Blogs and Op-eds
Invisible in the policy discourses, these informal workers contribute almost half of the national income. Estimates put this workforce to be about 80 to 90 percent of the total. They are either self-employed or dependent on daily wages for their subsistence. Majority of them have no savings and no contracts that guarantees social security benefits. The lockdown laid bare the targeting challenges (and failure) of the hundreds of Central and State governments led social protection programmes as these migrant workers and others living in the urban slums could not benefit from them.
Prime Minister Modi just announced post-Covid economic revival with a INR 2 trillion package underlining focus on ‘land’. This comes almost a fortnight after launching of SVAMITVA, a scheme aiming to improve rural housing land and property rights, using Drone technology and involving Panchayats to monetizing rural housing property. The imperative now is to see if and how both are connected and if connecting them could boost rural economy while also reviving it from covid19-backlash.
Land tenure security is often equated with clear, transparent and updated land records; documenting the personal, parcel and tenure information under prevailing legal regime. However, less than 50% of countries have mapped or registered private land in capital cities, and less than 30% of countries maintain digital land data for effective urban decision-making.
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Protocol for Forest Rights Mapping in India
Securing Rights of Women ‘farmers’- Concerns and Challenges
Seeds of rural recovery
Rights of women farmers were elaborated through perspective of agriculture, gender and policy in the session “Securing Rights of Women “farmers”. Prof. Varsha Ganguly chaired the session and where she tried to understand what kind of data that is required to address and enhance the policy issues related to land rights of women through examining the National Policy for farmers in India.
The Covid-19 pandemic has added a new dimension to the agriculture sector’s woes. Small and marginal farmers, landless agricultural labourers, and informal workers are the hardest hit. The ongoing national shutdown may affect farm operations if measures announced by the government aren’t implemented seriously, and corrective action taken.