The recent distribution of land rights certificates to over 65,000 urban homeless families across Odisha under the state’s ‘Jaga Mission’ scheme has garnered mixed reactions. While the government claims it is a historic step towards empowering the marginalized, opposition parties allege the move to be a political gimmick ahead of elections.
This article analyses the significance, claims, critiques, and complexities around the land rights discourse in Odisha.
What Are The Significance of Land Rights?
Secure land tenure and property rights are crucial for social empowerment and upward mobility. Homestead land provides shelter and livelihood security, collateral for credit, and helps break inter-generational poverty cycles. For marginalized groups like slum dwellers, tribals, and women, land rights are an important tool for socio-economic inclusion and dignity.
Article 19 of the Indian constitution recognizes the right to residence as a fundamental right. Hence, government schemes for granting land to the landless urban and rural poor are important from both humanitarian and constitutional standpoints.
Why Are Land Rights Important For Some Citizens in Odisha
In Odisha, factors like poverty, land alienation, natural disasters, and urbanization have increased the population of landless poor and homeless lacking tenure security. Schemes like Vasundhara, Jaga Mission, and FRA aim to provide homestead land and entitlements to beneficiaries like slum dwellers, tribals, Dalits, and other vulnerable sections who traditionally faced exclusion.
With the majority of Odisha’s population still reliant on land for livelihoods, land rights are an essential pillar for poverty alleviation and reducing inequality. It can bring socio-economic transformation for marginalized groups.
Why Are We Having Trouble Deciphering Land Issues?
Despite the significance of land reforms, translating policy intent into ground realities remains a challenge. Claiming land rights involves navigating complex bureaucratic processes for identification, surveys, verification, and certification – which often exclude deserving beneficiaries. Lack of digitized records, corruption, and exclusion of tenants and migrants also constrain access.
Critics have alleged the distributed certificates under Jaga Mission are not legally valid documents. There are also concerns over the remote locations and poor quality of allotted land parcels. Plus, merely owning land does not guarantee escape from poverty without access to housing, infrastructure, and livelihood sources. Implementation gaps thus shroud the discourse around land rights with complications.
Are These Actions Politically Motivated?
The timing of the state government’s high-profile land rights initiatives, done in phases just before panchayat and civic body elections, has led the opposition to question if populist motives override real empowerment aims. The collection of beneficiary data through drone surveys is also alleged to be aimed at targeted voter outreach.
The distribution of dubious land certificates that are unlikely to provide any real tenure security is being seen as tokenism. However, the counter-view is that elections give useful deadlines for the government to accelerate the delivery of past promises. The proof of results will depend on long-term monitoring of what benefits and socio-economic changes actually accrue to beneficiaries.
Parting Thoughts:
In conclusion, providing land rights and security of tenure are undoubtedly key to uplifting the marginalized in Odisha. But translated into tangible outcomes, it requires robust planning, transparency, investment in infrastructure, and post-allotment support mechanisms beyond just distributing records and certificates.
While Opposition criticism highlights accountability issues in delivery, the ruling party needs to move beyond populism and ensure effective last-mile implementation if land reforms have to truly empower the targeted beneficiaries. Politically motivated or not, it is real action on the ground that will determine whether the land rights buzz translates into substantive and sustainable change.
Sources / Further Readings:
- Odisha CM hands over land rights certificates to 65,000 families living in slums, ET RealEstate
- Odisha : 65,000 homeless families get land certificates | Bhubaneswar News – Times of India
- Odisha issues land ownership certificates 65,000 slum dwellers – Hindustan Times
- Land Rights | Cargill.
- 7 reasons for land and property rights to be at the top of the global agenda
- Why Secure Land Rights Matter
- Land Rights
- Land Rights as Human Rights – Sur
- The Land Rights Standard – Rights + Resources – Supporting Forest Tenure, Policy, and Market Reforms
- Promoting Land Rights for the Urban Poor with the Social Tenure Domain Model | Cities Alliance
- Land Rights and Urban Poverty | VoxDev
- Land Equity for the Urban Poor
- Making the most of urban land: the role of rights and responsibilities | International Growth Centre
- Full article: Property titles and the urban poor: from informality to displacement?
- The Effects of Land Titling on the Urban Poor: A Replication of Property Rights for the Poor
- Securing Land Rights for the Poor