Stakeholders Analysis and Status of National Dialogue
Land, in an agrarian economy like India, is a significant property and critical determinant of political, social and economic power. Although, importance of arable land in the welfare, efficiency, equality and empowerment in rural India is much discussed, land as a property in urban India also holds higher significance with increasing urbanization, large scale land investment programs around water sources. Economic, social and political significance of land increases the complexity of the land system and intensifies the engagement of the key stakeholders. Talking about influencing the land issues in India, here are the few major stakeholders Land Forum India would have to engage in the new strategy cycle for bringing the changes at the policy level and local level-
Community:
Tribals, Dalit, Pastoralist, Landless, Single Women (unmarried, widows, disabled), Fisherfolk, NT-DNT, Minorities, Salt pain workers, Tillers, etc
LFI members
Ekta Parishad and it’s sister organisations, National Federation of Forest Workers (NFFW), National Confederation of Dalit Organisations (NACDOR), Council for Social Development (CSD), National Commission for Human Rights (NCDHR), CPR, Delhi Forum, Jal Biradari, Adivasi Ekta Parishad, Adivasi Mahasabha, NTUI, Dalit Mukti Morcha. Communities (tribals, dalits, pastorals, fisherfolk, salt pan workers, small and marginalised farmers, NT-DNTs, minorities, landless, plantation workers, women youth. PUCL (People’s Union for Civil Liberation), Insaaf, Amnesty, Centre for Policy Research (CPR), Lawyer’s Collective,
International NGOs
Oxfam India, Action Aid, Landesa, Welthungerliefe, Rights and Resources, Heinrich boll, Bread for the World, Mcarthur etc.
Networks, Alliances and Coalitions
Social Movements and Advocacy Group- CFRLA (Community Forest Rights Learning and Advocacy group), MAKAAM (Women Farmers’ Rights Forum), WGWLO (Working group for Women Land Ownership); Mines, Minerals and People, NAPM (National Alliance on Peoples’ Movement); CSD (Campaign for Survival and Dignity), SANDRP, Rainfed Area Network (RRA network)
Media
Progressive media like The Wire, Down to Earth, The Citizen, Counter Currents, People’s Voice, Sabrang, Scroll, The Quint, The Print. The Print Media: The Hindu, Economic and Political Weekly. Electronic Media: NDTV, Radio. Mainstream Print and Electronic Media, Social Media. Mainstream Media Houses that are mouth pieces of government bodies
Schools and Universities
Community Leaders like Odisha Jungle Manch
Wildlife Conservationists – WWF, WCT, WII
- – Ministers and advisors (executive) – MoEF, MoRD, MoA, NITI Aayog
- – Civil Services and Departments (bureaucracy)
- – Elected Representatives (legislatives)
- – Courts – High court and Supreme Courts, National Green Tribunal (NGT)
- – Political parties
- – Local Government Councils – for instance NREGA councils
- – International bodies – World Bank, IFAD, FAO, UN Women,
- – Other institutions like Embassies
- – Think tanks
- – Judiciary, Lawyers networks, retired judges
- – Corporations and Businesses – Mining companies; Agri investment companies,
- – Business Associations
- – Professional Bodies – FICCI, FICCI women’s wing
- – Individual Business Leaders
- – Financial Institutions
Current Status– Currently, LFI members are mostly engaged with civil society bodies, community leaders, National and International NGOs, different networks and alliances and government officials. Engagement level with the government officials, bureaucrats and judiciary needs to strengthen, linked with the participation in the consultation/ workshops. NES members decided not to engage with the private sectors (mainly extractive and power industries, and those whose actions are against PLCG) because of the negative influence; but they are ready to revisit their engagement strategy to find different innovative ways of engagement for influencing the better land practices and policy issues.
The most interested and influential group is the community when they are organised and are aware. They are the major constituency with who NES will engage and build their strength from. The engagement with other CSOs (NGOs, INGOs, community leaders, media, judiciary, networks and alliances) will be core to expand the platform. As a coalition, Land Forum India will increase the outreach and work as a pressure group. Research organisations can be very crucial stakeholders, they will help in building evidence for the advocacy. The outreach of the coalition will be achieved by opening the membership of the platform to other stakeholders, strengthening the platform as a wide learning, sharing and influencing platform on land issues, Networking and liaising more widely, Involving other CSOs, agencies at state and national level engagements, etc. There is an immense need to engage with media, providing content from the ground in the form of stories, cases, voice of marginalised communities continuously, also success stories.
Public sector stakeholders including the legislative, judiciary, and bureaucracy hold a powerful position to bring policy level and implementation level changes on land issues and land programmes. Their interest on land issues are significantly high considering they are the policy making bodies, responsible and accountable for making rules and regulations, and implementing the policies, acts and programmes on the ground. Hence, it would be quite important for Land Forum India as a coalition and not only individual members to meaningfully engage and inform them about the needs and interests of the communities coming from the ground and to build a communication bridge between the marginalised communities and policy makers to make their voices heard. Political parties hold strong power for influencing the legislative bodies, hence it is important to influence the party agenda and election manifestos. In the last assembly election, only the communist party had very specific agenda on land issues with their “land to the tillers” policy. Engage with lawyers to prepare status report and other papers which can be used legally. Academicians, Retired judiciaries and bureaucrats can be influential.
International bodies like World Bank have higher power in influencing land issues in comparison to other international bodies like United Nations, Oxfam India, Action Aid, WHH, EU, IFAD, etc, as the earlier one provided aid and loan to the state and national governments for large scale land investment projects. SDGs provide an opportunity for UN to influence state and national governments and other public institutions in preparing the state strategy papers and finalising the indicators. Foreign government bodies like DFID, BMZ can influence land discussions through their aid; for instance, German government’s changing strategy of putting land and gender at the centre of their natural resource management programmes, certainly had increased attention of INGOs and NGOs towards land issues. Considering the complexity of the land issues and the involvement of the legal aspect in ensuring secure land rights, engagement with the judiciary is important to understand the legal perspectives, fighting legal battles and providing legal aids to the community.
Engagement with private sector bodies would be on one hand essential considering their interest in land and the influence they have on the public sector institutions to drive the agenda, and on the other hand would be very critical depending on the kind of interest they have on land issues. Mining companies, large agro-based companies, and even other corporate bodies like Pepsi Co. are engaged in land acquiring, contract farming and land grab cases threatening the well-being of land dependent communities.
Note– The Land Forum India platform decided to prioritise the engagement with the civil society members, networks and alliances, government bodies etc. while keeping themselves informed about the action and strategy of the private stakeholders.