Policy: Land Ownership as a Social Determinant of Health and Well-being in Rural India

Rhonda Breitkreuz, Nurmaiya Brady, Carley-Jane Stanton, John Pattison, & Brent Swallow

University of Alberta

Presented at The International Food Security Dialogue:

Enhancing Food Production, Gender Equity, and Nutritional Security in Changing World

University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, CanadaMay 2, 2014

The Lay of the Land:

Land Ownership as a Social Determinant of Health and Well-

being in Rural India

To explore the importance of land ownership for rural citizens in India in regard to income and food security

andTo explore the relationship between land owning status and access to policies intended to reduce

marginalization in rural communities

PURPOSE

Alleviating Poverty and Malnutrition in Agrobiodiversity Hotspots

• WHO 2008 report on the social determinant of health• Material and psycho-social

explanations of health disparities• Land and food security• Land and social status

THEORETICAL LENS: LAND AS A SOCIAL DETERMINANT OF

HEALTH


• Alleviating Poverty and Malnutrition and Agrobiodiversity Hotspots (APM)

• Post-positivist normative and empirical policy analysis1). Policy review

• Review of key social schemes in India2). Fieldwork

• Three rural sites in Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Orissa• 19 qualitative focus groups, 219 participants• Compared experiences in local sites with policy claims • Quantitative analysis of 1501 rural households with

regard to land ownership and policy use

METHODS


• Approximately two-thirds of India’s population is rural

• World Bank, 2011

• Of these, over 40% are landless

CONTEXT


DETERMINING LANDLESSNESS IN INDIA

• Shortage of reliable statistics

• Key Surveys -Land and Livestock Holdings (2003-2004) -Survey of Employment and Unemployment


LAND OWNERSHIP IN INDIA

• The proportion of households that did not cultivate any land increased from 35% in 1987-1988 to 49% in 2011-2012.

• There has been a DECREASE of land cultivated among Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes

• The top decile of households nationwide cultivated over half the land

Rawal (2013)


DEFINING LANDLESSNESS IN INDIA

• Landlessness is usually defined as ownership less than 0.1 hectares, or 25 cents of land

-This is equivalent to ¼ of an acre, or 10,000 square feet of land

• New policy recommendations in India suggest that all rural households should be granted 10 cents of land (approx. 4000 square feet).

• In our study, landless participants were those with less than 25 cents of land.



LANDHOLDINGS OF APM HOUSEHOLDS

Rhonda Breitkreuz

This is where I think we'll have to change our metrics so that landless is less than 25 cents of land, to be consistent with the baseline and with previous literature.

carley.j.stanton

*Note: I’m unsure if this pie chart is correct… The data seem to indicate that those who claimed to own no land were not counted again when they were asked if they leased, but if they were, this is incorrect and should be changed.

APM Field sites:

• Kerala: Wayanad• Tamil Nadu: Kolli Hills• Orissa: Jeypore

CONTEXT


• Land Ceilings Act• National Land Reforms Policy (2013)

• National Right to Homestead Bill (2013)

POLICY CONTEXT: LAND REFORMS IN INDIA


Kolli Hills: Landless tribal women focus group

Generally, those with land were less marginalized. Access to:

• Agricultural subsidies• Seeds, fertilizers &

equipment for farming• Farm ponds (via

NREG)• Loans

FINDINGS: LAND OWNERSHIP AND MARGINALIZATION


• Land ownership as demarcation of status in community hierarchy• Land associated with wealth, political participation• Reinforce social hierarchies• Increased dowry fees related to higher education (Kolli Hills)

• Land as opportunity to leverage children out of farming• Selling or leasing land to pay for children's tuition (Kolli

Hills)

• Some participants would move out of state to get land (migration)• Homestead Bill• Social bonds (Wayanad)

FINDINGS:


Among all of the landless, some landless categories experienced more marginalization than

other categories• Public Distribution System (PDS)• Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment

Guarantee Scheme (NREG)• Indira Awaas Yojana (IAY)

LAND OWNERSHIP & POLICY ACCESS



MAHATMA GANDHI NATIONAL RURAL EMPLOYMENT GUARANTEE SCHEME

(NREG)

• 100 days of guaranteed employment for rural peoples

• High participation rates among the landless, with lower rates in landholding groups

• Ability to hire NREG workers on land impacted participation and private wages in Wayanad

INDIRA AWAAS YOJANA (IAY)

• Funding to construct a 300 square foot house

• Provision for land for those who own 0 cents

• Those with 0-3 cents being missed

• Land ownership enabled enhanced food security and potential income through sustenance farming and income through produce sales• Land ownership also enabled benefit from

NREG through the development of farm ponds on private lands• Among the landless, there was some

differential access to some of the schemes such as IAY. • Proposed land reform policies could facilitate

well-being for landless persons

DISCUSSION


Presentations & Public Speaking

Policy: Land Ownership as a Social Determinant of Health and Well-being in Rural India