“Landless families will be endowed with land through implementation of land ceiling and land redistribution legislation. No reversal of  ceiling legislation will be permitted” 

New Vision for Land Reform

1. The urgency of land reform in India stems from land’s critical role in sustaining basic human needs. Since Independence, land reforms have occupied center stage in the nation’s economic policy and development. At the current juncture, the sustainability and success of India’s economic development is being critically observed around the world. A serious revision and reassessment of land policy is necessary if our country hopes to realize the possibilities of broad-based economic growth.
   
   
2. A new vision for land reform emanates from our Constitution, which promised people a decent living standard and a means of survival. But to date, for many, the existing mainstream development policies and programs remain out of reach.
   
   
3. Although there have been land reform laws adopted by all States in the country they have only been partially successful. Their overall performance has been inadequate (i.e. land ceiling, tenancy, right to the tiller, land consolidation, etc.), and increasingly, these land reform laws are self-defeating. Often, they lead to disempowerment of a large number of small and marginal farmers. These insufficient land reform laws have failed to provide land to landless. Moreover, in states where they have had some initial success, they are being “rolled back” and repealed.
   
   
4. This regression of land reform laws reveals that the critical issues of social equity, empowerment and poverty reduction have not been comprehensively addressed. Abandoned and ignored by the state, the marginalized are compelled into social violence and armed activities to express their disillusionment with democratic processes and institutions. This rural distress has further led to high levels of land alienation/eviction, indebtedness. The extent of poverty caused by landlessness reaches beyond rural areas. Migration to cities is another inescapable result of rural poverty and it further exacerbates problems of infrastructure, food and shelter for the urban working poor.
   
   
5. A variety of inconsistencies emerge over jurisdiction conflict, that is, there is a multiplicity of laws at the state and central level, and it is difficult to judge and ascertain who designs, implements and administers land reform policy. The central government must oversee land laws if it wants to ensure that social equity will be an integral part of national economic growth.
   
   
6. The key components of this New Vision for Land Reform are:
   
   

   • Reduce the number of landless poor through immediate land regularization, and distribution including identification of surplus and ceiling land to ensure livelihood security.
     
     
   • Guarantee land rights to the marginalized poor, i.e. scheduled caste and tribes, dalits, women and other minorities while respecting the principles of social equity, empowerment and inclusion.
     
     
   • Reformulate development policies and programmes in a manner wherein access, use and ownership of land is the central axis for poverty reduction and sustainable development.
     
     
   • Arrest the process of pauperization of marginal and small farmers by addressing issues such as debt burden, mortgaging and distressed selling of land and adequate support base for sustaining agriculture.
     
   • Recognize that the alliance of globalization, liberalization and privatization has initiated a reversal of land reforms through a systematic dismantling of previous legislation and policy. The upward revision of land ceiling, liberalizing tenancy law, increasing corporatization of agriculture, opening up of prime agricultural lands, wastelands, mines, water and other natural resources to multinationals and corporate entities.