Land Reforms in West Bengal

Geography and demography of the state

1. Situated in the Eastern Coast of India,
bordering the states of Bihar and Orissa and
the neighbouring country Bangladesh.
2. Population density of 904 per square
kilometers as compared to the national
average of 324.
3. In 2001, 71.97 per cent of population was
in rural areas.
4. In 1999-2000, 65.9 per cent of household
budget was spent on rice consumption.
5. In 1999-2000, 90.62 per cent of total area
for cultivation of food grains was under rice.
6. Area under food grains in 1999-2000 was
4.1 times the area under non food grains
(cash crops and vegetables)
7. In 1999-2000, 92.6 per cent of total food
grains production was in the form of rice.
8. In 2000, from administrative point of view
West Bengal had 17 districts divided into
341 development blocks and 3248 cluster of
villages having 40,911 villages (called
Mouzas).
 History of Land Tenure
 West Bengal had a land tenure system known
as Permanent Settlement which promoted
absentee landlords called Zamindars
 The revenue collection pressure created a layer
of intermediaries
 The lowest strata of actual cultivators were the
sharecroppers, known mainly as Bargadars
 After Independence in 1947, Zamindars were
replaced by new landlords called Jotedars
 The Jotedars, mainly rentiers from the
erstwhile zamindars, again turned out to be
not the actual cultivators in general and many
of them were also absentees.
 The rights of the Bargadars, in spite of
various land reforms measures, remained
insecure till the late seventies. Most of them
were unrecorded, having no hereditary rights
of cultivation. The share of crop violated legal
stipulations more than often. Threat of
eviction always kept the sharecroppers on the
defensive.
Leadership, Commitment and
Politics of Change
 The major movement of Sharecroppers to ensure
2/3rds share of crop was backed by the
communists dominated Peasants organization All
India Kisan Sabha (AIKS)
 The Congress party, which had socialist leanings
but basically a centre-left party, ruled since
independence and had the backing of the jotedars
 The First non-congress communists dominated
government was installed in 1967
 For the first time, sharecroppers showed some
militancy in the rural areas
 The present Communist party of India (Marxist) led
left front came to power in 1977 general election
 In 1977, an amendment to land reforms act made
cultivation in absentia an exclusionary clause for
eviction of sharecroppers. Sharecroppers were
provided heritable rights and the place of crop
share was shifted to sharecroppers homestead plot.
 In 1978, Registration of names of sharecroppers
started in an unprecedented scale under the name
“Operation Barga” along with redistribution of
ceiling-surplus land.
Who are the major stakeholders in the Land
Reform process?
 Sharecroppers were the direct beneficiary. By
implication the poorer sections of peasantry,
namely, marginal and small farmers, benefited the
most
 Agricultural Labourers, the other major section of
the rural poor, were the other beneficiary. They
benefited directly from redistribution of confiscated
land and indirectly from any wage rate rise.
 The major section to lose was the absentee
landlords
The major issue in the political economy of
reform is whether the target group was
correctly chosen?
 Data just before independence in 1945, did show
that more than 1/3rd of operational area was under
sharecropping.
 Data also show that percentage of families with
primary occupation as agricultural labourers had a
continuous decline during the 15 years prior to
independence in 1945.
 Thus, the decision to concentrate on sharecroppers
during post-independence years was politically
correct
 Number of Bargadars Registered

Year Cumulative Nos. Registered

(Cumulative % to total)

Up to 1978 0.25 Million (11%)

(Pre OB)
1981 1.20 Million (52%)
1984 1.31 Million (57%)
1991 1.43 Million (62%)
1995 1.47 Million (64%)
 Share of West Bengal in implementation of
distribution of ceiling surplus land among
all major rice producing states in India as
in March, 2001

States Per cent to National Total

West Bengal 47.14
Andhra Pradesh 9.83
Uttar Pradesh 5.40
Tamil Nadu 2.62
Institutional Innovations and
Implementation
1. Bringing Bureaucracy close to the Villages
 Replacement of traditional Revenue Court approach to
register names of sharecroppers by the Rural Camp
Method
 Operation Barga was carried out in six stages-
a. Identification of villages with the help of
settlement records and peasants
organisations
b. Squads of Officers from Land Settlement
and Land Management Branch formed
 c. Dates of evening camps were settled
d. Government Officials explained the
benefits of registration of names
e. Next day was reserved for claim
verification
f. Government officers recorded names of
the sharecroppers and gave them
certificates. They were entered into the
village records later.
Thus, essentially, quasi property rights were
Bestowed upon registered sharecroppers
2. Delegation of financial and planning
activities to Local Elected Government
 Local elected government have three tiers,
known as ‘Panchayats’
 Top tier worked at the district level called
Zilla Parishads
 The next tier worked at the block level
called Panchayat Samitis
 The lowest tier worked at the grassroots
level of a cluster of small number of villages
called Gram Panchayats (GPs)
Quantifiable Tasks of Panchayats
 To carry out central government funded schemes like
Food for Work (aimed at creating off season jobs) or
creation of non-farm rural assets. The major success
was in the creation of unsurfaced rural roads and
clearing of ponds and tanks.
 Distribution of Minikits, a package of seeds, fertiliser and
pesticide
 Maintenance of tube wells for irrigation through the
creation of beneficiaries committees
Non-quantifiable Tasks of Panchayats
 Role of conflict resolution in case of disputes regarding
land, water and wages, as well as other social problems.
Grass roots Democracy
 From 1985 onwards, the panchayats enjoyed
financial devolution and planning responsibilities.
 Operation Barga created more balance of power in
the village democracy
 All members of an electoral constituency are
supposed to meet twice every year in Gram Sansads
to discuss village level plans.
 In 2000, there were 3000 Gram Sansads of which
almost 90 per cent held meetings.
 Percentage of electorates attending meeting had
shown a downward trend from 30 percent in 1996 to
5 percent in 2000.
 Impact of Land Reforms
 Impact on Poverty
80
70
60
50
40 West Bengal
30 India

20
10
0
72-73 87-88 93-94 99-00
Rates of Growth of Rice production

5
4.5
4
3.5
3
2.5 West Bengal
2 India
1.5
1
0.5
0
51-67 78-95
Distribution of Operational Holdings

Year West Bengal India

Below 2 Below 2
hectares hectares
Number 91.4% 78.2%

Area 66.46% 32.4%

Regression Results for Causality for cultivators
Having operational land below 2 hectares

1) Log(yield) = -0.144 + 0.289** log(roads) + 0.359*

log(labour) + 0.370*inter 25,
Adjusted R2 = 0.310
 
2) Log(yield) = 0.142 + 0.313** log(roads) + 0.292**
log(labour) + 0.370***inter 20,
Adjusted R2 = 0.248
Note: *, **, and *** refer to significant at 1, 5 and 10 per
cent levels respectively
 
Learning and Experimentation
The strengths
 Strong Political will backed by historical support
to peasant struggles of the Left parties
 Choice of the right target group, namely small
scale sharecropping tenants and landless
agricultural labourers
 Quasi property rights bestowed on the
sharecroppers increasing their incentives
 Innovative implementation process
 Better balance of rural power
 Active involvement of local level elected
governments in developmental works, especially
construction of roads and excavation of canals
and Tanks
 Conflict resolution by the local level elected
representatives

The weaknesses
 Land dispossession especially of the redistributed
landholders
 Insignificant rise of agricultural real wages
 The number of cultivators as a proportion of agricultural
workers is going down
 Poor Attendance in the village level meetings of the
panchayats
 Questions regarding fairness in electoral process
 Indifferent attitude towards financial devolutions and
delegation of planning responsibilities to panchayats by
the state government
Future Directions
To sustain fruits of land reform, diversification of
production base and increase in non-farm activities
are a must. Along with that, serious thought to be
given on strengthening of grass roots democracy.