Landless poor to rally for “right to shelter”
12 years ago

Landless poor to rally for “right to shelter”

The Hindu  

Ten thousand landless and homeless people plan to gather at Ram Lila Maidan next month in a bid to persuade the government that the “right to shelter” needs concrete legal backing. Last year, he led about 60,000 landless poor, Adivasis and Dalits in a padayatra from Gwalior towards Delhi, resulting in a deal with the government to implement land reform, including the legislation of a “right to homestead” bill. “It is not just about statements in election manifestos… Our message is that land rights will be a deciding factor for the victory or defeat of any party.” After legislating the right to information, education, work and now attempting to ensure the right to food security, the government is drafting a bill aimed at legally upholding the right to a home of your own. As The Hindu reported last month, the draft bill aims to ensure that “Every shelterless poor family has a right to hold homestead of not less than 10 cents… within a period of 10 years commencing from the date of notification.” One-third of the country’s households are now landless.

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History of this topic

India's landless poor: Amid rising rural poverty and lower access to land, empowering this group must be priority
6 years, 5 months ago

India's landless poor: Amid rising rural poverty and lower access to land, empowering this group must be priority

Firstpost  

The landless are, in fact, the “poorest of the poor” – according to the Government of India’s own admission, for whom, among others, it launched an insurance policy, Aam Aadmi Bima Yojana, in 2007. The Socio-Economic and Caste Census of 2011, which acknowledged and counted landlessness as a major indicator of poverty, put the ‘households with no land’ at 56.41 …

Promised land
11 years, 7 months ago

Promised land

The Hindu  

Last October, the Ministry of Rural Development promised thousands of landless Jan Satyagraha agitators that it would draft a new land reforms policy, correct the inequitable distribution of land and safeguard the rights of traditional forest dwellers. In the event that mining is taken up after getting consent, the sabha would retain ownership of the land and receive 50 per …

The landless end march at Agra
12 years, 5 months ago

The landless end march at Agra

The Hindu  

Thousands of landless poor aborted their march to Delhi on Thursday, accepting the government's promises to initiate land reform and the possibility of statutory backing for the right to shelter, homestead and agricultural land. Rural Development Minister Jairam Ramesh signed a 10-point agreement in Agra — barely 10 days after refusing to sign a similar deal at the march’s starting …

Landless poor on long march to Delhi
12 years, 5 months ago

Landless poor on long march to Delhi

The Hindu  

Dhanalakshmi, a 22-year-old from the Paliyar hill tribe of Tamil Nadu, is a long way from home. On Tuesday, Rural Development Minister Jairam Ramesh and Minister of State for Commerce Jyotiraditya Scindia flew to Gwalior in a last-ditch effort to convince the organisers — a land reform people’s movement called Ekta Parishad — to call off the march and accept …

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