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Project Report Indira Kranthi Patham-Land Access unit Society for Elimination of Rural Poverty Department of RD, Govt. of AP
BACKGROUND Land represents a fundamental asset to the rural families in our country which comprise a substantial majority of the population. It is a primary source of income, security, and status. Land is one asset which almost every rural man or woman relates to. In the rural areas all the socio-economic privileges and deprivations revolve round land.

For the Government, since independence, land reforms have been a central issue of National Agenda. Recognizing how critical is ownership of land for a poor person, the Government has taken major steps to make sure that the poor get control over the lands by measures like abolition of Zamindari and all intermediaries, tenancy reforms and ceiling on landholdings. Along with the above, such protective enactments which prohibited transfer of land assigned by the Government and also the alienation of tribal lands have been enacted with a view to prevent the poor from losing their lands.

These achievements notwithstanding, the lack of progress in the field implementation of the land reforms programme remain a matter of serious concern. Over a period of time, land reforms have taken a back seat and still remain an unfinished agenda. Suffering from other traits of poverty like lack of voice, bargaining power, access to knowledge etc. the poor also suffer from lack of access to secured title or possession over land. If they have one, they dont have the other. If they have both, their land is locked in litigation, abetted by the pathetic position of Land Records, going through a hierarchy of courts at the end of which they are not sure of getting justice. Lot of attention has been paid on computerization of land records by the government. Though the land record management system is a pre-condition for an effective land reform programme, unfortunately it occupied a prominent place of focus in the Five Year Plans overlooking the need for strengthening the hands of the poor by making them aware of, and realize their rights, leading to them having secured access to land. No doubt the attention which has been paid to the computerization of land records and digitization of cadastral survey maps is well deserved, but in the absence of an efficient enforcement of the rights guaranteed to the poor by several legislations it remains a superficial exercise, a sound body sans its soul. A right does not become a right unless the person to whom it is guaranteed knows it and demands for its fulfillment. The great lacuna in the Land Administration has been that

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the poor were not made aware of their land rights that are upheld by various pro-poor legislations or if they were aware, the implementation mechanism was not fairly equipped to enforce them and in many cases was not accessible to them. A Land Right is the right to own, enjoy and dispose the land without any legal obstacle or obstruction. It is having absolute title over the land, complete with all required documents and also having the physical possession of the land. The protection of the rights of the poor should be the focus area for Land Administration. When we look for ways to reverse the situation in favor of the poor so that they can gain access to land, credit, technology, markets and other productive services, it seems possible only when they also become active partners in the development of government policies and programs affecting their livelihood. The key to success would be the strong organizations of the poor vociferously demanding the realization of their land rights the precursor to which is the awareness of their rights in the first place. Of course, this has to be backed up by equally strong political will of the state to take sides with the poor. IKP-LAND ACCESS

Possession of Land is not just economics. It is a symbol of dignity. It is self-respect, it is politics, it is power. It makes you or unmakes you. You are worth the earth you possess.

Recognizing land as a critical resource for the poor during the formulation of Andhra Pradesh Rural Poverty Reduction Project, the Land Component in Indira Kranthi Patham was sanctioned with an outlay of Rs.52.6 crore rupees. The Land Component of IKP has been working in two directions. One is Land Purchase i.e. securing the poor access to productive lands through facilitating purchase of good quality irrigated lands and the other is Land Access- facilitating the poor, in convergence with the Revenue Department, to have control over their lands in terms of having secure title, handling their lands locked in courts/disputes, awareness as to the measures taken by the Government to protect the interests of the poor manifested in the form of pro-poor enactments etc. VISION Every rural poor family having land in the state enjoys its land with secured title and possession and accesses land development and productivity enhancement programmes resulting in increased incomes. MISSION Land inventory in all revenue village to know the land issues of the poor and land less poor Multi-pronged approach for getting the land issues of the poor resolved

Ensuring land development activities implemented in lands of SCs/STs under MGNREGS and other programs

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Facilitating land leasing for land less SHG members to increase their income through agriculture allied activities Purchase productive lands for the poor

OBJECTIVES

Secure land rights to the poor through a multi pronged approach by putting in place support mechanisms Facilitate land leasing for land less SC/ST poor families

Link lands of SCs/STs with land development programs under MGNREGS and other programs No single land survey number of ST/ST household shall be left out of the land inventory

NON NEGOTIABLES

PROGRESS

All the survey numbers of the ST/ST household, required development activities shall be covered under land development program of MGNREGS.

Land Purchase:

IKPs Land Purchase programme was the Journey of poor women from laborers to farmers. The objective of IKP Land Purchase was to see that the poor become proud owners of productive lands. Hence the focus was on facilitating the landless poor to purchase productive irrigated lands alone. Purchase process was totally community driven. The VOs played a leading role in identifying the lands, negotiating rates etc. Lands, which were purchased and registered in the names of the women, were exempted from Stamp and Registration fee and Transfer duty by the Govt. 4497.53 acres of land have been purchased by 5304 landless poor women with an investment of Rs.3166 Lakhs in 190 villages of 128 mandals in Andhra Pradesh. 90% of them belong to vulnerable sections like SCs and STs. The land purchase program now has been closed. Land Inventory:

Land Inventory is a process by which the lands of the poor in a village are listed and physically verified to see whether the poor have secured title and possession of the lands. When the Paralegals/Community Surveyors/CRPs initiates the process of preparation of inventory of lands of the poor, they take the basic village revenue record i.e.

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Pahani/Adangal as the basis. They will also consult other important records like the RoR 1 B, Assignment Register etc.

They will record the details of the title and possession as per revenue record and then visit each and every survey number field by field and verify who is in actual enjoyment of the lands. If there is a discrepancy between record and field position, then they will find out the reason for such discrepancy and then record it as an issue which needs to be resolved by the Revenue functionaries. The record thus built is discussed with the community and with the Village Organization to confirm the accuracy. Uniform formats have been developed for recording all the details. After completion of the inventory, the land issues will be culled out from the record and further action of collecting necessary documents/evidence, submitting representation to the revenue officers, following up till resolution will take place. Wherever necessary, the land is surveyed by the community surveyors.

Initially inventory was done for lands of all the poor. During 2009-10, the focus is shifted to SC/ST lands. Land inventory for all SC/ST lands, has been completed in 22833 revenue villages of 954 mandals in the state out of 26614 revenue villages of 1099 mandals (ANNEXURE I). The land inventory details are being digitized now in the districts. Land Access: Poor owning small piece of land either assigned by the government or own land not able to protect their lands in spite of many pro- poor land legislations - Either title is not there for the lands under their enjoyment since ages or possession not shown though Pattas are given- thousands of acres of Inam lands still waiting for settlement. Poor are fighting unsuccessful legal battles in thousands of cases in various courts from the grass root to state level the reason is the same lack of legal awareness and absence of legal support/assistance/aid.

Dalits and Tribals are the most vulnerable groups in terms of land ownership. Statistics show that in spite of large scale government land distribution and protective enactments, ownership of land still eludes them. Land is the principal source of livelihood for the tribals. This principal source of livelihood is under threat from non-tribals. More and more lands are passing into the hands of non-tribals & non-tribals hold as much as 48% of the land in Scheduled Areas. To prohibit transfer of lands in favor of non-tribals, Andhra Pradesh Schedule Areas Land Transfer Regulation (LTR) was enacted in the year 1959 and subsequently amended in 1970, 1971 & 1978. But the tribals are not able to access justice due to factors like lack of legal awareness, absence of legal support, alien adjudicatory system, adversarial adjudicatory system which we adopted from the British, administrative machinery being handicapped, tribals voice not being heard and lack of access to records.

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To address such situations, and to support the poor and the tribals in protecting their rights in land and recognizing the need for a sensitive support mechanism for the poor and facilitators who assist in getting their land issues resolved, the Mandal Samakhyas and Zilla Samakhyas have not only hired the services of people with legal and revenue backgrounds but also are training their own community members in land matters so that they can themselves handle their land problems. It is a multipronged approach where support structures like land centers where required information and records are made available with a panel of lawyers to help them fight out their court cases and a group of youth from the community trained in survey etc. to handle the issue from all the angles. The progress achieved through this system is enclosed in ANNEXURE II. PROJECT AND COMMUNITY STAFF STRUCTURE Project Staff Legal Coordinators Community Surveyors Paralegals MBKs MTCs State 1 0 0 0 0 District 26 0 0 0 0 Mandal 453 372 78 53 0

Legal Coordinators are Law Graduates to provide functional support to the paralegals and Community surveyors, deal with court cases. They work under the control of Zilla Samakhya.

Community Surveyors are youth with technical qualifications and trained in survey, work in the mandals but under the control of Zilla Samakhya MBKs and MTCs are also graduate youth from the community and trained in land and legal matters, work under the control of Mandal Samakhya Revenue Staff on deputation

Paralegals are graduate youth from the community and trained in land and legal matters, work under the control of Mandal Samakhya

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Spl. Gr. Deputy Collector (Director) Deputy Collector (SPM/Addl. PD) Tahsildars (DPM) Retired Tahsildars (Land Manager)

State 1 1 1 0

District 0 3 5

Mandal 0 0 0 0

Land Managers, who are retired revenue officers, manage Land Centers and liaison with Revenue Department, work under the control of Zilla Samakhya CBO STRUCTURE Land Sub committees Zilla Samakhya Sub Committee with 2-3 members Sub Committee with 2-3 members

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Land Subcommittees are formed with 3-5 members at above levels and trained on basics of land records and land enactments. The Committee members participate in Land Inventory and experience sharing cum review sessions conducted fortnightly once a month. CAPACITY BUILDING Trainings Conducted to staff: Legal Coordinators and Land Managers trained by NALSAR and APARD respectively

Village Organization

Mandal Samakhya

Sub Committee with 2-3 members

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Paralegals trained 3 phases of training in the district, at AMR-APARD and NALSAR University of Law NALSAR conducted Paralegal certification course which was completed in December, 2007 Community Surveyors trained for 2 months in AP Survey Training Academy and for 12 months apprenticeship with departmental mandal surveyors

Material developed:

A. Bhoomi Chaitanya Karadeepikalu- process guidelines published by IKP in 200708- developed to guide the paralegals and the community in how to proceed in different kinds of land issues Bhoomi Chaithanya Deepika-1: Assignment in Andhra Area Bhoomi Chaithanya Deepika-2: Assignment in Telangana Area Bhoomi Chaithanya Deepika-4: Ceiling Surplus Lands Bhoomi Chaithanya Deepika-5: Record of Rights Bhoomi Chaithanya Deepika-6: Inam Lands (Telangana Area) Bhoomi Chaithanya Deepika-7: Sada Bainamas Bhoomi Chaithanya Deepika-8: Survey Process

B. Karadeepika on land inventory has been developed to guide the Paralegals, Community Surveyors and others who involve in the land inventory process and community, on understanding land records, land related acts, identifying land issues, etc., Trainers: Sl. No 1 2

C. Hand book for TOTs has also been developed on land inventory to train VSAs and land volunteers (ANNEXURE III). State District Level (State/District) No of Trainers CBO Staff 0 5 0 22 No. of TOTs CBO Staff 0 5 84 500

PARTNERSHIPS Civil Society Organizations:

Apart from the steps taken by the Government, Civil society organizations working on land issues also have attempted innovative experiments to rectify inequities of land ownership in the rural areas. Their wisdom and experience is being used in training the paralegals. The Government has already issued Order institutionalizing convergence

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between the Land Administration, Civil Society Organizations and the community through G.O.Ms.No.1148. Partnership was forged with Praja Chetana, an organization affiliated to AP Vyavsaya Vruttidarula Sangham, for imparting a very good land-skill based training to the Paralegals. NALSAR University of Law, Hyderabad and other Law Colleges An agreement was entered with the NALSAR University of Law, which is one of the prestigious Law Institutions covering the following activities. Selection, training and evaluation of Legal Coordinators. Organizing the Paralegal Certification Course. Research and documentation of issues pertaining to tribal land rights. The first two activities have been completed by the NALSAR University.

MGNREGA:

In the year 2010-11, the Land Access Unit had launched a major initiative of building SC/ST Lands database in partnership with MGNREGA. The Inventory was taken up in 22,325 Revenue Villages of 954 Mandals, which were covered in 3 phases, in the State. The objective was to map the lands of the SCs/STs and to facilitate them to have secured title and possession and also to facilitate the land development under MGNREGS and other programs with increase in incomes by accessing sustainable agriculture programs like CMSA/RFSA etc.

Apart from this, partnerships were entered into with other law colleges for utilizing the services of law students especially in tribal areas. The Law Students have been facilitated with access to the offices and records of the Special Deputy Collectors, Tribal Welfare. They had scrutinized those LTR court cases which have gone against the tribals and prepared ground for filing appeals.

Land Access unit has taken part of formats and module development for land inventory survey, trainings and monitoring the work. The Paralegals and Community Surveyors guided teams of Village Social Auditors (VSAs) and other Land volunteer in preparing the inventory of lands of SCs/STs. About 50,000 Land volunteers/ VSAs were trained and participated in the inventory. All SC/ST households in the village are listed out and door to door survey conducted for obtaining information about their landholdings. Entire cost for printing of formats, payment of resource fee to VSAs and data entry is borne by the MGNREGA. ACHIEVEMENTS Koneru Ranga Rao Land Committee Report

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The IKP Land Unit played a key role in preparation of the report of KRR Land Committee. Series of consultations were organized at AMR-APARD with Revenue officers from all levels, Civil Society Organizations working on land issues etc. The report was presented to the Government and the Government has accepted 90 recommendations out of the total 104 recommendations of the Committee. The recommendations if implemented earnestly will have a far reaching impact on the poor peoples access to land. IKP district land units are also assisting the revenue officers in the implementation of the districts. INNOVATIONS SC/ST land data base: Land inventory for SC/ST lands has already completed in 954 mandals. Digitization of the land inventory records is going on in all the districts. Web software has also been developed to host all the land inventory records farmer wise and survey number wise for the public as well as project to monitor the work. After completion of the data entry, a huge SC/ST land data base is going to be created by hosting the data in to the web. Still there is no caste wise land data in revenue department. Even though the data is not officially certified by the Revenue Department, it can be useful to SC/ST community to view their land details in the web for information sake. It can also be useful to other departments i.e SC Corporation, ST Corporation, etc., to plan any program for SC/ST families. SUSTAINABILITY: Land Centers have been set up to function as single window support centers in Zilla Samakhyas for the poor from where they can access the services of paralegal professionals working on land, surveyors, Revenue functionaries and lawyers. All the important Land Records and other relevant land enactments etc are being made available to the poor in these centers. These Centers will be of great utility to the poor to get their land issues resolved.

Ultimately it is the community which has to be empowered to handle their land issues capably. The support mechanism strives towards transfer of land knowledge and information to the village communities. Getting a land issue resolved is not an easy task for any person, leave alone the poor. Hence the poor require continuous facilitation support till they acquire the knowledge about their land rights and unhindered access to basic land records. LESSONS LEARNT SO FAR CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES Challenges:

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Getting the last mile functionary of the revenue department accept and respond to the support structure Instilling pro-poor perspective in the mainstream department Getting updated revenue and survey records

Opportunities:

Revenue Department at the State and District level responds favourably

DEVELOPMENT OF SOCIAL CAPITAL Land-EGS CRPs:

CBO sub-committee members and community members are very quick in grasping the land related knowledge and skills. There is a great opportunity of these functioning as pressure groups to make the Line Department deliver.

2000 CRPs have been trained to facilitate the CBOs in accessing their rights and entitlements under MGNREGA. These CRPs have also been imparted with basic land related knowledge and they worked on the Land Development component of NREGA. Tribal CRPs:

84 women have been identified as land CRPs from 3 tribal mandals of each ITDA (7 ITDAs) areas and trained on how to identify land issues, tribal acts and rights to create awareness among the tribal community on land rights, train VO Sub Committee members and prepare data base of tribal lands. CONVERGENCE Land Access unit is completely dependent on Revenue department. Without its cooperation and coordination, the land issues identified by the district IKP land staff, will not be resolved. To bring effective convergence among the departments, government of AP issued G.O. No.1148 in the year 2002 to constitute committees at various levels i.e. state, district, divisional, mandal level and meet as often as need to resolve the land issues of the poor. (ANNEXURE IV) Revenue Department: The committees are responsible for achieving the following objectives: Conducting land inventory of lands Inducting the poor in to the lands assigned to them Completion of survey and sub divisional work on land and on record Completion of mutation in the relevant revenue records Completion of issue of Pattadar Passbooks Complete settlement of Inam lands

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MGNREGS (Rural Development):

Physical possession and legal rights are not the only solutions to the poor until the lands are productive. Generally the government assigned lands are hilly, rocky, rain fed and not much productive. Income on these lands is very meager. To improve the productivity in the lands of SC/ST, amendment has been made to the MGNREGS Act in order to take up land development activities in SC/ST lands only, so that the income levels of the families will be improved and value of the lands also goes up.

During the land inventory process, IKP mandal land staff identified land development activities, required in the lands of SC/ST families and shelf of works are prepared for them by MGNREGS staff with approval of Grama Sabha and the activities are taken up. From the land inventory, 17,64,383 land development works have been identified and included in Shelf of Works of NREGA for 10,73,962 SC/ST farmers with 26,65,643 acres with an estimated cost of 8,278 crores. Tribal Welfare: Implementation of the Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, 2007

The Government of India has brought out a landmark enactment impacting the land rights for lakhs of tribals in the form of the Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, 2007. Lakhs of tribals are expected to get rights over the land under their occupation in forest areas. IKP is playing a key role in implementation of this Act. A pilot was conducted in Utnoor agency area of Adilabad district and feedback was given in a workshop attended by the Principal Secretaries of Tribal Welfare, RIAD, RD etc. IKP has taken up the responsibility for complete implementation of the Act in Utnoor, KR Puram, Paderu, Seethampet, Parvatipuram and in other areas like Krishna, Mahaboobnagar, Kurnool, Eturunagaram, Nizamabad, Khammam and Nalgonda is involved actively in select Forest Blocks in enabling the tribals to get rights. In Paderu tribal area, the entire survey work was done by IKP community surveyors only. In East Godavari, West Godavari, Guntur and Utnoor the entire RoFR work is done by IKP. Exemplary work has been done in Utnoor, where Utnoor Land team has facilitated approval of 27,734 claims covering 3,73,294.33 acres of land. MONITORING & EVALUATION REMARKS

Study Findings by Indian Institute of Dalit Studies, New Delhi on impact of Land Purchase

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Average net income of Rs.7000 to 14000 per cropping season

Income increased in all the sample households by 30% to 75% after the intervention Shift in source of income from wages to farm produce. Overall income from cultivation accounts for 65 to 80 % of total household income After the intervention, 76% of them are food secure. It is lesser in other categories Seasonal Migration has come down and is least among IKP land beneficiaries A positive shift from child labor to school education Ability to manage expenditure on health

Study Findings on Legal Assistance

About 30% to 40% of poor people in every village require legal support and about 95% of villagers are not aware of their land rights. The services of Legal assistance Program for Land becomes crucial for the poor to get redressed in their land cases and there by their source of livelihood is protected.

People should be made aware of Legal assistance Program for Land and the services provided by it. Information centers should be established to provide easy access to information, especially land records. The role of paralegals should be institutionalized. In tribal areas attempt can be made to obtain Sanad for paralegals.

Study Findings on Tribal Land Issues by Dr. V.N.V.K.Sastry, Director (Retd.), Tribal Cultural Research and Training Center Involving tribal youth/women as Paralegals is the best way in mapping and addressing land issues of the tribals provided they are from the same area and can speak tribal dialect fluently Lands held by non-tribals and not brought to records may also be surveyed.

Physical inventory is the most appropriate way to identify problems that limit effective land access and utilization by the poor

Comprehensive development of tribal lands starting with assigned ands and LTR restored lands may also be taken through Mandal Samakhya as a comprehensive package for Scheduled Areas.

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Study Findings by Rural Development Institute, Seattle in January, 2008

Robert Mitchell and Tim Hanstad from RDI, Seattle have conducted an independent assessment of Land Access activities in January, 2008. Their observations in brief are as follows:

The innovative and multi-pronged paralegal assistance strategy shows great potential as a unique model for ensuring secure land rights to the poor. The IKP land access activities have helped to place the issue of land rights and claims of the poor back onto the screen of the Revenue Department Grassroots organizations are able to work with the poor to identify unresolved land disputes

The process of identifying land issues of the poor and helping them to pursue and resolve their claims are processes that are both labor-intensive and require an informed, pro-poor perspective. IKP aimed to fill those gaps

The paralegals, who are typically from the families of the most exploited and vulnerable, are able to identify the issues affecting the poor and bring them onto the agenda of government administrators. The IKP land activity demonstrates that it is possible for rural development officials to facilitate and promote productive working relationships between grassroots organizations and Revenue Department officials. Focus on women has been a key feature to the IKP land activity work. This focus has received widespread support from both rural women and their husbands.

The very positive results of the IKP land activities to date are a testament to the successful collaboration of the poor, the grassroots organizations and the Revenue Department functionaries. Another key lesson of the IKP land activity is the importance of involving the poor themselves in both the land purchase component and the resolution of land disputes within the land access component.

PERSPECTIVE PLAN FOR 7 YEARS

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After digitizing the land inventory, which was done in 954 mandals by VSAs, land issues will be known. The entire IKP land staff shall work to resolve the issues of SC/ST families, in consultation with revenue department. The following budget is required to continuously pursue the land issues with revenue people Year wise budget details as below: Sl. No 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Year Planned Budget in Lakhs 6.90 7.55 7.45 7.40 9.57 4.57 4.57 48.05

Activity wise and year wise detailed plan is enclosed in ANNEXURE V. ANNEXURE I Land Inventory Progress ANNEXURE II Land Access progress ANNEXURE III Hand Book for TOTs on Land Inventory ANNEXURE VI G.O MS No.1148 Convergence ANNEXURE V 7 years Perspective Plan

2011-12 2012-13 2013-14 2014-15 2015-16 2016-17 2017-18 Total