Land Reforms in India

Introduction:

 Land Reform refers to the redistribution of lands by the government from landholders to
landless people for agricultural or special purposes. Land reforms are the efforts to reform the
ownership and governance in India.
 Land reforms have preserved the socialistic directive principles of state policy, which aim at
equal wealth distribution. However, the goal of social justice has been attained to a large
extent. Land reform is important in the rural agricultural economy characterized by land and
agriculture.

Objectives of land reforms:

Land distribution has been part of India's state policy from the very beginning. Independent India's most
revolutionary land policy was perhaps the abolition of the Zamindari system (feudal landholding
practices). Land-reform policy in India had two specific objectives:

 "To remove such impediments to increase in agricultural production as arise from the agrarian
structure inherited from the past.
 To eliminate all elements of exploitation and social injustice within the agrarian system, to
provide security for the tiller of the soil and assure equality of status and opportunity to all
sections of the rural population.”

Why there was a need for Land reforms in India after Independence:

 To redistribute land in order to create a socialistic form of society. Such an attempt will help to
minimize inequities in land ownership.
 To establish a land ceiling and remove surplus land for distribution to small and marginal
farmers.
 To legitimate tenancy by imposing a ceiling restriction.
 Registering all tenancies with the village Panchayats.
 Determine the relationship between tenancy and ceiling.
 To eradicate rural poverty.
 Spreading socialist development in order to reduce social inequality
 Women's empowerment in a typically male-dominated culture.
 Increasing agricultural production.
 To demonstrate that everyone has a right to a piece of land.
 Tribal protection by not allowing others to seize their land.
Land Reforms:

 Abolition of intermediaries like zamindars, jagirdars, etc.

 Tenancy reforms involving providing security of tenure to the tenants, decrease in rents and
conferment of ownership rights to tenants
 Ceilings on size of landholdings
 encouragement of cooperative joint farming
 Digitization of land records:
o To address the same, the Digital India Land Records Modernization Programme
(DILRMP) was by the government of India in August 2008

Abolition of intermediaries:

 The first significant piece of law was the dismantling of the zamindari system, which eliminated
the layer of intermediaries between cultivators and the state.

 The reform was considerably more effective than the previous reforms in that it succeeded in
taking away the zamindars' superior rights over land and reducing their economic and political
influence in most districts.

o The reform was made to strengthen the actual landholders, the cultivators.

Advantages of Abolition of Intermediaries:

 With the elimination of intermediaries, over 2 crore tenants became proprietors of the land
they cultivated.
 The elimination of intermediates has resulted in the extinction of a parasite class. More lands
have been transferred to the government for distribution to landless farmers.
 The State now owns a large amount of cultivable waste land and private land owned by the
intermediaries.
 The legal abolition forced the cultivators to deal directly with the government.

Limitations with the zamindari abolition:

 However, the elimination of zamindari did not eliminate landlordism, tenancy, or

sharecropping arrangements, which persisted in many places. In the multi-layered agricultural
organization, it simply removed the top layer of landlords.

o It has resulted in widespread eviction. Large-scale eviction, in turn, has created a slew
of social, economic, administrative, and legal issues.

 The absence of adequate land records made implementation of these acts difficult.

 Personal cultivation: ‘Personal cultivation’ was very loosely defined which led to not only those
who tilled the soil, but also those who supervised the land personally or did so through a
relative, or provided capital and credit to the land, to call themselves a cultivator.
 o Moreover, in states like Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Madras there was no limit on the size
of the lands that could be declared to be under the ‘personal cultivation’ of the
zamindar

o While the states of J&K and West Bengal legalised the abolition, in other states,
intermediaries were allowed to retain possession of lands under their personal
cultivation without limit being set.
 Zamindars resorted to large-scale evictions of tenants, primarily less secure small renters.
 Even after the rules were adopted, landlords utilized the legal system to postpone their
enforcement.
 Zamindars refused to hand up the land records in their possession, requiring the government
to go through the time-consuming process of rebuilding the records.
 The law's implementation was complicated by collaboration between landlords and lower-level
tax officials.

Tenancy reforms:

 During the pre-independence period, renters paid extravagant rents, ranging from 35 to 75
percent of gross production across India.
 Tenancy reforms are being implemented to limit rent, offer renters with security of tenure,
and provide tenants ownership.
o With the advent of laws (early 1950s) controlling cultivator rent, fair rent was regulated
at 20% to 25% of gross output level in all states except Punjab, Haryana, Jammu &
Kashmir, Tamil Nadu, and some areas of Andhra Pradesh.

 The reform tried to either abolish tenancy entirely or to limit rents in order to provide tenants
with some security.

 There was a fundamental reform of the agricultural structure in West Bengal and Kerala, which
provided renters land rights.

Limitations of tenancy reforms:

 The restrictions enacted to safeguard small landowners were abused by larger landlords with
the active cooperation of revenue authorities.
 Prolonged delays in passing and implementing legislation
 Tenants also willingly surrendered their tenancy rights after being 'persuaded' to do so under
threat of eviction.
 Sharecroppers have no tenancy rights.
 The majority of tenancies were oral and informal, with no documentation.
 Providing security of tenure to all renters was only partially successful.
 The Green Revolution, which began in some regions of India in the late 1960s, exacerbated the
difficulties by increasing land values and rental rates.
 Tenants' acquisition of ownership rights was only partially successful.
 Even now, 5 percent of farmers own 32 percent of the land.
  The power of resumption and a broad interpretation of "personal cultivation" were utilized to
evict renters on a vast scale.
 Tenants were also 'persuaded' to give up their tenancy rights 'voluntarily' after being
'persuaded' under fear.
 In West Bengal, sharecroppers, known as Bargadars, had no protection until July 1970, when
the West Bengal Land Reforms Act was revised to provide them with minimal protection.
 Providing security of tenure to all renters was only partially successful. There were still a
substantial number of people who were unprotected. As a result, lowering rents to a 'fair' level
was nearly difficult.

Ceilings on size of landholdings:

 The Land Ceiling Acts were the third main type of land reform legislation. landholding Ceiling
referred to the legally mandated maximum size above which no one farmer or farm household
may possess any land. The purpose of imposing such a ceiling was to discourage the
accumulation of land in the hands of a few.

 The Kumarappan Committee proposed the maximum size of lands that a landowner might
hold in 1942. It was three times the economic holding, or enough to support a family.

 By 1961-62, all state governments had approved land ceiling legislation. However, the ceiling
limitations vary per state. In 1971, a new land ceiling policy was developed to establish
uniformity among states.

o In 1972, national guidelines were issued with ceiling limits varying from region to
region, depending on the kind of land, its productivity, and other such factors.

o It was 10-18 acres for best land, 18-27 acres for second class land and for the rest with
27-54 acres of land with a slightly higher limit in the hill and desert areas.

 With the help of these reforms, the state was supposed to identify and take possession of
surplus land (above the ceiling limit) held by each household, and redistribute it to landless
families and households in other specified categories, such as SCs and STs.

Limitations of Land Ceiling:

 Because post-independence India had more than 70% of landholdings under 5 acres, the states
set a fairly high cap on existing holdings.
 In the majority of states, these acts were found to be toothless. There were several loopholes
and other techniques available to most landowners to avoid having their surplus land taken over
by the state.
 While some big estates were divided, most landowners were able to split the property among
family and others, including servants, through so-called 'benami transfers,' allowing them to
retain control over the land.
 In certain areas, wealthy farmers divorced their spouses (but continued to live with them) in
order to escape the terms of the Land Ceiling Act, which permitted unmarried women a
separate share but not wives.
  Following the Second Plan suggestions that specific kinds of land be exempted from restrictions,
most states allowed a considerable number of exemptions to the ceiling limits.

Consolidation of Landholdings:

 Consolidation described as the reorganization/redistribution of dispersed lands into a single

plot.
o Growing population and fewer job prospects in non-agricultural industries raised
demand on land, leading to an increasing trend of landholding fragmentation.
o Agricultural fragmentation made irrigation management tasks and human supervision
of land parcels difficult.
 This resulted in the implementation of landholding consolidation.
o Under this legislation, if a farmer owned many plots of land in the village, those plots
were consolidated into one larger piece of land by acquiring or swapping the property.
 Except for Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Manipur, Nagaland, Tripura, and sections of Andhra Pradesh,
almost every state has approved legislation allowing for the consolidation of holdings.
 In Punjab and Haryana, there was compulsory consolidation of the lands, whereas in other
states law provided for consolidation on voluntary basis; if the majority of the landowners
agreed.

Advantages of Land Consolidation:

 It prevented the endless subdivision and fragmentation of land Holdings.

 It saved the time and labor of the farmers spent in irrigating and cultivating lands at different
places.
 The reform also brought down the cost of cultivation and reduced litigation among farmers as
well.

Limitations of Land Consolidation:

 Due to a lack of significant political and administrative backing, progress in holding consolidation
has been slow, save in Punjab, Haryana, and western Uttar Pradesh, where the process has been
completed.
o However, due to later fragmentation of territory due to population pressure, these
states required re-consolidation.
 The initiative failed to fulfil its goal because farmers are hesitant to surrender their lands for the
new ones.
 Farmers argue that their old land is significantly more fertile and productive than the additional
acreage offered by land consolidation.
 Farmers have complained about nepotism and corruption throughout the consolidation process.
 The farmers complained that the rich and influential often bribes and manage to get fertile and
well-situated land, whereas the poor farmers get unfertile land.
Need of re-consolidation:

 The average holding size in 1970-71 was 2.28 hectares (Ha), which has come down to 1.08 Ha in
2015-16.

 While Nagaland has the largest average farm size, Punjab and Haryana rank second and third in
the list respectively.

 The holdings are much smaller in densely populated states like Bihar, West Bengal and Kerala.

Encouragement of cooperative joint farming:

 Co-operative farming is a voluntary organization in which the farmers pool their resources. The
object of this organization is to help each other in agriculture for their common interests. In
other word it is a co-operative among the farmers of limited means.
 In India, majority of the holdings are too small. About 76.4 per cent of the total holdings in
India are below the size of 2 hectares and on these again 28.8 per cent of total operated area
is engaged into these marginal and small holdings.
 Cultivation in such a small holding is uneconomic and unprofitable.
 Farmers retain their right to land.
  Cooperative farming enables them to consolidate their small units of land for better utilization.
 Solves the problem of sub-division and fragmentation of holdings.

Limitations of cooperative farming:

 Attachment to Land: Farmers are unwilling to give up their land rights in favour of society
because they are too attached to it.

 Lack of Cooperative Spirit: Farmers lack a cooperative and loving spirit. They are separated into
caste-based divisions.

 Illiteracy: some of them still cultivate using traditional ways.

 Capital Shortage: Co-operative agricultural societies are likewise experiencing capital shortages
and are unable to satisfy agriculture's expanding demands. These societies' credit facilities are
likewise insufficient.

 Re-Payment of Debt: Sometimes debt is not re-paid in time which creates many problems for
the financial institutions. Some members do not realize their responsibility and it becomes the
cause of failure.

Efforts/steps needed to be taken:

 The government must invest funds so that cooperatives can take the duty of assuring crop
procurement at remunerative pricing, crop storage at the Gram Sabha level, ensuring lower
loans for rural people, and delivering food grains to impoverished families through PDS.
 The Kudumbashree of Kerala and the AMUL model are effective models of cooperation from
which to learn.
 Cooperatives must be founded on a class basis, keeping in mind their class nature. The
cooperative agrarian movement will address caste inequalities, gender discrimination, and
environmental protection.
 Agro-processing plants may be established so that labour may be used in productive activities
other than agriculture.

Cooperative farming has been tried and tested effectively in nations such as the United Kingdom,
Germany, France, and Sweden. The agricultural cooperative movement would play a significant role in
preserving democracy, and it might serve as a model for mobilising people in the unorganised sector
and youth.

Digitization of land records:

 Making land records available to all, to contain/check property frauds, became one of the
objectives of the government of India in the late 1980s.
 To address the same, the Digital India Land Records Modernization Programme (DILRMP) was
launched by the government of India in August 2008
The major features of DILRMP are the following:

 Computerization of all land records including mutations, digitization of maps and integration
of textual and spatial data.
 It will implement The Unique Land Parcel Identification Number (ULPIN) system which will
be a 14 digit - alpha-numeric unique ID for each land parcel to help keep the land record
always up-to-date.
 Survey/re-survey and updating all survey and settlement records including creation of
cadastral records.
 Computerization of registration and its integration with the land records maintenance
system.
o It will be achieved through the National Generic Document Registration System to
provide Nation One Software’ for registration of documents and properties.
 States can add specific features to the land record management system as per their own
needs.
 SMS and email enabled alerts related to transactions on a property.
 Market value information will be provided on the website for the citizens.
 Dashboard for senior authorities for monitoring the outcomes and analysing the
performance or challenges faced by the Sub Registrar's Office (SROs).
 It will allow sharing of data and their use by important government authorities/
stakeholders like the Revenue Department (Income Tax) with a data policy and standards in
place.

Challenges in successful implementation of DILRMP can be the following:

 Out-dated land records: Large scale changes in land use and fragmentation of holdings have
occurred which has rendered changes in ground realities and land records available with the
state governments.
 Unclear ownership details: Land records in India are vague and unclear and therefore, do
not guarantee ownership.
 Poor coordination among different departments: Land related data are scattered and
maintained by different departments, making it cumbersome to access them. For example,
sale deeds are stored in the registration department, maps are stored in the survey
department, and property tax receipts are with the revenue department.
 Lack of infrastructure: There are only a few modern record rooms and land record
management centres equipped with computers, broadband internet connectivity, bio-
metric device, web camera etc. at tehsil, block levels.

Measures to ensure smooth roll out of DILRMP include:

 Changes in existing laws: A system of registered property titles will have to be

developed as the primary evidence of ownership. All existing land records will have to
be updated to ensure that they are free of any legal dispute.
 Consolidation of land records: Information on land records, which is currently spread
across multiple departments, will have to be consolidated. :
  Government assurance: The government should provide guaranteed titles and
compensation in case of any ownership disputes.
 Capacity building: Training and capacity building of the officers and staff implementing
the programme for efficient use needs to be undertaken. .
 Integration with existing mechanisms: External system integrations. With eSign, eKYC,
payment gateways, PAN verification, Record of Rights etc. Should be readily provided
along with digitization of land records for reducing the number of processes and time
taken.
 The implementation of DILRMP has already been completed up to.90 percent in various
states. Once fully completed, DILRMP will give a boost to the economy as “it will reduce
land disputes, curb fraudulent transactions and will reduce number of processes and
time taken in land

Why did the digitization of land records fail?

 Due to a lack of clear and adequate data, as well as mismanagement among the various
agencies responsible for land records, the data registered at various government levels is not
similar.
 Over the last decade, progress has been unequal, with some states performing better than
others, including Madhya Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Chhattisgarh, Tamil Nadu, and
Maharashtra. Even in advanced states like Maharashtra, there remain obstacles.
 New computerized land records do a decent job of representing land ownership, but less so of
documenting encumbrances and land parcel area.

Achievements of land reforms:

 The elimination of intermediaries such as zamindars was the most successful of all changes.
 There is enough research to suggest that absentee ownership was significantly less severe in the
1970s than it was in the 1950s. Absentee ownership had decreased far more in unirrigated
regions than in irrigated areas. The transfer of land to resident cultivators as a result of the
forewarning effect of the tenancy and ceiling regulations occurred on a far bigger scale in arid
areas.
 The avarice of the large landowners was restrained.
 The fall of the feudal framework.
 It resulted in an increase in landless labour as previous tenants were evicted.
 Rich peasants favoured further mechanisation in order to avoid wage disputes with the new
labour.
 Tenancy reforms were most successful in Kerala and West Bengal.
o In the late 1960s a massive program of conferment of titles to lands, to hutment
dwellers and tenants were highly beneficial.
o Operation Barga: In West Bengal Operation Barga was launched in 1978 with the
objective of achieving the registration of sharecroppers and provide them permanent
 occupancy and heritable rights and a crop division of 1:3 between landowner and
sharecropper.
 Cooperatives and community development programs were started.

What were the Factors responsible for the success of land reforms?

 Agrarian difficulties fueled political mobilization throughout the freedom struggle. This political
knowledge and education helped the adoption of land reforms to boost agricultural growth.
 Governmental political will. To overcome these obstacles, the government passed legislation
and made constitutional revisions.
 Kissan Sabhas and Farmers Associations also assisted farmers in organizing themselves and
raising their demands, which was acknowledged and enthusiastically supported across the
political spectrum.
 The spirit of the freedom struggle and the triumph of independence instilled in India the desire
to usher in a new age in which prosperity, progress, and riches would be shared evenly.
 Judicial backing and progressive interpretations of constitutional provisions aided in land
reforms. Without abolishing Rights to property as fundamental right and providing for the
exception of land reform legislations through IX schedule it would have been an uphill task to
recognize land holdings.

Significant od Land reform’s:

 Enhancing Agricultural Productivity:

o Previously, enormous tracts of wasteland owned by zamindars/big farmers were
uncultivated. These lands were handed to landless laborer’s, resulting in an increase in
cultivable land and increased food security.
o Equal land allocation will stimulate intensive cultivation, resulting in enhanced
agricultural production and higher output levels.
o According to several farm management studies undertaken in India, small farms
produced more per hectare. This is due to the fact that family members tend tiny farms.
o Because of advancements in agricultural technology, even one hectare of land is now an
economically viable holding. As a result, the limited size of holdings owing to the ceiling
will have no negative impact on agricultural productivity.
o At least some of the Land owners shifted to direct ‘efficient’ farming in order to get
‘exemption’ from land ceiling.
o Consolidation of landholdings ensures that small bits of land belonging to the same
small landowner but situated at some distance from one another could be consolidated
into a single holding to boost viability and productivity.

 Social Equity:
o In a land-scarce country with a significant portion of the rural population living below
the poverty line, the case for ensuring that everyone has access to some minimum
amount of land appears compelling from the standpoint of
o In a rural economy, whoever controls land, controls power.
 o Tenancy laws have protected tillers from exploitation by providing them with security of
tenure and establishing maximum chargeable rents.
o A land ceiling decreased power disparities among villages.
o Intermediary rights have been eliminated. India is no longer seen as having feudalism at
the top and serfdom at the bottom.
o Encouraged a cooperative atmosphere among the communities.
o It will aid in the development of cooperative farming.

Government Efforts/steps:

 Digitization of land records:

o Making land records available to everybody in order to contain/check property scams
became one of the governments of India's goals in the late 1980s.
o The government of India started the Digital India Land Records Modernization
Programme (DILRMP) in August 2008 to solve this issue.
o The program's major goal was to computerize all land records, including mutations, to
increase transparency in the land record management system, to digitise maps and
surveys, to update all settlement records, and to reduce the scope of land disputes.
 Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and
Resettlement Act, 2013
o Currently land acquisition is governed by the Right to Fair Compensation and
Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act, 2013 which
came into force on January 1, 2014.
o Prior to this, the Land Acquisition Act, 1894 governed land acquisition
 Model Agricultural Land Leasing Act, 2016
o NITI Aayog came up with the Model Agricultural Land Leasing Act, 2016. To review the
existing agricultural tenancy laws of various states, the NITI Aayog had set up
an Expert Committee on Land Leasing headed by T Haque.
o The model Act seeks to permit and facilitate leasing of agricultural land to improve
access to land by the landless and marginal farmers.
o It also provides for recognition of farmers cultivating on leased land to enable them to
access loans through institutional credit.
o The Prime Minister’s Office has set up a Group of Ministers (GoM) to resolve
differences over the proposed Model Agricultural Land Leasing Act, 2016.
 Draft Model Contract Farming Act, 2018
o Contract farming- Draft Model Contract Farming Act, 2018 has been released to
strengthen rules and regulations regarding this.

 SWAMITVA scheme:
o On Panchayati Raj Diwas (April 24th), the Prime Minister of India launched ‘Swamitva
Yojana’ or Ownership Scheme to map residential land ownership in the rural sector
using modern technology like the use of drones.
  The scheme aims to revolutionize property record maintenance in India. The
scheme is piloted by the Panchayati Raj ministry. The residential land in villages
will be measured using drones to create a non-disputable record.
 Property card for every property in the village will be prepared by states using
accurate measurements delivered by drone-mapping. These cards will be given
to property owners and will be recognized by the land revenue records
department.

Advantages of the scheme:

 The delivery of property rights through an official document will enable villagers to
access bank finance using their property as collateral.
 The property records for a village will also be maintained at the Panchayat level,
allowing for the collection of associated taxes from the owners. The money generated
from these local taxes will be used to build rural infrastructure and facilities.
 Freeing the residential properties including land of title disputes and the creation of an
official record is likely to result in appreciation in the market value of the properties.
 The accurate property records can be used for facilitating tax collection, new building
and structure plan, issuing of permits and for thwarting attempts at property grabbing.
 The new scheme is likely to become a tool for empowerment and entitlement, reducing
social strife on account of discord over properties.

Concerns:

 According to the Digital India Land Records Modernization Programme dashboard,

land records in 90.1 percent of villages throughout the country have been digitized.
 According to a study, just 61% of these localities had digitized mutation records. The
remaining 39% of documents may have been digitized, but they have not yet been
updated.
 Only 41% have a clear record of rights; maps have only been connected in 40% of the
cases. Only 11% of villages have had survey or resurvey work undertaken.
 A property card may assist get credit, but without valid titles, it is useless.
 The large-scale tenancy envisaged by the new agricultural reforms may not occur unless
the Centre implements a complete land titling law.

State Government initiatives:

 Digitization:

o First, the Bhoomi Project in Karnataka led the way even before the Union government
got into the act. The state government began to digitize land records at the turn of the
century.
o Second, the Raj asthan legislature passed the Rajasthan Urban Land (Certification of
Titles) Act in April 2016.
o Third, Andhra Pradesh has taken a leap into the future. Its state government has tied up
with a Swedish firm to use new blockchain technology to prevent property fraud.

 Tamil Nadu became the first state to pass Contract Farming Act, as per the central guidelines.
Way forward:

Ernest Feder, a specialist of rural economics:

"...though since 1947, India has enacted perhaps more land reform legislation than any other country in
the world, it has not succeeded in changing in any essentials the power pattern, the deep economic
disparities, nor the traditional hierarchical nature of intergroup relationships which govern the economic
life of village society."

 Adoption of model land leasing law as suggested by NITI Ayog to aid in drawing private
investment to agriculture.
 Promoting cooperative farming by establishing cooperatives at village level.
 Governments providing the farm equipment’s and machineries on lease to small and marginal
farmers to increase the productivity
 Achieving the convergence of MNREGA with farming to address the issue of farm labour crisis
haunting agricultural sector.
 Consolidation of land holdings so that huge machineries can be utilized
 FDI in agricultural sector
 Co-operative farming
 Use of land banks and land pooling

Conclusion:

 New and innovative land reform measures should be adopted with new vigor to eradicate rural
poverty. Modern land reforms measures such as land record digitization must be accomplished
at the earliest.
 Thus to achieve an aspirational goal of India becoming a $5-trillion economy by 2025 the
imperative need today is to unleash the power of land and reap fruits by bringing about the
much-needed Land Reforms which are waiting to see the light of the day.