UPSC Express

Land Reforms usually refers to mainly the redistribution of agricultural land from the big landlords to the poor. It also refers to regulation of ownership, operation, sales, leasing and inheritance of land.

In India, there was a dramatic shift in the land ownership pattern during the colonial rule. They gave the zamindars and the big landlords a golden opportunity to exploit the rural poor to a great extent, and absentee landlordism was rampant. After independence, Governments at the centre and state level introduced land reform initiatives such as:

1. Abolition of Intermediaries: Soon after independence, measures for the abolition of Zamindari system were adopted in different states as intermediaries like zamindars, talukdars, jagirs, etc had dominated the agricultural sector in India.
2. Tenancy Reforms: Rural India had three types of tenants namely permanent or occupancy tenants, temporary or non-occupancy tenants and sub-tenants. So there were different tenancy reforms in  different states to provide security of tenure for the tenant, fixation of fair rent, and grant of ownership rights to certain types of tenants.
3. Ceilings on Land Holdings: Ceiling legislations were enacted and implemented in India to fix the maximum amount of land an individual or family can possess. Orchards, grazing land, co-operative farms, etc were exempted from it.
4. Consolidation of Holdings: Due to inheritance laws, size of the holdings was decreasing and number of holdings was increasing over time. So consolidation of holdings became an integral part of our land reforms policy since the inception of on the planning in 1951.
5. Compilation and Updating of Land Records: In recent years the states have been urged to take all measures for updating land records with the utmost urgency by adopting a time-bound programme. Efforts are also being made to maintain the land records through computerization.

Land reform  is a continuous process. Digitization of land records must be completed at the earliest as proper land titling will be the basis of any future reform.