South India

Nowhere to Lay Their Heads

Land Rights have been one of the issues of focus for Chethana since its inception. Some of the Chethana groups are pioneers in land right struggles and have been successful in securing lands for landless through non-violent strategies of peoples' mobilization, political action and, above all, through legal means. In the recent past, the Right to Information Act and the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS) have significantly worked in favor of the movement for land, and Chethana's groups are making the best out of these opportunities

by Thomas John

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Profile JH Companionship Facilitator  Thomas John

The Right to Information Act

The Right to Information Act allows people to have access to land records. This opens up the possibility to expose fraudulent transactions and illegal holdings by landlords of common lands, and especially of Assignment Lands. These lands belong to the government but are given to landless Dalits and Scheduled Tribe members for cultivation. In reality, however, most of the Assignment Lands are in the hands of big landlords.

Massive development schemes and Special Economic Zones (SEZs) have created a high demand for land. The government has been cornering large acres of fertile land, evicting small land holders and displacing landless agricultural workers from their livelihood. They also pay hefty sums to big fraudulent landholders for SEZs and other developmental purposes. Large number of the rural poor are this way thrown into abject penury. The government is nullifying the effect of the Coastal Zone Regulation Act by introducing Coastal Zone Management Act by which coastal land can be given to tourist industries, subverting the fisher people’s rights for shelter and access to the sea.

In Nandigram and Singur in West Bangal this opposition to SEZs has boiled over into very massive agitations and confrontations between people and the police, leading to police firing and deaths. Chethana groups in Andhra Pradesh were involved in the recent agitation to implement the recommendation of the commission constituted to look into land reforms there. The police fired 70 rounds at an unarmed mob at Mudigonda in Khammam district of Andhra Pradesh on July 27, killing six persons and leaving several wounded. Our group SJVS, an organization working among handloom workers was very much part of the agitation. In Kerala, presently one of the Chetena groups, Navadarshini, is leading an agitation of the landless

Dalits in a place called Chengra against the government leasing out land to a big plantation industry, while people have nowhere to lay their heads. It is an "indiscriminate" allotment of land to SEZs and industrial houses and the denial of land to the poor on the pretext of non-availability that provokes the agitation. After 60 years of Independence, though land reform bills are already in existence, the government is unable to implement them. The irony is that in 60 days they could hand over the minimum required land of 1500 acres to SEZs and to big industrial houses.

The National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS)

The National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS) ensures 100 days of employment in activities identified by local governing bodies which they deem necessary for developing basic infrastructure in rural areas. Chethana issignificantly involved in this program and it has helped our partner groups to organize the unemployed labor with greater focus.

In this context, Chethana is working toward developing a South India Confederation of People’s Movements on a charter of demands on Land reforms.

Joining Hands in the US

If your church or group would like to learn more about Presbyterian Hunger Programs work in India please contact Joining Hands Sacramento, garrycox@westminsac.org and we will be happy to arrange a slide presentation and discussion on this important mission project. You may also call Garry Cox at 916-442-8939.