India—Property Rights and Resource Governance Profile

With a population of over 1 billion, India is the world's largest democracy, and its per capita income has exceeded $1000. However, despite accelerated economic growth averaging over 7% per year, poverty and disparities in income and human development remain significant challenges. Over 400 million people remain poor, and the prevalence of underweight children is almost double that of sub-Saharan Africa. The constraints to achieving widespread participation in the growth process include tenure insecurity and inadequate enforcement of property rights. Women's land rights in India are not as secure as those enjoyed by men, and less than 10% of privately held land is in the name of women. The customary land rights of tribal people have been undermined by laws and other reforms, leading to a steady loss of their land. Conflicts over forests, agricultural lands, and natural resources are pervasive, and in several central and northeastern states, such conflicts have contributed to the rise of a Maoist insurgency. Pressures on the natural resource base are increasing, with continuously falling per capita water availability and declining water quality becoming ever more acute problems. Demands for wood, livestock grazing, and agricultural land are exerting pressure on forests. These challenges are aggravated by tenure insecurity and lack of clarity in use-rights, both of which discourage resource conservation and investments to safeguard the productivity of the natural resource base. USAID and other donors can assist India in strengthening land tenure security and property rights governance in several strategic ways. One key area of focus is supporting measures to strengthen women's land rights. Women have difficulty obtaining access to land, including through inheritance, and difficulty retaining rights to land. USAID has announced its intention to focus on the needs of poor women and girls and has recognized that women's rights to land are significantly compromised in India. To this end, USAID and other donors could support comprehensive research on the impact of agricultural tenancy laws, with special emphasis on the effect of such laws on women's land tenure and livelihoods. The research would culminate with specific recommendations for legislative changes in each state or in a set of high-priority states. Additionally, donors could support a project to suggest specific amendments to state laws to equalize male and female inheritance rights. Another key area of focus is strengthening access to land-rights legal aid. In India, most poor people are not aware of their legal rights to land and property, and have limited or no ability to access courts (and land administration officials) to assert and defend land claims. USAID and other donors could support new and expanded legal aid and legal literacy programs focusing on land rights. Such programs could be modeled on the successful Indira Kranthi Patham program in Andhra Pradesh. Furthermore, USAID and other donors could support a project to create and expand alternative dispute-resolution programs to help alleviate backlog in land-related cases. To this end, USAID could build on its past projects that have focused on improving the administration of the justice system by supporting stronger community-level legal systems, training for justice sector personnel, and improvements to court management. In addition, USAID and other donors could support a project to collect India-wide data on Scheduled Tribe (ST) landholdings. India-wide data on ST landholdings would give a broad context to the numerous small studies on ST land rights and allow national tracking of ST land alienation. The most recent systematically collected data estimating ST landholdings in India dates from 1961, and some scholars have attempted to estimate ST holdings since then, but recognize the limitations of such estimates. The Government of India (GOI) has made significant efforts to reduce rural poverty by reducing insecurity of land-tenure and making access to land more equitable. Land reform in India has had some positive benefits, but much remains to be done. India's urban population is the second-largest in the world, and across the country, millions live in slums (i.e., poorly serviced settlements lacking in tenure security) on the urban periphery. As urbanization increases, urban living standards are likely to fall as local governments struggle to meet demand for services. Women's land rights in India are not as secure as those enjoyed by men. Nationwide, less than 10% of privately held land is in the name of women. Even when land is titled in a woman's name, her actual control over the land is limited. Rural women in particular have little access to or control over land. A majority of rural women depend on agriculture for their livelihoods, yet their access to and control of land is extremely limited. Laws governing forestland, as well as other reforms, have often undermined the customary land rights of tribal people. Tribes that the GOI officially recognizes are referred to as Scheduled Tribes and commonly referred to as ST communities. Land reform efforts have had some positive benefits, but much remains to be done to address the challenges facing India's property rights and resource governance profile.