In India, land ownership is crucial for the uplift of the rural poor. Even after seven decades of independence from British colonialism, the rich landed sections occupy vast tracts of land while the small and landless, who form 80 percent of the farmer community, possess only a negligible portion. The landless situation is a major obstacle in the process of poverty eradication, and in increasing agrarian production and productivity, both qualitatively and quantitatively. Successive governments have conveniently ignored the implementation and even subverted the agenda of land reforms. Neoliberal economic reforms facilitated the conversion of land and food into marketable commodities, depriving millions of poor farmers, and landless rural poor in South Asia. Soon after the attainment of independence in India, the zamindari system was abolished and land reforms were proposed to distribute land to the tiller. The original intention was to turn landless into small farmers by providing them with some land. But this has not been implemented successfully throughout our country and the farmers who are left with minuscule volumes of land are losing it at a faster pace.
In India, a mere 4.9 percent of farmers control 32 percent of India’s farmland. A big farmer in India has 45 times more land than a “marginal” farmer. Four million people or 56.4 percent of rural households are landless. Of the total net cropped area, nearly 82 percent of fertile and irrigated land is owned by top-rich farmers. Small, marginal farmers own less fertile, mostly rainfed cultivable land in the country. Most farmers are returning to wage labourers since their land is lost. The reasons for small and medium farmers losing their land include escalation of the cost of cultivation, and inability to bear the high costs of fertilisers, diesel, and seed. Small farmers are increasingly being exploited by markets and large agribusiness corporations. On the other hand, due to the lack of remunerative crop MSPs in markets, small Farmers became vulnerable to rural indebtedness. Income earned outside crop cultivation has become the prime source of farm families with less than 1 hectare of land. Wages have become the main source of income for agricultural households replacing crop production. Burdened with income loss, and medical & educational expenses farmers are indebted and losing their lands. This land is being acquired either by real estate lobbies or big corporations or rich landlords.
All over India, 68.72 lakh acres of land were declared ceiling surplus after abolishing Zamindari feudal land ownership and government acquisition of land under partially implemented land reforms. Out of this, 60.27 lakh acres were taken into possession of the government and 48.99 lakh acres had been distributed till 2006. The total operating area of India in 2006 stood at 39.10 crore acres. This means that 1.25 percent of the area was only distributed through land ceiling surplus measures under land reforms. These figures clearly show the availability of surplus land for distribution among landless and small farmers. Unless Land reforms are implemented in the true spirit, it may not be possible to eradicate unemployment and poverty in villages. Land to the tiller should be a priority. The land question should be solved immediately in favour of landless and small farmers.
