This document summarizes a study on the relationship between land ownership and health/well-being in rural India. The study explored how land ownership impacts income/food security and access to social policies. It found that lack of land ownership was linked to greater marginalization. Landless households had less access to agriculture subsidies, loans, and some welfare schemes. Overall, land ownership enabled better food security and access to employment/development programs, while landlessness contributed to poorer living standards and social exclusion in rural communities.

1. 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, Canada
May 2, 2014
The Lay of the
Land:
Land Ownership as a Social
Determinant of Health and Well-being
in Rural India

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

3. • 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 in Agrobiodiversity Hotspots

4. • Alleviating Poverty and Malnutrition and Agrobiodiversity
Hotspots (APM)
• Post-positivist normative and empirical policy analysis
1). Policy review
• Review of key social schemes in India
2). 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
Alleviating Poverty and Malnutrition in Agrobiodiversity Hotspots

5. • Approximately two-thirds of
India’s population is rural
• World Bank, 2011
• Of these, over 40% are
landless
CONTEXT
Alleviating Poverty and Malnutrition in Agrobiodiversity Hotspots

6. DETERMINING LANDLESSNESS IN
INDIA
• Shortage of reliable statistics
• Key Surveys
-Land and Livestock
Holdings (2003-2004)
-Survey of Employment
and Unemployment
Alleviating Poverty and Malnutrition in Agrobiodiversity Hotspots

7. 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)
Alleviating Poverty and Malnutrition in Agrobiodiversity Hotspots

8. 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.
Alleviating Poverty and Malnutrition in Agrobiodiversity Hotspots

9. Alleviating Poverty and Malnutrition in Agrobiodiversity Hotspots
LANDHOLDINGS OF APM HOUSEHOLDS

10. APM Field sites:
• Kerala: Wayanad
• Tamil Nadu: Kolli Hills
• Orissa: Jeypore
CONTEXT
Alleviating Poverty and Malnutrition in Agrobiodiversity Hotspots

11. • Land Ceilings Act
• National Land Reforms Policy (2013)
• National Right to Homestead Bill (2013)
POLICY CONTEXT: LAND REFORMS
IN INDIA
Alleviating Poverty and Malnutrition in Agrobiodiversity Hotspots

12. Kolli Hills: Landless tribal women focus group

13. 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
Alleviating Poverty and Malnutrition in Agrobiodiversity Hotspots

14. • 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:
Alleviating Poverty and Malnutrition in Agrobiodiversity Hotspots

15. 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
Alleviating Poverty and Malnutrition in Agrobiodiversity Hotspots

16. Alleviating Poverty and Malnutrition in Agrobiodiversity Hotspots
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

18. 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

20. • 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
Alleviating Poverty and Malnutrition in Agrobiodiversity Hotspots