Both land and agriculture, the land based livelihood, in India are state subjects that gives authority to the states to make amendments to the land acts and policies that increases the complexity for the stakeholders including the civil societies, judiciaries, land rights defendants.

According to Agriculture Census 2011, only 12.69 percent of the total operational land owners are women and the real land owners might be quite less considering that operational land ownership also measures the land lease data. In some states like Odisha and Assam, the number of women operational land owner proportion is quite less with 3.3 and 3 percent[1] respectively.

The land reforms in India failed to give land to the tillers. According to Agriculture Census 2011-12 and Socio Economic Caste Census 2011, no more than 4.9 percent of farmers control 32 percent of India’s farmland and more than 85.6 percent of the farmers are small and marginal, while four million people, or 56.4 percent of rural households own no land. In the last one decade, from 2001-2011, number of women agriculture labourers jumped significantly from 38.87 percent to 55.21 percent while the number of women cultivators reduced to 24.01 percent from 32.93 percent. 

Another issue threatening food and nutritional security is the considerable narrowing down of dietary diversity. The food basket of the poor is shrinking in size and shape .Small and marginal farmers are 

motivated by government agencies to grow monocultures / cropping of a few crops in the place of their highly diverse mixed cropping systems. With this the traditional seeds of vegetables and cereals, pulses vanishing .The changes in diet are also due to the alienation of the younger generation from uncultivated foods, which brought diversity to diets. Unfavourable changes in climatic conditions are making farmers more vulnerable. They are unable to get normal yields. Farmers are trying to cope with climate change but the low and uncertain yields are adding to their burden.

Limited means to secure livelihood rights of Tribal communities – Due to pressures from powerful actors – landowners, commercial enterprises etc, the poor are deprived in their access and control over land by way of policy, illegal, immoral practices or irresponsible actions (or inactions) leading to a loss of livelihood. Looking at the legal framework from this point of view, we must note that legislations are available for atrocities against Tribals (indigenous peoples) that include illegal and immoral land transactions that take away land from the Tribals. However, in many cases, the Tribals do not have adequate paperwork to back their claims. For example, they may possess a title without possession, possession without title, and at times, there may be mismatch of any or both in the Record of Right (ROR). This leads to the creation of new landless class by way of denial of forest rights and only the usual appeal procedure are available to the poor.

For the record, we also say that the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act 1989 has not in substantive way prevented tribal land alienation, and commensurate loss of livelihood. As for the ROR corrections or title correction, the existing mechanisms are inefficient, extremely bureaucratic, expensive, and unfriendly to the poor.  This is coupled with enormous ignorance that prevails among these sections of people on land matters. Their ignorance is a determinant of their alienation.

Infertility of land leads to loss of livelihood – Further, in some cases, the land that has been assigned to landless people by the government is barren lands ( neither these lands fertile nor productive) is not fertile and productive. The overall health of the soil needs to be improved to promote food security of the poor and marginalized populations.

[1] [Agriculture Census 2010-11]