In essence, the notion of benefit sharing is recognition of the natural rights of affected communities over mineral resources in their traditional and historical homelands. Communities have a right to benefit first—culturally, economically and politically. These rights can be seen from the prism of both immediate as well as long-term …
Ensuring that the poor or the most vulnerable sections of society benefit from REDD+ projects is crucial to building both national and international legitimacy and to fostering successful delivery of conservation and social objectives. In both academic and non-academic literature, issues of the equity of benefit-sharing at a community or …
After recognising the main reasons to be hopeful about the new Land Acquisition Bill, this commentary critiques two significant structural problems in the proposed legislation: first, the definition of “public purpose”, especially the “informed consent” provision that has been included; second, the price setting mechanism, especially the possibility of an …
There are various stakeholders who are poising major threat to the sustainability of the forest resources. The categories of these stakeholders are the state and its agents, capitalist and private contractors and local communities. The present study focuses on the third types of stakeholders and their contest over the forest …
Gandhi Jayanti, October 2, this year is going to witness a new movement. Activists belonging to a non-profit, Ekta Parishad, will undertake a Jan Satyagraha Samwad Yatra to highlight the ongoing land and livelihood struggles across the country. The Jan Satyagraha Samwad Yatra will highlight the ongoing land and livelihood …
India's poverty line finally makes headlines. Do a rapid archival search of newspapers, at least of the past 20 years, and one finds that the poverty line never made it to the front pages. In post television boom, it never featured on prime time. But the past one week has …
India's poverty level will go up by 3.6 per cent in rural areas and 2.9 per cent in urban areas if people's expenditure on health is factored in while measuring poverty. A study by the Institute of Economic Growth in Delhi redrew the poverty estimates of 2007 (the Planning Commission …
Poverty is becoming hereditary in India, at least for a sizeable population. That is the conclusion derived from a three-decade tracking of poor households in rural India. A survey by the Chronic Poverty Research Centre (CPRC), an international association of researchers and academicians, claims that those who are chronically poor …
At a time when courts hog headlines, this was a conspicuous slip. About two months ago, the Uttarakhand High Court admitted a public interest petition on making gross environmental productivity a co-indicator of the state of the economy along with the standard gross domestic product (GDP). The media did not …
Judgement of the Supreme Court of India in the matter of Narmada Bachao Andolan Vs State of Madhya Pradesh dated 26/07/2011 regarding allotment of land in lieu of land acquired and non-compliance of R&R Policy for the oustees of the Narmada Projects. Supreme Court notes rejects the appeal of the …
Bhubaneswar Bindhani has not heard of a UNDP Human Development Report Paper, ‘Migration and Human Development’. It is quite likely the authors of the 2009 report did not take note of the fortunes of this resident of Nuagaon village in Odisha’s Nuapada district when they wrote, “migration fosters development of …
The joint committee set up by the Ministry of Environment and Forests and the Ministry of Tribal Affairs to enquire into the implementation of the Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of the Forest Rights) Act, 2006, came out with its final report in December 2010. The report …
A survey by the Indian government in 2002 to determine households below poverty line (BPL) left out many poor families. Nearly a decade later, the Union Ministry of Rural Development (MORD) is trying to set the wrong right. But it is unable to decide on the criteria for identifying poor …
A survey by the Indian government in 2002 to determine households below poverty line (BPL) left out many poor families. Nearly a decade later, the Union Ministry of Rural Development (MORD) is trying to set the wrong right. But it is unable to decide on the criteria for identifying poor …
The livelihood options of landless households of far western Nepal are wage labor, farming and seasonal migration to India. Food sufficiency is barely enough for 0-3 months a year for most. When food is scarce, they cope by borrowing money, buying food, occasional wager labor as domestic servants, less popular …
THE Mizoram and Tripura administrations have served notices to families occupying land along the India-Bangladesh border. The land has to be vacated for fencing the border. Nearly 3,900 families along nine border sub-divisions in Tripura have been left homeless as state government failed to rehabilitate and compensate them. The remaining …
As a welfare state, the Government of Haryana recognises that acquisition of land under the statute and the alienation of landowners from their source of livelihood could be a painful process, notwithstanding the payment of compensation for the same as per law. Therefore, it intends to minimise this pain of …
Floating agriculture is a good popular practice of the low-lying areas the south-western parts of Bangladesh where lands remain submerged most of time in a year. Not only to cope during floods, floating agriculture is also a potential means to increase the food production in the country.
THE Union government has proposed giving conclusive ownership titles to landholders across India through the Land Titling Bill 2010. The draft bill, open for public comment till August 31, envisages a transition from registration of sale deeds to registration of ownership, thus ensuring the registration is proof of ownership. At …
