LAND REFORMS: Failed Promise or Social Justice

LAND IS THE KEY TO FIGHT POVERTY. HOW CAN WE FIGHT POVERTY WHILE OUR LAND IS NOT SECURED

1. Why is the meaning of land reforms?

• Reform means improving something by correcting the faults.
• Land reforms mean that there were some systemic and institutional problems in the ownership pattern of land which was to be corrected.
• Broadly, it signifies the redistribution of land ownership from the Zamindars to the landless labourers owing to certain conditions. 

2. What was the pattern of land ownership before land reforms?

• In the areas of Permanent settlement, the Zamindars were made the owners of the land permanently. Earlier the peasant itself was the owner and the Zamindars were the official who would collect the revenue on behalf of the state. But, why British made them the owner?
• It is because in the case of rain failure leading to crop failure the British were not getting revenues. This hurt their aim of ruthless exploitation of Indian to finance their trade elsewhere. So, they wanted fixed revenue which should come to them even in the case of rain failure. Thus, they settled the issue by fixing the revenue permanently with the Zamindar.
• They also assumed that by being the owner of land the Zamindar will invest into the land to increase its productivity. As he have to give a predetermined fix amount to the British he can keep the extra revenue earned from the increased productivity.
• But, Indians think differently than the British. Rather than increasing the productivity they brought forest land under agriculture. They resorted to rack-renting i.e. extracting too much rent from the peasant. It led to the progressive under-development of Indian agriculture. The peasant (who is a tenant on his own land) had no incentive to work efficiently. 
• Moreover, the Zamindar settled in cities leaving the responsibility of tax collection to some other intermediary. This further led to increase in burden on the peasant. Sometimes, 95% of the produce was taken away as the rent. If he is unable to pay the rent then he will be evicted of his tenancy and other hard working tenant will be hired by the Zamindar. Thus, the tenancy was also not protected. 
• In Mahalwari and Ryotwari areas also the land alienation was common. As the revenue payment was high, the peasant will go to moneylender who will keep land as a mortgage and finally take it in the case of non-payment in time.

3. What were the effects of this pattern of ownership of land?

• Indebtedness
• Land Alienation
• Absentee Landlord-ism
• Famines and mass deaths
• Decreasing productivity

4. How Indian government planned to tackle these issues?

• Not difficult to guess, by the various agendas which were collectively called as land reforms
• Abolition of Intermediaries.
• Tenancy reforms involving rent regulation.
• Land ceiling and the redistribution of surplus land.
• Consolidation of land holdings.

5. How far the land reforms became successful in India?

• Largely they were unsuccessful, except West Bengal. Left government ruled there for 34 years because of that one single achievement. Narendra Modi should learn something and start reversing his policies of forceful land acquisition. 
• Regarding abolition of intermediaries it was a great success.
• But, tenancy reforms and regulations failed. The strict tenancy laws led to the forceful eviction of tenants by the landlords. In many places the tenancy became informal and oral.
• Even the objective of redistribution was badly affected. Landlords declared their son as different families to get more land. Even if they had extra land they gave it to their servants and relatives on paper but in practice it belonged to the landlord (Benami Holdings). Government officials also helped these powerful people to make the holdings benami.
• In consolidation, the powerful land owners got the fertile land and the poor got the infertile land. 
• On an average, 1.1% of the land was declared as surplus which was available for redistribution. West Bengal declared 10% land as surplus. 
• Now, after liberalization and globalization it is not possible to go for further land reforms. If any state government talks about it now then the private investment will go away. So, Modi will never talk about it. It means he will lose Gujarat soon. 

DISABILITY: Being Different or Disadvantaged

1. Who are the disabled people?

• Disabled people are those who have various impairments
• These impairments can be physical, mental, intellectual and sensory.
• They hinder the effective participation of the disabled person (in society) on an equal basis with others.

2. In what way does disability leads to dis-empowerment?

• Any kind of physical disability is a biological deficiency.
• This deficiency leads to social discrimination and exclusion.
• Because of this hostility from society, the environment is also not favorable to them.
• This mismanagement of environment increases the problems of the disabled.
• Gradually, there develops prejudice and it results in inferiority complex among the disabled which impairs their growth. 
• Due to stigma and prejudice the disabled people don't get jobs leading to poverty and deprivation.
• Children and women are more at risk of violence, injury or abuse.

3. What is the magnitude and extent of disability in India?

• There are two major sources of statistics related to disability in India, they are NSSO survey and Census of India
• In 2011, 2.21% of the total population is disabled.
•  Disabled males are more in number than females.
• It is more in rural areas than urban areas.
• Scheduled Classes have highest number of disabled people among all the castes. 
• Various types of disabilities in decreasing order are in movement, hearing and seeing.
• Various disabilities increases with age group (you know why) but the mental retardation is maximum in the age group of 10-19. (Think Why)

4. What are the various laws and government schemes related to disabled people?

• We have moved from a welfare oriented approach to rights based approach towards the disabled people. Thus, we have enacted various acts and policies in that regard. 
• Rehabilitation Council of India Act, 1992 which deals with the development of manpower for providing rehabilitation services.
• Equal Opportunities Act, 1995 which provides for education, employment, creation of a barrier free environment and social security
• Mental Disabilities Act, 1999 which has provisions for legal guardianship of the four categories and creation of an enabling environment for their independent living.
• Mental Health Act, 1997. This is dealt by the ministry of family and health welfare and the previous three by the ministry of social justice.
• There is a department of disability affairs under the ministry of social justice.
• National policy for persons with disabilities 2006 recognizes that the people with disability are a valuable human resource and seeks to create an environment that provides them equal opportunities, protection of their rights and full participation in the society.
• Deendayal Disabled Rehabilitation scheme provides financial assistance to NGOs for providing education, vocational training and rehabilitation of the disabled people.
• National scholarship schemes for students with disabilities under national fund as well as trust fund which provides financial assistance to pursue post matriculation, professional and technical courses
• Rajiv Gandhi National Fellowship scheme to enable students with disabilities to pursue M.Phil and Ph.D courses. 
• 3% of vacancies in case of direct recruitment are reserved for persons with disabilities. Out of which 1% each shall be reserved for blindness, hearing impairment and locomotor disability.

 5. Even after having so many forward looking policies and laws the conditions of disabled people are low. Why?

• The same old story of poor implementation by the authorities and the lack of awareness among the people. 
• Lack of funds, loopholes in the system of selection and identification and services confined to only urban areas are the other limitations. 
• Only 2/29 states have draft disability policies.
• Only 30% of the disabled people are employed. In spite of reservations the share of disabled people in employment is 0.5%. Majority of the disabled people are either self employed or casual workers.

  

SELF HELP GROUPS: Collective Orientation or Financial Inclusion

1. What is a Self Help Group?

• It is a small democratically formed group of not more than 20 people who come together voluntarily to attain certain collective and social goals.
• Its purpose is to build the functional capacity of the poor and the marginalized which help them to get rid of common problems such as unemployment, illiteracy, etc
• Savings is the main pillar of the SHG.
• It demands discipline and responsibility on the part of each member of society for its successful functioning.

2. When did this SHG movement started in India?

• It was started as a pilot project in 1986-87 by NABARD.
• Formal SHG-Bank linkage started in 1992 in Karnataka. 
• Today, around 60 lakh SHGs with 10 crore people and Rs 6500 crores of bank balance are linked with banks.
• Around 44% of these SHGs are in south India and only 20% in central and north east India.
• 90% of SHGs consists exclusively of women.

3. What is the structure and functioning of a SHG?

• It is a group having between 10 to 20 members.
• A member is selected as animator (2 years) and two as representatives.
• They also elect a management committee of five members.
• The group meets every week primarily to collect savings and give out loans.
• The rules and rates of interest are decided by the members itself. 
• Profit is distributes annually at the end of each year.

4.  What are the benefits of SHGs?

• Increase in assets of the members. Now they can afford to have TV, refrigerator, washing machine, etc.
• Development of savings habit among the people
• Shift from consumption loan to income generation loan.
• Employment rate increased leading to more income generation and removal of poverty.
• Increase in women's assertiveness leading to gender equality.
• Social integration among the people as they interact and understand each other's problems.
• Reduced dependency on money lenders and enhanced self esteem and self confidence.
• Increased financial inclusion has led to better nutrition levels and checked IMR, MMR, etc.
• Family spending on educating the children has increased.
• It led to socio-economic empowerment of the people from lowest strata leading to social justice.

5. What are the issues related to their proper functioning?

• To maintain their participative character: Because of the patronage and subsidies provided by the government and panchayats there occurs politicization of SHGs which hurts the basic spirit of SHGs.
• To expand the SHG movement to credit deficit areas of the country: In those areas where there is lack of financial infrastructure there is need for cooperative action and social mobilization of people into SHGs.
• Extension of SHGs to the urban areas: Most of the urban poor are migrants from the rural areas and don't have documentary evidence to benefit from financial services. So, there is need for SHGs among the rural poor.
• Issues of quality: The quality of their products doesn't match to that of corporates. Also, they lack skills, scale of operations and efficiency as compared to the corporates.
• Issues of sustainability: They are heavily dependent upon their promoters such as NGOs or government. Training must be given to them in terms of book keeping and financial management.
• Dominance of patriarchal mentality creates obstacles for the participation of women.
• Incidences of misappropriation of funds maligns the spirit and ideology of the movement. 
• They don't go for cost benefit analysis before making investment.

 6. Why there is need for Corporate-SHG linkage for rural markets?

• SHGs can act as marketing channel for the corporates as the rural areas form a big untapped market for the corporate goods.
• Other benefits are availability of raw materials in rural areas, brand awareness can be increased and business expansion.
• Benefits for SHGs are secured business and revenue, scale of production can be achieved, capital, skills and technology benefits can be achieved and social status can be improved.

SOCIAL MEDIA: Useful or Useless

1. What is social media?

• It is a term used for a group of internet based applications that allow the creation and exchange of user generated content.
• It provides an excellent platform to discuss issues. share and even create information.
• This information can be in the form of text, image, audio and video.
• Various websites used for this purpose are Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, MySpace, etc. (Look at the picture above)

2. How has this social media impacted the lives of people?

• It has affected the lives of youngsters more than anyone else.
• Today, youngsters are leading two lives. One real and the other virtual.
• Unable to make a proper balance between the two, youngsters are alienating the people surrounding them in real life.
• They are affected by the negative feelings of envy and jealousy by comparing themselves with their friends who upload their pictures of party and enjoyment. For e.g. my previous flatmate who was preparing for civil services used to frequently lose his motivation by looking at the pictures of his college mates partying in USA.
• It also creates disturbance for them in studies due to lack of concentration.
• Various health issues such as lethargy, sleep deprivation and strain on eyes are common these days. Many students can be found online at 1 a.m.in the night when they have board exam in the morning tomorrow.
• Also, the language skills of youngster are going down . 
• Other negative impacts of social media are: MMS, videos and pictures can be misused, cyber bullying leading to suicides, anonymity leading to criminal tendencies, no privacy of data, cyber attacks and malwares are on rise. 

3. What is its larger impact on democracy and politics?

• As anybody and everybody can create information, it has led to democratization of information and has preserved the ideal of free speech.
• In this way it provides voice to the voiceless or the powerless people. 
• It provides new ways of channelizing public opinion and encouraging participation in political and civic activities. Various examples are Arab spring, Anna Hazare movement, Delhi gang rape case and online petitions.  
• People can critically monitor the actions of government and demand accountability from the bureaucrats.
• Today, many political parties maintain an updated website and political leaders are active on social media. Thus, it is being used as an effective tool for political communication. 
• By making voting online will lead to increase in political participation of these netizens.
• Tolerance for cultural diversity is growing. Various identities such as tribals, regional and national are existing alongside. Thus, there is development of  horizontal ties among people rather than vertical and hierarchical ties.
• Businesses are reaching directly to the people. Two way communication between the customers and  the businessmen is possible leading to feedback and improvement in service delivery.
• In education, various online open course are widening the horizons of learning. The learning experiences have widened by using animation, interactive story and cartoons.

4. How has this social media impacted the functioning of mainstream media?

• It has challenged the monopoly of newspapers and TV channels in providing news to the people.
• It has challenged the credibility of mainstream media.Now, the mainstream media can't hide news otherwise social media will report it. For e.g. Mainstream media didn't report much on Assam riots but social media did report.
• Today, newspapers and channels have their special reporters who monitor Facebook and twitter for the breaking news.  
• Actually both of these are complementary. For transnational coverage of domestic affairs we need social media and for nationwide coverage of any event on social media we need mainstream media.

5. What are the limitations of social media?

• There is a large digital divide i.e. only 15% of people have internet connection. 
• Also there is rural urban divide among the people.
• It is restricted to only English speaking classes and it may hinder the growth of social media in future.

6. Should social media be regulated?

• In social media there is unchecked sharing of information. There is no authenticity of information and the information can harm or hurt any group or person. For e.g. North east people fled to Assam when a rumor was spread on social media that Muslim fundamentalists can retaliate after Assam riots.
• As the potential to harm is much more than expected , we need some form of regulation. 
• Government must build its capacity to block the potential websites and webpages which can create disturbances.
• Government must use social media itself to give more information to counter the misinformation.

7. Do you think section 66(A) of IT Act has been unfair towards freedom of expression through social media?

• This act says that any person who send by computer any information that is grossly offensive or have menacing character will be punished. For e.g. circulating the objectionable pics without permission can come under this provision.
• If the person knows that the information is false and is spread for the purpose of causing annoyance, inconvenience, injury, hatred, ill will or insult will also come under this act. For e.g. spreading of video during Muzaffarnagar riots can come under this provision.
• Also, if an e-mail is send for causing inconvenience, annoyance, deceive or misled will be covered under this section. Therefore, if you get the e-mails saying that you have won 1 crore as a lucky draw or King of Samoa is keeping his money in your custody then these can be booked under this section.
• Various unreasonable applications of this act which were in news are: Jadavpur university professor was booked for a political cartoon about Didi, a businessman made a defamatory tweet against the son of Chidambaram, Aseem Trivedi for drawing cartoons of parliament to depict its ineffectiveness. Two girls were booked for questioning the shutdown of Mumbai on the demise of Bal Thackrey. 
• One common thing in all these cases is that the affected party was having a lot of influence in politics. Power was applied while slapping the charges and not mind. India is a diverse society where people can have different and conflicting views. To scare everybody by the unreasonable application of law defeats the purpose of law itself. It also undermines the democracy. Before applying the charges, the police must look into the intentions of the person. Also, they must look into the larger impacts of their act on free speech, critical thinking among the masses and the sensitivity of the people. How can they punish a cartoon which makes a point against the current state of affairs. Without critical thinking democracy won't survive. If these people have guts then reply in the same peaceful way. If Trivedi made some cartoon of parliament then it is the politicians who are responsible for this. they must go and run the parliament first.  
• After many debates and discussion this section of the act has been amended and before applying the charges under this act, permission needs to be taken from an officer not below the rank of DCP level in rural and urban areas and IGP in metros. I hope the misuse of act wil be reduced now.