”? The optimism bias arises from mistaken beliefs which form expectations that are better than the reality. It makes us underestimate chances of a negative outcome and ignore warnings repeatedly.
The Indian economy had a dream run for five years from 2003-04 to 2007-08, with an average annual growth rate of around 9%. Many believed that India was on its way to clocking consistent double-digit growth and comparisons with China were rife. It was conveniently overlooked that this output expansion had come mainly came from a few sectors: automobiles, telecom and business services.
Indians were made to believe that we could sprint without high-quality education, healthcare, infrastructure or banking sectors, which form the backbone of any stable economy. The plan was to build them as we went along, but then in the euphoria of short-term success, it got lost.
India’s exports of goods grew from $20 billion in 1990-91 to over $310 billion in 2019-20. Looking at these absolute figures it would seem as if India has arrived on the world stage. However, India’s share of global trade has moved up only marginally. Even now, the country accounts for less than 2% of the world’s goods exports.
More importantly, hidden behind this performance was the role played by one sector that should have never made it to India’s list of exports—refined petroleum. The share of refined petroleum exports in India’s goods exports increased from 1.4% in 1996-97 to over 18% in 2011-12.
An import-intensive sector with low labour intensity, exports of refined petroleum zoomed because of the then policy regime of a retail price ceiling on petroleum products in the domestic market. While we have done well in the export of services, our share is still less than 4% of world exports.
India seemed to emerge from the 2008 global financial crisis relatively unscathed. But, a temporary demand push had played a role in the revival—the incomes of many households, both rural and urban, had shot up. Fiscal stimulus to the rural economy and implementation of the Sixth Pay Commission scales had led to the salaries of around 20% of organized-sector employees jumping up. We celebrated, but once again, neither did we resolve the crisis brewing elsewhere in India’s banking sector, nor did we improve our capacity for healthcare or quality education.
Employment saw little economy-wide growth in our boom years. Manufacturing jobs, if anything, shrank. But we continued to celebrate. Youth flocked to low-productivity service-sector jobs, such as those in hotels and restaurants, security and other services. The dependence on such jobs on one hand and high-skilled services on the other was bound to make Indian society more unequal.
And then, there is agriculture, an elephant in the room. If and when farm-sector reforms get implemented, celebrations would once again be premature. The vast majority of India’s farmers have small plots of land, and though these farms are at least as productive as larger ones, net absolute incomes from small plots can only be meagre.
A further rise in farm productivity and consequent increase in supply, if not matched by a demand rise, especially with access to export markets, would result in downward pressure on market prices for farm produce and a further decline in the net incomes of small farmers.
We should learn from what John Treacy did right. He didn’t give up, and pushed for the finish line like it was his only chance at winning. Treacy had years of long-distance practice. The same goes for our economy. A long grind is required to build up its base before we can win and celebrate. And Ovett did not blame anyone for his loss. We play the blame game. Everyone else, right from China and the US to ‘greedy corporates’, seems to be responsible for our failures.
We have lowered absolute poverty levels and had technology-based successes like Aadhaar and digital access to public services. But there are no short cuts to good quality and adequate healthcare and education services. We must remain optimistic but stay firmly away from the optimism bias.
In the end, it is not about how we start, but how we finish. The disastrous second wave of covid and our inability to manage it is a ghastly reminder of this fact.