Distribution of Land to Landless Peasants
As per the information received from the States/UTs with the Deptt. of |Land Resources, on implementation of land ceiling laws, as on 30.9.2013, an area of 68.48 lakh acres has been declared surplus, of which 61.47 lakh acres has been taken possession of and 50.93 lakh acres has been distributed to 57.38 lakh beneficiaries.
163.19 lakh acres of Govt. wasteland has been distributed to the eligible rural poor, 16.66 lakh acres of Bhoodan land has been distributed by the States/UTs to the eligible rural poor.
Landless peasants households are not defined and enumerated in the Census of India. Agricultural labourers can be considered as the close proxy for landless peasants. As per Registrar General of India, the total number of cultivators which include persons engaged in cultivation of their own land or leased in from the Government or private persons for money or kind, has increased from 110.7 million in 1991 to 118.7 million in 2011. The number of agricultural labourers in India has increased from 74.6 million in 1991 to 144.3 million in 2011.
One of the reasons for an increase in agricultural labourers can be the continuous sub-division of agricultural land holdings due to limited land and increasing population, making the sub-divisions non-viable after a certain stage and forcing the subsistence farmers to supplement their income through other sources including agricultural wages.
This information was given by Shri Tariq Anwar, Minister of State for Agriculture and Food Processing Industries in written reply to a question in the Lok Sabha today.
MP:SS: CP: land (lok) 10.12.2013