Like Manjhi, there are an estimated 1.15 lakh landless households belonging to marginalised communities in Gaya district alone who do not have legal rights even for the land on which they have their homes -- or homesteads, as they are called.

Without even this basic proof of residence, they cannot avail of government benefits as, for instance, jobs under the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS). They cannot open bank accounts or be listed in the BPL (below poverty line) category. They cannot give their own legal address in Right to Information (RTO) applications.

People who have no proof of residence papers are extremely vulnerable to corrupt and insensitive officials. Once they have homestead papers, no one can challenge their domicile.

Homestead land for the Musahars

In Bihar’s Gaya district, a PACS Programme CSO, Deshkal Society, and its partner CSOs Gram Nirman Kendra and Lok Shakti Shikshan Kendra are helping the Musahars get homestead documents.

At the very bottom of the social and political pyramid, the Musahars, who constitute around 2.5% of Bihar’s total population, have never enjoyed any land rights, unlike other dalits who at least had some homestead rights under the zamindari system.

The Musahars benefit least from any development programme. They do not figure as recipients of housing schemes as they do not possess title deeds for their land. They are the lowest number of recipients of loans from revolving funds that are part of government schemes. The social support system bypasses them; so do private donations.

Such circumstances have led to chronic poverty and deprivation for generations. The late parliamentarian, Bhagwati Devi, who belonged to the Musahar community and fought for homestead rights for decades, put it clearly: “What does the word ‘prestige’ mean to us? Will society ever give us the right to live? What are the reasons for us to desert the village where we were once made to settle by the zamindar? People of the Musahar community make bricks… they plough the fields and cultivate rice….they construct houses, roads and bridges…Yet they are the victims of untouchability even today. Their houses are demolished, their dwellings set on fire, and they are being murdered.”

This unhappy situation is what makes the Deshkal homestead project significant.

In 2005, a pilot survey carried out by Deshkal Society with two of its partners, Gram Nirman Kendra and Lok Shakti Shikshan Sanstha, in four blocks of Gaya district, found that of the approximately 5,000 Musahar households, around 2,200 households did not possess legal documents for their homesteads.

Deshkal’s PACS Programme project targeted around 1,000 Musahar households in 35 villages in the four blocks of Wazirgunj, Manpur, Paraiya and Mohra. These blocks are characterised by a high scheduled caste (SC) population (29%-37% of the total population) and a literacy rate (approximately 46%-51%) that is well below the national average.

The literacy indicator is critical as the basic issue involving homestead rights is “evidence”. In Bihar, as in most other parts of the country, this problem is a complex one.

Historical evolution of homesteads

There are two distinct categories of homesteads in Bihar: ‘raiyati’ homesteads and ‘gair majarua malik’ homesteads, both dating back to British, even pre-British, times.

In the case of the Musahars, raiyati homesteads constitute a small plot of land, usually measuring 5,400-6,700 sq ft, that was provided by farmers, known as raiyats, maliks or jagirdars, who paid rent to those who had proprietary rent-collection rights (zamindars).

The raiyats needed the Musahars and other landless labourers for their agricultural operations and maintenance of tank irrigation.

Grant of homesteads came at a heavy price: Those who got land became bonded labourers, known as kamias.

A raiyat provided a kamia with a house and some land, either from his own land or he asked the zamindar to provide land. In the former case, the kamia legally became a service jagirdar of the raiyat. The kamia could also become a service jagirdar of the zamindar if the latter got into such an arrangement with the raiyat.

However, if, as was sometimes done, the zamindar gave over the land directly to the kamia, reserving the right to avail of his services, then the homestead did not belong to the raiyat. In this case, the kamia was recorded as a non-agricultural tenant of the village. The kamia was, however, not given a separate record of right (khaitan).

Legislative measures to provide kamias rights to their raiyati homesteads began in 1947.

The Bihar Privileged Persons Homestead Tenancy Act, which came into force on February 18, 1948, assured legal right of ownership of homesteads to Musahar households that had been living in the homesteads for a decade, on production of documents of possession.

Block-level officials study evidence of possession of homestead land. In most cases, they verify possession on the basis of oral testimony by the mukhiya or head of the panchayat. The Musahars have no say in the process.

The second form of homestead, gair majarua malik land, came about after Independence when, forced by an increase in their population, kamias occupied waste and pastureland that was under the jurisdiction of land and revenue departments.

The system of obtaining rights over gair majarua malik land is called bandobasti; the legal document of evidence is parwana.

Deshkal initiative

Evidence in the case of Musahars under the zamindari system, was the “word of mouth” of elders rather than any legal document. Because their culture relies overwhelmingly on the oral tradition, the Musahars have not acquired the habit of keeping paper documents.

For the Musahars, the homestead is not just a material acquisition. They have a strong sense of belonging to it, as they have been living on their small plots of land for generations. Their homes are an inalienable part of their identity. Development programmes like the Indira Awas Yojana, that involved relocating the Musahars, have been strongly opposed.

Deshkal and its partner CSOs decided to use the oral testimonies of the Musahars as legal documents of evidence of their right over homesteads, to be cross-checked by the mukhiyas of the village.

The organisation and its partners first did a survey of 24 panchayats in 361 villages in four blocks of Gaya district, to determine the status of land ownership among the Musahars. Of the 19,081 respondents, 16,345 (around 75%) did not have legal documents of ownership of their homes. (Read a related news item on this survey here.)

On the basis of the findings, Deshkal organised district- and block-level sensitisation workshops for administrative officials. It produced homestead manuals and held fortnightly orientation programmes for field animators.

The actual process of obtaining homestead title deeds was challenging. Firstly, many Musahars themselves did not realise the importance of the document. Says Ram Raj Manjhi, an animator at Deshkal Society: “The villagers are so used to living without any papers that one of the challenges I faced was convincing them that these documents would be useful to them.”

“Responsible officials are also extremely apathetic towards the poor,” says Sanjay Kumar, also from Deshkal. Upper/Other Backward Caste (OBC) and Panchayati Raj Institution (PRI) representatives put obstacles in the way of giving the Musahars any legal documents.

“Block development officers generally take up the additional work of circle officers, which increases their workload, and they frequently get transferred which makes the process even more challenging,” adds Upendra Kumar, a project coordinator at Gram Nirman Kendra.

Despite the difficulties, however, and in a relatively short period of one year, the CSOs have been able to help 863 Musahar households in their 35 PACS Programme project villages get homestead pattas/parwanas. Efforts are on to ensure that the remaining 135-odd Musahar households also get their legal papers.

Larger issue

The homestead issue is related to a larger problem: the poor pace of land reforms and land redistribution in India.

Progress on this front has been particularly slow in Bihar, although this was the first state in Independent India to legislate on land reform. As of January 2001, only around 2.77 lakh acres have been redistributed in Bihar, from around 3.52 lakh families. Land redistribution has virtually disappeared from the state agenda; in 2000-01, only 449.73 acres of land were distributed among 844 families.

Against this background, many experts, including the World Bank and the Eleventh Five-Year Plan’s working group on land, have suggested that landless families be given at least homestead rights.

Bihar ’s Tenth Five-Year Plan (2002-07) recommended that homeless and poor families of suitable category should be provided 0.4 dismils each (1 dismil = 400 square feet). If no government land, or land under the Bihar Privileged Persons Homestead Tenancy Act, was available then land should be acquired, the planners said. A sum of nearly Rs 100 crore was set aside in the Tenth Five-Year Plan for this purpose.

Apart from providing security of residence and proof of residence, homestead rights give poor families the opportunity to supplement nutrition and income through small vegetable gardens. Under a Deshkal PACS Programme project, 30 self-help groups (SHGs) have been formed and efforts are underway to link them to income-generating activities.

Sanjay Kumar of Deshkal points out that as pattas are provided for around 4-6 dismils of land (1,600-2,400 square feet), a family can grow some vegetables but output is insufficient to earn a proper income. “Hence we are focusing on pig-rearing,” he says.

Deshkal is also planning to advocate, at the district level, for a simplification of the homestead entitlement process.

This story is based on inputs provided by Communicators for Development, the PACS Programme’s communication agency for Bihar, and material available on Deshkal’s website.)