By Nita Bhalla
KHAMMAM, India, May 2 (AlertNet) – It was a deal struck
almost 40 years ago by a poor, illiterate Indian farmer, driven
by desperation after a drought wiped out his crops and left his
family close to starvation.
The agreement: 10 acres of land, the size of four soccer
pitches, for a mere 10 kg (22 lbs) of sorghum grains.
“My father-in-law pawned the land for food,” said Kowasalya
Thati, lifting the hem of her grey sari and stepping into the
muddy field of rice paddy in Kottasuraream village in the
southern region of Andhra Pradesh.
“When he returned the grain later, the land owners refused
to give it back. They claimed it and we had no document to prove
otherwise. For 28 years, we had to work on the land we once
owned. Without land, we had nothing … not even enough food.
It’s a miracle we got it back.”
Kowasalya’s family is one of hundreds of thousands who
belong to India’s 700 listed tribes who are at last gaining
legal titles to the land they have lived on for generations,
thanks to a legal aid scheme run by the Andhra Pradesh
government with international advocacy group Landesa.
In the scheme, which is likely to be rolled out nationally,
young people often armed with only a secondary-level education
are drawn from mud-and-brick villages and trained as paralegals,
then sent out to help people to understand their rights and
secure title, or “patta”, to their land.
For most tribal and landless families, that simple piece of
paper means an end to a constant fear of hunger.
“Land is the most important factor of production,” said
Pramod Joshi, South Asia director of the International Food
Policy Research Institute.
“It helps ensure food security for the poorest of the poor.
It has been shown in many regions that if the poor have land,
they are in a better position to feed themselves.”
TRIBAL POVERTY
Despite a slew of “pro-poor” policies, India’s economic boom
has largely bypassed India’s tribes, who make up more than 8
percent of its 1.2 billion population, living in remote villages
and eking out a living from farming, cattle rearing and
collecting and selling fruit and leaves from the forests.
Social indicators such as literacy, child malnutrition and
maternal mortality in these communities are among the worst in
the country.
Neglect by authorities and a Maoist insurgency in the tribal
belt in central parts of the country have further exacerbated
their plight.
But the biggest threat, activists say, has always been to
their land. A lack of documents proving ownership of the land
means that many are treated as criminals, exploited by wealthy
land owners and money lenders, moved off their farms in illegal
land grabs, or face extortion by officials.
Due to the lack of ownership papers, they are also deprived
of credit from banks and government services providing help to
poor land owners, making it impossible to invest in the land,
boost their farm production and ensure their food security.
India passed a law in 2008 to improve the lives of these
groups by finally recognising their right to inhabit the land
their forefathers settled on centuries before.
But four years on, activists say the Forest Rights Act has
been poorly implemented and that tribal communities still are
not fully aware of their rights.
Around 15 million families remain landless. Another 28
million families — many of whom are tribals — have a tenuous
claim to their land because they do not have the “patta”.
ENJOYING THE JOB
In Andhra Pradesh’s Khammam district, a fertile region
filled with lush rice, cotton and chili fields, trainees learn
how to spot land issues and resolve disputes through land
surveys, case investigation and working with the revenue
department.
“I am enjoying this job as I am from a poor family myself
and I understand their problems as my own,” said Krishnaiah
Modugu, 30, who has worked as a paralegal for six years and
helped 1,300 families gain “pattas”.
“It makes me happy helping the poor secure what is
rightfully theirs,” said the former primary school teacher from
Basavapuram village.
Four hundred villagers like Krishnaiah are working as
paralegals in the state, going from one dusty village to the
next, attending meetings and listening to people’s stories of
land lost through exploitation, abuse and indebtedness.
So far, the rural paralegals have helped deliver more than
300,000 “pattas” to families like Kowasalya’s.
“The community-based paralegal model has emerged globally as
a cost-effective solution to the problem of access to justice
for rural communities,” said Gregory Rake, Landesa’s India
country director.
Landesa says there are plans to bring these barefoot lawyers
to other states in the country. A similar scheme is already
running in India’s impoverished state of Orissa and will aim to
provide half a million poor families with security over their
land.
“Land is their most important asset, yet many do not know
their rights over it,” said V.N.V.K. Sastry, former director of
India’s Tribal Research and Training Institute and a government
advisor on tribal development. “These schemes should be made
available in all regions which have large tribal populations.”
LAND SECURITY EQUALS FOOD SECURITY
Now that Kowasalya’s family owns their sprawling rice and
cotton farm, they earn 10,000 rupees ($195) a month, compared
with 2,000 rupees ($40) before.
More importantly, Kowasalya is able to keep up to 80 kg (176
lbs) of rice in reserve each year, ensuring her family won’t go
hungry in the event of a poor harvest.
She also is no longer reliant on unscrupulous moneylenders
who prey on the poor, charging massive interest rates. She can
apply for cheaper loans at commercial banks and has access to
public schemes offering cheap seeds, fertilisers and pesticides.
“Before we worked for a daily wage. When we had work, we
ate. When we didn’t, we skipped meals. Most of our meals were
broken rice with chili powder, sometimes vegetables,” she said
as she sieved a pile of rice for lunch for her husband and three
children at her brick-and-corrugated-iron-roofed home.
“Since we got our land back, we no longer have to worry
about food.”
(This story is part of a special multimedia report on global
hunger produced by AlertNet, a global humanitarian news service
run by Thomson Reuters Foundation.)
(Editing by Tim Large and Sonya Hepinstall)
