Chiefly an agricultural society, India has a strong linkage between land and social status of an individual. Nearly 70 % of its population dependent on land, either as farmers or farm laborers and it is imperative to address the issues of land ensuring livelihood, dignity and food security to millions of Indians. Land reform was a major policy initiative in the country in 1950s and early 1960s.

Government has been implementing the Land Resettlement Programme for over twenty four (24) years, focusing mainly on land resettlement for agricultural purposes without a comprehensive policy and legal framework. This has caused a number of challenges including lack of a coordination mechanism at higher level of Government in the implementation of the land resettlement programme, land disputes and low levels of infrastructure development and service provision in the resettlement schemes.

This Hindu Succession Act Amendment made in 2005 was to grant, among others, rights to women to inherit agricultural land of the parents and husband. Under this amendment the daughters, including married daughters, are coparceners in joint family property, with the same birth right as sons, to share, claim partition, and (by presumption) to become karta (managers), while also sharing the liabilities. This would be applicable for Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists and Jains religious communities of India.

A legislation to amend and codify the law relating to intestate succession among Hindus. It deal with issues related to coparcenary property, interest in the property of a tarwad, tavazhi, kutumba, kavaru or illom, rules of succession in the case of males, succession among heirs, distribution of property among heirs in class I of the Schedule.

This book made an attempt to bring together various legislative protections available to the tribals communities pertaining to the land and governance in the scheduled areas and the role of different institutions to achieve the goals enshrined in the Constitution. It examined the Fifth Schedule of the Constitution and its various provisions and special arrangements made for areas inhabited by Scheduled Tribes and the law relating to local self governance in these areas, primarily through village panchayat-an institution of local self governance.

As many as two in three people worldwide believe that ordinary citizens can make a difference in the fight against corruption. Whether it’s taking on an abusive school system, exposing a crooked driving instructor or blocking the re-election of a corrupt mayor, these individuals are demonstrating their power to bring about lasting change in their communities.

The Global Corruption Barometer 2013 draws on a survey of more than 114,000 respondents in 107 countries. It addresses people’s direct experiences with bribery and details their views on corruption in the main institutions in their countries. It also provides insights into people's willingness to stop corruption. Visit the Barometer web pages.

This report was prepared by Centre for Land Governance, NRMC, the Secretariat of India Land & Development Conference 2017. This report provides an overview of the proceedings of India Land & Development Conference, organized at India International Centre, New Delhi, India on April 5-6th 2017.

This report consists sharing of experiences, knowledge and practices over eight thematic sessions, two panel discussions and a special session.

Eight Sessions in the Conference are as follows:

This article examines the evolution of policy recommendations concerning rural land issues since the formulation of the World Bank’s “Land Reform Policy Paper” in 1975. That paper set out three guiding principles: the desirability of owner-operated family farms; the need for markets to permit land to be transferred to more productive users; and the importance of an egalitarian asset distribution.

This paper explores, conceptually and empirically, the question of how much food is produced by women. Data for labour inputs and agricultural output are used to assess women’s contribution to food and agricultural production. The study also assesses gender differences in productivity. The paper finds that a precise measure of women’s contribution to food production is impossible to establish. In general women do not produce food separately from men and it is impossible to disaggregate men and women’s contributions either in terms of labor supplied or in terms of output produced.

This paper presents the preliminary findings of a study on land conflicts between refugees and host communities in southwestern Uganda and their impact on refugee women’s livelihoods. Uganda has a long history of hosting refugees that dates back to the 1940s, when it hosted Polish refugees; Rwandese and Sudanese in the 1950s (Holborn 1975:1213-1225).

AFRA Newsletter No.65