The Odisha Revenue Department reported that about 6.5 lakh thousand acres of land donated in Odisha under Bhoodan movement in the sixties out of which 5. 8 lakh thousand acres were distributed among around 1.52 lakh landless persons and still around 60,000 acres are left undistributed.
This figure has been very frequently quoted by the department without change. Now there is no agenda of the State Government to distribute the assigned land. Rather, the State Government is including these categories of land in Government’s Land Bank for the corporates and also allowing the encroachers of Bhoodan land to continue.
For the last 70 years, the landless poor, share croppers and agricultural workers, who are mostly from the marginalized sections, like the Dalits, the Adivasies and other rural poor, are being betrayed by the Government. They are deprived of their rights for a decent living with housing and agriculture based livelihood.
It is a violation of the rights of the citizens of the country by the State which is supposed to ensure justice for the landless. The land reforms assured during freedom struggle and later by law in post independent India with the objective to democratize the resources of the country for livelihood and push the agriculture growth are still not carried out in letter and spirit.
Vinoba Bhave (1895-1982), born in Maharashtra, a reputed Gandhian, started the Bhoodan movement in 1951 in Nelgonda district of Telengana. It was on the backdrop of violent Telengana land struggle for assertion of rights over land for cultivation and to end the feudal exploitation over peasants of the marginalised section. The Bhoodan movement was more inclined to protect the Zamindars from violence and pacify the militant struggle of the landless rural poor, aspiring to have land.
The movement spread by fellow Gandhians to other parts of the country including States such as Odisha, Bihar, UP, WB and AP where the feudal families continue to have large control over land and exploitation in many forms are found.
Along with many Gandhians of those days, the then Chief Minister of Odisha Nabakrushna Choudhury and his elder brother Gopabandhu Choudhury and others from upper castes Zamindar families were the leading personalities of the movement. Though the movement was addressing the basic issues of land ownership, but it created a good impact in terms of getting land as donations in districts of Koraput, Ganjam, Kalahandi, Balangir, Sambalpur, Dhenkanal, Mayurabhanj, Cuttack, Baleswar and Puri.
The movement has impressive presence in Koraput districts with participation of leading personalities from different social backgrounds such as Biswanath Pattnaik, Ratan Das, Gobardhan Gamango, Madhusudan Sabar, Siba Kandha, Gopinath Nayak and Arjun Khara—all were local activists who supported the movement.
Immediately after independence, Jawaharlal Nehru, the first Prime Minister of Independent India, pushed the land reform agenda by insisting States to bring land ceiling legislations and distribution of surplus land to the landless poor.
Land being a State subject, mostly the State Government has to implement the land reform agenda. But the then Government of Odisha has given more thrust on Bhoodan movement by enacting legislations such as Bhoodan and Gramadan Act.
The Act was opposed by the communist and socialist legislators in the first State Assembly who have argued for ceiling surplus provisions for distribution of land through legislations but not by social movements through voluntary donations from Zamindars by changing their heart. However, later, the ceiling laws passed in the State Assembly were almost ineffective till 1974 when Bhoodan was available as an alternative programme of land distribution.
But unfortunately many studies found that the Bhoodan movement has failed to distribute the collected land to the deserving poor. The Bhoodan and Gramadan Act has many limitations and the Bhoodan Samiti has no legal authority in execution of the rights. The amount of land distributed to the poor was less than minimum economic holding and without any legal right over it. The Bhoodan landholders cannot sell or no one can purchase Bhoodan land. The SCs and STs cannot contribute land to Bhoodan.
If the land is not being used for two years it can be taken back. So, virtually, the Bhoodan movement was more used to confuse the landless people and helped the Zamindars more to pacify the anger of the landless against them. It was a kind of political conspiracy to diffuse the violent land struggle in favor of judicious distribution of land and for agricultural growth by recognizing the real farmers.
The post independent rulers of Odisha have been purposefully avoiding the issues of Bhoodan land by showing apathy and delayed decisions.
It is found that many of the donors are not the real owners of the land having no legal titles over the land as there was no survey and settlement with the first generations of recorded land owners. There are also examples where donors have taken back their land after the
land development work was done out of Bhoodan fund. In a number of cases, it is found that the land distributed to the poor is not properly recorded by revenue officials that end up creating legal complicacies and subsequent harassment. There are instances where the land lessees were routinely harassed by way of having to regularly attend court for settlement of land disputes.
The possession of Bhoodan land by the landless poor has triggered violent struggles creating social tension. There is lack of coordination between the Revenue Department and Bhoodan Samiti in settling the issues which resulted in rising court cases in different tehsils.
Many powerful persons and institutions have forcefully occupied the Bhoodan land and many of the encroachers have recorded the land in their name in fraudulent manner in nexus with revenue officials. There is no survey about the status available on Bhoodan land meant for distribution among the landless.
It has been observed that the task of land reform, especially distribution of ceiling surplus land, Bhoodan land and other categories land demarcated for distribution among landless poor and SC and STs has remained an unfinished task.
The most unfortunate action of the Government is rather than distributing the available land , it has given land to the private mining and industrial establishments though the land was collected by payment of compensation and many people voluntarily contributed to Bhoodan for distribution. The State Government has dismantled the Bhoodan Jangya Samiti with its merger in Revenue Department and the surplus land still remains without distribution.
The Government has been engaged in building land bank to reserve land for private companies. For last 70 years, most of the policy initiatives by the Government show a proactive role to facilitate land for private companies without any concern for landless poor suffering for generations, deprived of rights to live with dignity.
While the Government is denying land rights of the landless poor and at the same time facilitating the land acquisition process for private companies by removing possible legal barriers and using police and military to acquire land and building land bank for the land rich.
The ongoing move of the Government is reverse land reform and against the spirit of the Constitution which the land rights movements in the State need to address. Land being a State subject, it is the prime duty of the Government to identify the Bhoodan land and make it free from illegal encroachers to immediately distribute the same among the landless agricultural workers for housing and agricultural based livelihood.