×

Our award-winning reporting has moved

Context provides news and analysis on three of the world’s most critical issues:

climate change, the impact of technology on society, and inclusive economies.

India Gujarat state's land grabbing law hurting women, poor

by Rina Chandran | @rinachandran | Thomson Reuters Foundation
Wednesday, 17 March 2021 12:25 GMT

ARCHIVE PICTURE: Members of the Dongria Kondh tribe walk on top of the Niyamgiri mountain, which they worship as their living god, to protest against plans by Vedanta Resources to mine bauxite from that mountain near Lanjigarh in India's Orissa state February 21, 2010. REUTERS/Reinhard Krause

Image Caption and Rights Information

The law can target women and lower-caste Dalits who have traditionally not owned land, with 2,000 widows farming shrimp at risk

By Rina Chandran

March 17 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - A new law to curb illegal land occupation in the western Indian state of Gujarat is hurting the urban poor, women and lower-caste Dalits, land rights groups said on Wednesday, with thousands facing eviction and loss of their livelihoods.

Under the Gujarat Land Grabbing (Prohibition) Act, enacted in December, anyone found to be illegally occupying public or private land can be charged and tried in special courts, with penalties including fines and jail sentences of up to 14 years.

"Everyone is a potential land grabber, a criminal, under this law - no one has protection, particularly those who are already vulnerable," said Varsha Ganguly, a board member of the non-profit Working Group for Women and Land Ownership.

"It is not their fault that the land they have been on for decades has not been regularised, that land records are not updated, or that there are no conclusive land titles. These are failures on the part of the government."

The law, which is modelled after similar laws in the states of Karnataka and Assam, has been challenged in Gujarat's high court, with the petition filed last month by two residents, who say they were unfairly charged under the law, ongoing.

Gujarat chief minister Vijay Rupani has defended the law, telling reporters that it would bring "peace and security" and ensure "time-bound and speedy disposal of complaints, and protect the interests of farmers and the common man".

There are nearly 800 ongoing land conflicts in India, according to Land Conflict Watch, a network of researchers, largely driven by rising demands for land for industry, infrastructure, power and conservation.

A growing number of informal settlements and slums have been cleared for housing and office blocks, with more than 107,600 people evicted in 2019, according to Housing and Land Rights Network, a non-profit.

In Gujarat, authorities have said the law will expedite resolution of land conflicts, and that about 700 cases are being investigated. Human rights groups say the law is being used against the landless poor, and other marginalised groups.

Ganguly said Dalit women who have been farming wasteland for decades face eviction, while Gujarat parliamentarian Mukesh Patel has voiced concern that the law could be used to penalise nearly 2,000 widows shrimp farming on government land.

"They are being portrayed as the shrimp mafia. They are poor widows," he told lawmakers on Tuesday, urging that the land be given to them on humanitarian grounds.

K.G. Vanzara, a former bureaucrat now working as a lawyer, has estimated that about 8 million such people in the state could be evicted.

Related stories:

India's Dalits protest against plan to develop common land

Court battles underline complexity of India's myriad land laws

India's rural poor may lose out as drones map village land       

(Reporting by Rina Chandran @rinachandran; Editing by Katy Migiro. Please credit the Thomson Reuters Foundation, the charitable arm of Thomson Reuters, that covers the lives of people around the world who struggle to live freely or fairly. Visit http://news.trust.org)

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

-->