Community Resource Person (CRP) model of

making land inventory for allocation and

possession: experience from Odisha

Strategic Planning workshop for International Land Coalition

13th July 2012

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Land Issues in Odisha

• Households have patta without possession and possession without patta

• In Odisha, ceiling surplus and government wasteland are being distributed since mid 70s

– Land allotted but patta not issued

– Allotted land cultivated by previous owner

– Land quality: not suitable for cultivation

• Less than 50% are cultivating land that have been allotted

• No state or district wise data available on extent of possession of land

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Land Issues in Odisha

• In order to check tribal land transfer, the OSATIP Regulation 2 of 1956 was further amended in 2002 and a deadline of September 2004 was given to inform the Sub-Collector about all previous transfers

• Land restoring campaign was launched in 2007 in the form of Mo Jami Mo Diha

• Enumeration of landless in 2004-05: 2.49 lakh homesteadless and 4.45 lakh landless households identified in an enumeration by the Revenue & Disaster Management Dept.

• Vasundhara scheme launched in 2005-06 to provide homestead land upto 4 cents (now 10) to homesteadless families - 2.75 lakh families allotted homestead land between 2005-06 and 2010-11

Enumeration and re-enumeration…

• Implementation challenges (assessment study done by RDI in 88 villages across 10 districts during 2009-10)

– Patta without identification, demarcation and possession

– Allotted land far from habitation

– About 40% of households did not have secured rights over homestead land

– People did not receive patta to current house sites, unwilling to relocate, allotted house sites are not identified or demarcated

– Capacity gaps at different levels

• 2011: Circular for re-enumeration, 2.36 lakh families enlisted as homesteadless (Revenue Department)

Critical challenges to land allocation

Due to shortage of field level revenue staffs;

– No/very limited household survey to identify homesteadless/landless families

– no field verification and use of old records

– Incorrect figures as regards actual number of homesteadless/landless families

– Fairly ineffective monitoring system

– Land allocation ceased to be a priority area for revenue staff

What is the alternative?

Local capacity model for allocating land to the landless

• CRP/Bhoomi Sanjojak is a;

– local literate youth

– selected jointly by the community and the local RI,

– trained to provide additional capacity for identification of homesteadless / landless households

– On an average 150 – 200 households

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Process flowchart of land allocation through CRPs

CRP selection Phase I training

Data Collection

Phase II training

Identification of landless

Field Verification & Camp Court

Patta

Household list, land database from RoR, FRA allotees, village

validation

Triangulation – matching

household list with the

landholding

Key features of land allocation using CRPs

• CRP helps in the non-technical aspects of the land allocation process

• At each level of data collection validation is done with the community

• Community involvement in the process in identification and land allotment results in greater transparency and collective decision

• Identification of land (free from encroachment) that can be settled in favour of the landless

• Land database created for the village with updated information from RoR and FRA list

Innovative land allocation….CRP model

• Land allocation plan with clearly identified steps with a timeline that starts with identification of landless and ends with grant of title

– The village household list is matched against the Record of Rights (title holders’ record book) to filter out households who do not have title to the land they reside or cultivate

– The revenue official undertakes a physical verification to check the authenticity of the list prepared by the CRP

– Initiation of the process of regularisation of occupation by filling relevant forms and submission of application

– Followed by claim verification through a camp court

– Grant of title

Innovative land allocation….CRP model

• Each step is time bound and the entire process, on an average, takes between 4 to 6 months

• With a role in each step, the CRP works closely with the revenue official, beneficiary and the community

• While the CRPs move the process, the field level revenue official play a key role in CRP selection, training and day-to-day functioning

• The scalable components of the model were;

– low cost, time bound, uncomplicated allocation process, availability of literate youth

Land allocation using CRPs in Odisha

Status assessment

Results shared with Govt.

CRP Model piloted in 3

districts

Pilot results

and Govt. scale-up

Pilot to Scale

• The CRP model was scaled with a Government programme - OTELP; – The programme being implemented in the tribal areas with

complicated land situations

– Though land was a priority for the project, not much had been done on the issue,

– The programme had the resources to hire CRPs and had the necessary human resource to facilitate/oversee the CRPs

– Easier to convince why the programme should invest on land allocation using a model that has been piloted

• Pilot had identified some land settlement challenges that a Govt. programme could resolve

• OTELP collaborated with RDI to achieve status of “no landless” using Community Resources Persons (CRPs) in 1042 villages, 30 blocks, 7 districts

• 550 CRPs are engaged in 1042 villages who have identified over 30,000 homesteadless families

• Identification of landlessness is over in 978 villages (93%) • 21% Absolute landless households (zero homestead and zero farm land)

• 31% less than 2 dec. of homestead land and less than 1 std ac of farm land

• 19% having homestead land less than 1 std ac of farm land

• 51% homesteadless households

• Field verification over in 485 villages (46%)

• Patta distribution completed for 137 villages – total of 5332 patta for homestead and farmland

Land allocation: OTELP Collaboration

Scaling opportunities

• Based on the success, Government of Odisha has decided to scale the model to 118 tribal sub-plan (TSP) blocks that has 18,000 villages with about 1 million households – most likely allocate land to about half a million households

• Land allocation programme in collaboration with National Rural Livelihoods Mission (NRLM) – initiated in a one block, to gradually cover other blocks

Concluding remarks

• Third party – private individual can be effective in land allocation for the poor, an example of Govt. – Non Govt. – Community collaboration

• Transparent method of identification of landless and land allocation process

• Commitment from Government has been crucial in the land allocation programme not only in initial piloting but also in scaling up

• Role of CRP can go much beyond land allocation…

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