P.S. KRISHNAN
Print edition :
September 13, 2019
Punjab has the highest proportion of Scheduled Caste
(S.C.) people in the country (31.9 per cent). In rural areas, S.Cs account for
37.46 per cent. No community has been listed as Scheduled Tribes (S.Ts) in
Punjab.
Punjab is one of the States with the lowest proportion of
landowning Dalits. As per NSSO (66th Round) data, in Punjab only 4.3 per cent
of rural S.C. households are self-employed in agriculture, compared with as
high as 54 per cent among rural SAC/NSCTBC households. The proportion of
agricultural labour households among rural S.Cs is 34.5 per cent compared with
7.5 per cent of SACs/NSCTBCs. As many as 94.2 per cent of S.C. households in
Punjab do not have any land for cultivation compared with 36.5 per cent of
SAC/NSCTBC households (Socially Advanced Classes/the non-S.C., non-S.T.,
non-Socially and Educationally Backward Classes). S.C. households with 2.01 to
four hectares of land are a mere 0.6 per cent, compared with 18.4 per cent of
SAC/NSCTBC households. No S.C. household in Punjab has more than 4 hectares,
compared with 10.6 per cent among SACs/NSCTBCs. These data show that while the
all-India gap between S.Cs and SACs/NSCTBCs is wide, it is wider in Punjab.
Among the avenues available for reducing the landlessness of
Punjab’s Dalits is the utilisation of Shamlat lands (village common lands)
available for cultivation. Reportedly, as per the State government’s records, a
total of 1.57 lakh acres (one acre is 0.4 hectare) of Shamlat lands is
available for cultivation in the State. Of this, about one-third, or nearly
53,000 acres, is reserved for S.Cs and given on annual lease to them.
Efforts are being made by a number of gram sabhas of
panchayats which are dominated by members of the dominant landowning castes to
dispossess S.Cs even of lands reserved for them. In Tolewal, Thandiwal and
Mulowal villages of Sangrur district, the panchayats have reportedly resolved
to auction Shamlat lands reserved for Dalits and extract unaffordably high
lease amounts from them, which will make it impossible for Dalits to hold on to
these lands.
Influential people encroach upon and grab Shamlat lands
despite the Punjab Village Common Lands (Regulation) Act, 1953 (Punjab Act No.
1 of 1954), amended in 1961, and the Punjab Village Common Lands (Regulation)
Rules, 1955, amended in 1961 and 1964. Recently, landless Dalits have begun to
rise in protest against such practices. An organisation known as the Zamin
Prapati Sangharsh Committee (ZPSC) has come up championing the cause of joint
farming by Dalits on panchayat lands. However, a permanent solution for this is
for the State government to grant the entire 1.57 lakh acres of Shamlat lands
available for cultivation to S.Cs of the respective villages, with full
ownership and patta/title deed. When it is recognised that these lands are
available for cultivation purposes, there is no need to give them out on annual
leases. The cruelty inflicted upon the Dalits of Punjab since long deserves
reparation. This land grant will be part of such reparation. The government
should also provide group minor irrigation for these lands.
If necessary, additional grants can be provided to
panchayats for the income lost hitherto from leasing of Shamlat lands. Dalits
should be encouraged to farm these lands jointly with high-value crops,
agricultural and if possible horticultural. In the case of horticultural crops,
which will have to be tended over a long gestation period, the Dalit grantees
themselves can be engaged to provide labour on these lands on wage basis under
the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA). The ZPSC
and other organisations working for Dalits should be fully associated with
these efforts.
The existing legislation must be amended to the extent
necessary to release Shamlat lands for granting them to Dalits with clear
ownership. Chief Minister Amarinder Singh should take personal interest in this
and get this done.
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