Graduate School of Developmental Studies

Land Rights and Marginalized Com-munities in Rural India: a Case Study of

Scheduled Caste in Orissa

A Research Paper presented by:Rajesh Kumar Jena

(India)

in partial fulfilment of the requirements for obtaining the degree of

MASTERS OF ARTS IN DEVELOPMENT STUDIES

Specialization:Human Rights Development & Social Justice

(HDS)

Members of the examining committee:

Dr. Rachel Kurian [Supervisor]Dr. Arjan De. Haan [Reader]

The Hague, The NetherlandsNovember, 2011

Disclaimer:This document represents part of the author’s study pro-gramme while at the Institute of Social Studies. The views stated therein are those of the author and not necessarily those of the Institute.

Inquiries:Postal address: Institute of Social Studies

P.O. Box 297762502 LT The HagueThe Netherlands

Location: Kortenaerkade 122518 AX The HagueThe Netherlands

Telephone: +31 70 426 0460

Fax: +31 70 426 0799

ii

Acknowledgment

This research paper is based on my individual interest in and overwhelming emotional attachment to the community as well as the issue. This task would not have been possible without the support and cooperation of academics, activists and the respondents of this study. It is very difficult to mention by name all of the people who supported me throughout the different phases of this research. I am indebted to all of them. However, I include special thanks to a few people who helped me during my research journey in The Netherlands, as well as during the data collection in Orissa, India.

First of all, I would like to acknowledge my supervisor Dr. Rachel Kurian for her guidance and continuous motivation during my research work. I am inspired by her commitment towards Dalit issues and by her academic excellence. During the research period she allowed me freedom to conceptualize, but provided guidance whenever I was losing the track. I am grateful to her for her continuous encouragement, affection and motivation in completing this piece of research.

I would like to extend my sincere thanks to my second reader, Dr. Arjan De Haan, for his critical suggestions regarding the theoretical issues at hand. He has always encouraged me to bring greater focus to my research.

I would like to acknowledge the guidance and encouragement of Dr. Jeff Handmaker, convener of the HDS course, and his assistance in helping me to finish the research within the allotted time frame.

Sincere thanks must also go to Farzana Akhi, my discussant, who always offered meaningful suggestions during research paper seminars. Also my sincere acknowledgement to the International Ford Foundation Programme (IFP), India office, without whose financial support it would not have been possible for me to complete the MA course here at ISS.

Last but not least, I give heartfelt thanks to all those people who supported me during my field study. I am thankful to Development Initiative (DI), an NGO based at Bhubaneswar, Orissa; without their support, this study would not have been possible. I would like to thank Orissa Dalit Adikar Manch (ODAM) and other organizations in Orissa for their generous support. My thanks go to Emmy, Pradyut, Bhai & Guru who have been so supportive in helping me with the timely completion of this work.

iii

Contents

List of Tables viiList of Figures viiList of Maps viiList of Acronyms viiiAbstract ix

Chapter 1 Introduction 11.1 Background 11.2 Indian Planning, Land Issues and Dalits: the Dynam-

ics of Deprivation 31.3 The Fundamental Problem with Land Rights 51.4 Research Objective 61.5 Research Question 61.6 The Research Sub-Questions 61.7 Methodology 61.8 Source of Data 7

1.8.1 Primary Data 71.8.2 Secondary Data 71.8.3 Data Collection Tools 81.8.4 Case Study Methodology 81.8.5 In-depth Interview 9

1.9 Data Analysis 91.10 Scope and Limitation 91.11 Organization of the Paper 91.12 Personal Commitment 10

Chapter 2 Conceptual Framework of Analysis 112.1 Introduction 11

iv

2.2 State versus Fundamental Rights of People 122.3 Human Development and Violation of Human Rights 122.4 Human Rights, Atrocities and Land Rights 13

Chapter 3 Overview of Orissa – Land Revenue Ad-ministration in Orissa.

163.1 Introduction 163.2 Residential Land Distribution Programme of the

Government of Orissa 183.2.1 Distribution of Housing Sites to Homestead-

less Families 183.2.2 Mo Jami Mo Diha ( My land, My Homestead)

Land programme 183.3 Agricultural Land Distribution Programme by Gov-

ernment of Orissa: 193.3.1 Bhoodan Land Distribution Programme for the

Landless 193.3.2 Distribution of Wasteland to Landless families

for Agricultural purposes 203.4 Revenue Profile in Orissa 213.5 Structure of Various Institutions in Orissa in Rela-

tion to the Revenue Department 223.6 Structure of Land Revenue Administration in Orissa 24

Chapter 4 Discrimination and Deprivation in Ac-cess to Land 264.1 Introduction 264.2 Hereditary Transfer of Land 264.3 Market Transfer of Land 274.4 Government Transfer 274.5 Illegal occupancies 294.6 Exclusion with Regard to Residential Land 304.7 Discrimination in Terms of Agricultural Land 304.8 Discrimination with Regard to Communal Land 314.9 Conclusion 31

Chapter 5 Victim, Perpetrator and other Stakehold-ers: Understanding the Dynamics of Land Grabbing and the Role of the State

325.1 Introduction 32

5.1.1 What is Land Grabbing? 32

v

5.1.2 Victim, Perpetrator and Land Grabbing 325.2 Violation of Human Rights while Ascertaining Land

Rights 345.2.1 Verbal Abuse 345.2.2 Threats 345.2.3 Burning and Destruction of Houses 34

5.3.4 Not Allowing Access to Common Property and Force-ful Eviction from land 355.3.5 Types and Extent of Land Related Atrocities 355.3.6 Area of Land under Conflict 38

5.4 Methods of Land Grabbing 395.5 Response to Atrocities against Dalits 40

5.5.1 NGO Help 415.5.2 Government Help 43

5.6 Conclusion 47

Chapter 6 Conclusion 486.1 Introduction 486.2 Caste & Untouchablity 486.3 Constitutional Provision and Dalit Land 486.4 Vulnerability of Women and Children 496.5 Role of Civil Society 506.6 Law and Government institutions 506.7 Conclusion 51

Referencing 53Appendices 56

vi

List of TablesTable-1: Land Status of the Cases 28Table-2: Types of Victim and Perpetrator 33Table 3 : Types Violence and Action by Dalit Victims 36Table 4: Area of Grabbed Land and Duration for which

Perpetrator has held it 38Table 5: Different Methods of Land Grabbing 39Table 6: Help Received from Different Agencies

41Table 7: Problems Faced by Dalit Victims after Incidents 46

List of FiguresFigure 1: Bhuban Village of Dhenkanal District 23Figure 2: Alasua Village House Burning 28

List of MapsMap 1: Orissa Map and 6 District Study Areas 13

vii

List of Acronyms

ASI Assistant Sub-Inspector PoliceADWO Additional District Welfare OfficerADM Additional District MagistrateBDO Block Development OfficerCSO Civil Society OrganizationCr.P.C. Criminal Procedure CodeDI Development InitiativeDWO District Welfare OfficerFFT Fact Finding TeamFFR Fact Finding ReportFIR First Information ReportMNC Multi National CompaniesNCSC National Commission for Scheduled CasteNCST National Commission for Scheduled TribeNHRC National Human Rights CommissionNH National HighwayNGO Non-governmental OrganizationOBC Other Backward CasteOIC Officer-in-chargeOLR Act Orissa Land Reform ActPP Public ProsecutorPHC Public Health CentrePS Police StationPO Post OfficePCR Act Protection of Civil Rights ActPOA Act Prevention of Atrocity ActR&R Rehabilitation and ResettlementRDC Revenue Divisional CommissionRTI Right to Information SC Scheduled CasteST Scheduled TribeSEZ Special Economic ZoneSP Superintendent of PoliceSVMC State Vigilance and Monitoring Committee

viii

SDPO Sub-Divisional Police Officer

ix

Abstract

The objective of the this study is to analyze the types, level and extent of caste-based deprivation and violence in terms of land rights in rural Orissa, and to ascertain the role played by judiciary, land revenue and civil administration in addressing these problems. The study seeks to answer the question ‘Why, despite progressive legislation on land rights and promises of development and protection against human rights violations for Dalit communities in rural Orissa, are these violations continuing?’. To address these issues, four sub-questions through which to address the question are outlined.

The research focuses on deprivation and atrocities in land related cases and aims to prove that land is the major reason for the increasing number of atrocities committed against Dalits in rural Orissa. Reports show that even though violence against Dalits has been increasing, the con-viction rate for perpetrators of this violence is very low in Orissa.

The cases of deprivation and discrimination range from denial of access to drinking water, village ponds, cre-mation ground, playgrounds, temples and many other re-sources. Another type of deprivation that has been reported is the forceful imposition of certain categories of work on Dalits, such as scavenging, sweeping, drum beating, wash-ing and bonded labor. The range of land related atrocities varies from hate speech, rape of Dalit women, house burn-ing, murder and mass attack on Dalits.

The researcher used frameworks of social exclusion, human development and human rights to analyze the issue. In order to establish a theoretical framework, the re-searcher tried to establish a link between these three con-cepts in the context of land rights.

The research employs case studies from various districts of Orissa (Ganjam, Jajpur, Kendrapara, Dhenkanal, Khurda and Puri) to analyze the issue. The research considers three different types of land atrocity cases: first, no access to community land; second, land grabbing and finally, non-im-plementation of the land distribution. Various methodolo-gies are used to analyze these cases.

The research concludes that the judiciary and admin-istration have failed to give proper time and justice to Dalits because of the institutionalization of caste prejudices. The law is not sufficient to address these types of land related

x

atrocities. In addition, people should know their rights and the provisions in place to protect their interests and allow them to claim their rights.

Relevance to Development StudiesLand is related to power, position and prestige in rural Orissa, and is also the main source of livelihood. But histor-ically, because of the caste system, Dalits have no access to resources like land. The Caste system in India traditionally did not allow Dalits to own land or any other resource. Presently, the majority of Dalits are landless, and they have neither homestead nor agricultural land. Dalit communities depend on land as agriculture laborers, daily laborers or share croppers, but do not legally and individually own land. This applies not only to agricultural land, but also to community land like playgrounds, grazing land, village roads, temples and cremation grounds. These facilities are all still on land occupied by upper caste people. The govern-ment is currently giving large sections of land to multina-tional companies in the name of development purposes, with the result that many Dalits have been displaced, re-ceiving no compensation for lost common land. Land re-lated violations again Dalits have been increasing day to day. The majority of atrocity cases in Orissa are land re-lated. In this context, I believe the topic has relevance in development study.

KeywordsDalit, Land, Human Rights, Law, Government Institution, Social Exclusion, Human Development, Land Grabbing, Poverty & Atrocity

xi

Chapter 1 Introduction

1.1 BackgroundLand is not only important as a ‘factor of production’ but it also has immense social and cultural value in developing countries. That is why people do not want their small piece of land to be made part of a transaction process. Sarap mentions that land ownership is highly valued for economic and non-economic motives, which may be social, cultural or political (Sarap 1998: 104). Land provides shelter, food se-curity1, identity, social prestige and control over other eco-nomic and social institutions in rural areas. The increasing interest in ownership began with the evolution of individual property rights to land. Even the status of kings and other feudal lords during the medieval period were determined by their command over territory. Because of these multi-func-tional characteristics, land has been at the heart of develop-ment policy discourse. Besides this, ‘land ownership’ has been used as an identity proof for different purposes at dif-ferent level in some developing countries2. This indicates that the importance of land has been observed, realized and

1 According to recent statistics from the Food and Agricul-ture Organization (FAO), the majority of the world’s hun-gry – 508 million out of a total of 800 million people – live in Asia, where hunger is virtually synonymous with the small and marginal farmers and landless (UNDP:2008:7). Unfortunately, the incidence of hunger in some states of India is frequently being noticed and most of the hungry people are from landless, small, and marginal farmers. Incidentally, a significant number of hunger deaths re-ported for SCs and STs peoples in India. Therefore, lands is more important for Dalit for food security and retain their identity rather than accumulation of resources and have control over ‘power structure’.

2 House or land ownership Patta (Land Record) is required to get the caste certificates, in India.

1

admired at individual, social and state level. Therefore land has been an attraction at individual as well as institutional level. However, this creates ‘conflict of interests’ among as-pirants, resulting in parties expanding their control over land in India through both legal and illegal means.

Throughout history, land ownership has not been equit-ably distributed. The problems relating to ‘access to’ and ‘ownership of’ a piece of land is different for Dalits com-pared to other caste groups. In India, this situation has been created and imposed by a group of people by virtue of their social positioning and economic power to exclude other groups from owning resources. The social structure created by the affluent group did not allow the so-called lower caste, ‘Dalit’ to own resources. Dalits in India have not only suffered from historical denial to resource owner-ship in general and land resources in particular, but have also had to struggle to protect the small pieces of land they owned or had access to. As a result of the historical denial to resources and continuous subjugation, their human de-velopment and social status remain low as compared to other caste communities. The historical deprivation faced by the Dalits has not only held them back in achieving a comparable level of human development, but has also rein-forced the stereotypes upon which the upper castes rely for further exploitation (NCDHR). Therefore, the issues faced by Dalits differ from those faced by other segments of the population. This fact has encouraged me to undertake a study on land rights issue of Dalits in India and specifically in Orissa.

This research is devoted to understanding the range of difficulties faced by Dalit communities with regards to accessing or owning a piece of land. Although more than 60

2

percent of the scheduled caste households in rural India de-pend directly or indirectly on agriculture, landless cum near-landlessness among them is as high as 70 percent. The system of segregated housing is still prevalent in the village society. It reemphasizes and re-establishes the very pres-ence of caste rigidity and hierarchy in contemporary Indian society. Having a proper house is uncommon among the Dalits, and the few that do exist are of poor quality. Even the agricultural land owned or accessed by the Dalits is of comparatively lower quality. They have been discriminated against in the use of the common land available in the vicin-ity of the villages. It has been observed that Dalits do not have equal access to land either for survival or to perform death rituals. This has a tremendous psychological impact on the mindset and identity of the Dalits (NCDHR). In addi-tion to these issues, land grabbing by the state3 in the name of development has a severe consequences on the hu-man development of the Dalits. During the period of 1951 to 1990, as many as 21 million people were displaced for various development projects, such as the building of dams, canals, electric power stations, mining and industry, etc. The greatest suffers in this process were the Dalits and Adi-vasi. Among the displaced and project affected in the states studied, Tribals and Dalits have highly affected, as projects undertaken in the name of the development have caused them loss of livelihood (Action Aid 2008:2-6).

In summary, segregated housing systems, poor qual-ity of houses, inaccessible residential localities, increasing

3 For this study the term ‘land grabbing’ is used to de-scribe a situation where an individual, group or an institu-tion legally or illegally captures the land accessed or owned by another party without any mutual agreement (Swamy 2006:14).

3

landlessness, poor quality of land (affecting those few who own land), conflict in using common property land re-sources, lack of cremation ground for the community and increasing incidences of land grabbing are a few of the seri-ous issues associated with the Dalit community of Orissa in India.

1.2 Indian Planning, Land Issues and Dalits: The Dynamics of Deprivation

The deprivation of Dalits is not a single outcome of social discrimination. The historical denial of ownership of re-sources, absence of special attentions in the planning pro-cess, the changing ideology of the state, and the strength-ening of oppressors (individual or institutional) by state support have been major reasons for the deprivation and discrimination experienced by the Dalits in India. The state’s relation to land resource has always different to that of the individual. For the state, land is a ‘factor of produc-tion’, ‘resource for exploitation’ and is ‘a goods for transac-tion’, nothing more. This approach is exactly what has been reflected in the Indian planning documents.

During pre-colonial regimes, the nature of the state was exploitative. The colonial regime strengthened the state’s control over its people. The nature of state before and after independence has not altered where its approach to land is concerned. Throughout history, land has been used as a source of revenue. To the pre-existing exploitative charac-teristics inherited by the post-independent state, some wel-fare elements were introduced in the form of ‘land reform’ (Clover 2011: 351). The Orissa Land Reform Act of 1960 and Rules of 1965, the Orissa Estate Abolition Act of 1952,

4

and the Distribution of Ceiling Surplus Land Distribution Programme of 1970 are a few examples in this line.

In order to understand issues with development in land and agricultural, Indian planning in this regard can be di-vided into three periods: (1) 1950s to 1970s (implementa-tion of land reforms), (2) 1970s to 1990s (period of Green Revolution or second phase of land reform), (3) 1991 on-wards (after liberalization or third phase of land reform). The idea behind ‘land reform’ was to attempt a structural rearrangement through reorganization of ‘relations of pro-duction’ in order to put an end to the dominant exploitative relationship and bring about economic equality in society. It has often been claimed that by the 1960s, ‘abolition of in-termediaries’ had been completed in India. These interme-diaries4/absentee landlords were compensated well in cash and bonds for the land purchased by the government (Pattnaick 1986, Despande 2003:155). This gave rise to a new, urbanized class. Even though the abolition of interme-diaries was is generally considered to have been relatively successful, tenancy reform and land redistribution met with much less success in India.

Similarly, the Green Revolution ‘cannot do any signi-ficant good’, as it has an adverse effect upon the livelihoods of the poor. Instead of reducing the inequality, it exacer-bates it, generating and strengthening a new type of agrarian bourgeoisie who not only control the rural eco-nomy, but also have strong links with the urban sector. The Green Revolution accelerated and encouraged capitalist farming among landlords, richer peasants and other mem-bers of the intermediate classes. They continued to expand

4 Zamindars, jagirdar and inam,

5

their holdings, invested in the industrial sector, and emerged as a new political power (Ratnam 2008: 10-14).

Liberalization brings a great threat to land resources in all developing countries. Forceful dispossession of rural dwellers and the seizure of their land by the state in the name of development is a common issue. As Action Aid stated in its 2008 report, after independence as many as 21 million people were displaced due to various development projects. The greatest suffers in this process were the Dalits and Adivasis. But what is notable is that after the 1990s, land acquisition by state agencies increased dramatically, a trend which had significant impacts for land dispossession. The Indian rural economy observed increasing incidences of deaths from starvation and suicides of farmers in different rural areas, soon after the adoption of neoliberal policy by the Indian state in the early 1990s. Between 1993 and 2003, as many as 100 000 Indian peasants and farmers took their own lives (Sahay n.d.: 26-30). The figures increased to 166304 between 1999 and 2007.

1.3 The Fundamental Problem with Land Rights

The concept of ‘titling’ of land is a fundamental problem in the present system. In India, property legislation and legis-lation relating to registration of documents were never framed with the objective of providing a state guarantee of ‘title to land’. The law provides for the registration of the document only and not for the registration of the title. In other words, the state does not take legal responsibility for the registration of the titling (Wadhwa 2002: 4702). There-fore there is a need to review the land titling system in India

6

and the titling should change from the presumptive titling of land to conclusive’ titling of land to ensure justice to the poor people.

1.4 Statement of the Problem

Land has been found to be one of the major reasons for the increasing number of atrocities against Dalits in Orissa. Around 940 cases of atrocity were registered during 2001, a number which increased to 1072 during 2005. In this five year period, not a single accused was convicted (Home De-partment Orissa, 2008). There were 1153 atrocity cases re-gistered in different police stations of Orissa in 2006 (Govt. of Orissa, Crime Report, 2008). It is thought that an equal number of cases went unregistered because of lack of awareness among the Dalits and also due to the limited in-volvement of civil society organizations. Police have not re-gistered many of the cases reported in the media (Jena 2005: 11). Most of the offences relate to violation of the economic rights of Dalits in general and land issues in par-ticular (Irudayam S.J. et al, 2006: 110). Land related atro-cities range from verbal abuse, to arson to rape of Dalit wo-men and even murder. The powerful upper caste Hindus have put the Dalits down by any means. On the other hand, the suppressed Dalits do not dare raise their voices against the upper castes because of social suppression and oppres-sion.

1.5 Research ObjectiveWith this background, the present piece will analyze the types, level and extent of caste-based deprivation and viol-ence linked to claims made by the Dalits on land rights in rural Orissa, and will also analyse the role of judiciary, land

7

revenue and civil administration in countering such prob-lems.

1.6 Research QuestionWhy, despite progressive legislation on land rights and promises of development and protection against human rights violations for Dalit communities in rural Orissa, are these violations continuing? To address this issue the fol-lowing need to be answered.

1.7 Research Sub-Questions What is the process of victimization of Dalit com-

munities in India/Orissa in the context of human de-velopment and land rights?

What are the land related issues facing Dalits in Orissa?

How have land rights claims by Dalits lead to depriva-tion and atrocities?

How sensitive are the judiciary, revenue and civil ad-ministrations towards the problems of Dalits?

1.8 Methodology The study will deals with the issues in two segments, (1) is-sues related to deprivation and (2) issues relating to atrocit-ies. The first segment will cover issues relating to land dis-tribution, access to private and common land, lack of pas-sage to Dalit localities and other deprivation issues related to land. The second segment covers land related atrocities and the responses of the authorities. Some 8 cases from different parts of rural Orissa will be analyzed. The criteria for the selection of cases follows. Firstly, the gravity of the cases was taken into account, with a focus on heinous

8

crimes like house burning, murder, mass violation, social boycotting and rape. Secondly, the cases should be re-gistered in police station. As the study is also interested in the role of NGOs and other civil society organizations in supporting the cause of the Dalits, the involvement of such groups was relevant in case selection.

The researcher has tried to understand the link between social exclusion, human rights and human develop-ment in the context of Dalit land rights. The insensitivity of institutions in delivering justice for the Dalits is also ana-lyzed.

1.9 Source of Data

1.9.1 Primary DataThe Primary data collected between 1 July and 15 August 2011 in Orissa will be analyzed in order to reach conclu-sions about the research topic. The researcher has sought insight from individuals as well as organizations who are knowledgeable on these issues to better understand and analyze the problem. The researcher identified 8 cases of land related difficulties faced by Dalits in different parts of Orissa with the help of police station, SC/ST development department, social activists and civil society organizations. In the second phase, all case areas were visited in order to collect information from the field.

1.9.2 Secondary DataInitial information was collected from government websites, online academic journals, scholarly articles and books avail-able at the ISS library. Thereafter, as part of field research, more specific secondary and primary data was collected re-lating to Orissa, India. Additionally, the researcher collec-

9

ted information from SC/ST Development Department, State Scheduled Caste Commission and Revenue Depart-ment and also collected information from district level of-fices. The districts were selected based on the number of atrocity cases reported.

1.9.3 Data Collection ToolsSelection of the Case study: The researcher used prag-matics, purposive and intrinsic interest to choose cases for study. In the eight case studies selected for this study, some level of intervention by different NGOs and civil societies had occurred. Cases from Jajpur, Puri, Dhenkanal, Kendra-para, Cuttack, Khurda and Ganjam district of Orissa were selected. Three districts, Dhennkanal, Khurda and Puri, were declared by the government of Orissa to be atrocity prone areas. The other three sample districts, Jajpur, Gan-jam and Kendrapra are less sensitive in terms of atrocity reports (See Appendices). Case studies were selected based on availability of information and presence of NGOs in the area. Two case studies, Kalinga Nagar in Jajpur dis-trict and Gopalpur in Ganjam district, were selected as they are sites of displacement, where Zindal and Tata companies have taken land for special economic zones (SEZ), result-ing in the displacement of Dalits.

1.9.4 Case Study MethodologyThe case study method allows freedom to incorporate the perspective of the victims, perpetrators and other stake-holders. The case study method is

A method of studying elements of the social through com-prehensive description and analysis of a single situation or cases e.g. a detailed study of an individual, setting, group,

10

episode, or event. Cases study research can refer to single and multiple cases study.

(O’ Leary 2010: 174)

The researcher can obtain correct information through the cases studied as the incident might have been published in the media and have political relevance, or may be of local or national interest. Secondly, there may be elements or de-tails of the case that have not yet been highlighted, the story having since become local myth Thirdly, the cases might have brought about changes in the system, or triggered new, interesting responses. Fourthly, cases might feature involvement of different political, social, religious and government institutions, which would present theoret-ical challenges to this research. Finally, the research method will acknowledge the struggle for empowerment which is so central to a study focused on people’s struggles to obtain justice from society and government institutions.

1.9.5 In-depth InterviewTwenty five interviews have been conducted with the help of a semi-structured schedule. This schedule serves two ob-jectives; (1) collect ground level information, (2) cross check findings with secondary data. For example, informa-tion collected from victims must be verified against that of government officials such as the district police office and district welfare office.

1.10 Data AnalysisBoth secondary and primary data have been used for the analysis. The field notes, interviews and transcriptions of the in-depth interviews were analyzed using social sciences research methods. Both quantitative as well as qualitative

11

techniques have been used to analyze the data and informa-tion. The research will also include relevant photographs, tables and maps to assist in lucidity. An appendix will be provided including various government orders for Sched-uled Caste and Scheduled Tribe.

1.11 Scope and Limitation While in-depth analysis of case studies can show the detail and circumstances of land-based atrocities, it is problematic to come to any quantitative conclusion from the limited number of cases examined.

1.12 Organization of the PaperThe second chapter of this paper deals with the conceptual and theoretical framework. The third chapter offers an overview of Orissa’s land revenue and civil administration, while the fourth and fifth chapters are devoted to analysis of the primary information collected by the researcher within the above mentioned framework. The sixth chapter will be the concluding chapter.

1.13 Personal CommitmentThe researcher was associated with the National Campaign on Dalit Human Rights (NCDHR) for 4 years as the monitor-ing secretary, responsible for monitoring different atrocity cases faced by Dalits in Orissa. The researcher is also a civil lawyer in Orissa, keen on fighting against human rights vi-olations in both lower and higher court. After working for 4 years with different human rights organizations, monitoring human rights violation cases and examining data, the re-searcher felt that land was a major issue, closely linked to atrocities with little protection provided by the state bodies.

12

Chapter 2 Conceptual Framework for Analysis

2.1 Introduction

The present chapter tries to explore the link between ‘social exclusion5’, ‘human rights’ and ‘land rights’ in the Indian context. Social exclusion is the “process through which in-dividuals or groups are wholly or partially excluded from full participation in the society within which they live” (De Haan n.d.: 26) and is the opposite of social integration. So-cial exclusion in an Indian context is the inability of an indi-vidual to participate in social, economic and political pro-cesses in the society, or the denial of equal access to oppor-tunities imposed by certain groups of society upon others (Ibid.).

The denial of Dalits’ right to own land has been enacted through the institutionalization of a rigid occupational structure. This is an example of social exclusion, which re-stricts the occupational mobility a group of people and hence categorically prohibits them from ownership of re-sources. This certainly violates the most fundamental rights of the human being, compromising the right to livelihood. Right to property has a very close association with right to

5 Social exclusion as such is relatively a new term; it is used in terms of poverty and deprivation and is usually attributed to Rene Lenoir, former Secretaire d’Etat a l’Action Sociale in the Chirac government, who published ‘Les Exclus: Un Francais surd’ in 1974. Lenoir’s excluded people include the mentally and physically handicapped, suicidal people, aged invalids, abused children, substance abusers, delinquents, single parents, multi-problem households, the marginalized, asocial persons and other social misfits. The term was very popular in France during the 1980s and that time 10% of people in France were considered socially excluded people (Sen 2000: 1-2).

13

livelihood. Indian society is characterized by multiple forms of exclusion associated with social identities like caste, eth-nicity, gender, and religion, as well as various spheres of our society, politics and economy (Thorat 2008: 165-167).

Human development and human poverty denote the achievements and deprivations of individuals or groups in terms of certain indicators. These achievements and deprivations are measured with the help of output indicat-ors. Therefore, there is an inherent link between achieve-ment and deprivation and the rights over input indicators or resources. If any groups lack access to or ownership over resources, their achievements will certainly be limited. This is exactly happens to the Dalits in India (Thorat et al. 2007: 1).

2.2 State verses Fundamental Rights of People

The fundamental principle of the welfare state is to provide internal and external security and to promote the social, economic and political freedom of its citizens. However, the state has become increasingly selfish with the passage of time. After Independence, right to property was incorpor-ated into the constitution of India as a fundamental right under Article 19 (1)(f) under the heading ‘Right to Free-dom’. It guaranteed to all citizens the right to acquire, hold and dispose of property. As of 1979, however, right to prop-erty is no longer a fundamental right under Part III of the constitution of India. Public sector units (PSU) and execut-ives pressured the government into taking extreme step of amending the constitution in 1977. Article 31 was deleted and Article 300A was introduced to dilute citizens’ rights to

14

property (Swamy 2006: 35). This indicates that the state has been withdrawing its support of the fundamental rights of citizens to serve the interests of capitalist forces.

These differences in interest among institutions, states and individuals cause critical problems in society. Addition-ally, the present ‘titling’ system has left room for manipula-tion by selfish interest (Wadhwa 2002: 4703).

In light of the above arguments, one can very much find a link between human rights, human development and land rights. People who hold land rights have a better chance at human development. The higher the land ownership, the higher the possibilities for maintaining human rights.

2.3 Human Development and Violation of Human Rights Even though achievements in human development are in-creasing among Dalits in India, violation of Dalit human rights still persists in that denial of access to common lands and unequal access to public provisioning etc.. The ques-tions here is in spite of a series of measures by the state and other institutions at different levels these groups are still struggling to have a secured livelihood. `Human Devel-opment primarily consists of the removal of those condi-tions of social deprivation and discrimination that restrict capabilities of, and deny opportunities for participation in normal economic and social activities. These activities in-clude attending schools at the primary level, having access to quality health care, drinking water and sanitation as well as gainful employment of an assured nature. People have to participate in the growth process and share in the fruits of growth. The term Human development donates the process

15

of widening peoples choices as well as the achieved level of the their well being. It also helps to distinguish clearly between two sides of human development. One is the build-ing up of human capabilities such as improved health or knowledge and the other is the use that people make of their acquired capabilities, for work or leisure`(UNDP 2004: 3). Again it is defined that the three layer or dimen-sion of the human development. That will be every citizen should have rights to participate with social, economic and political speared without any discrimination is human devel-opment.

“Incorporation of the distributive aspects first necessitated disaggregating the HDI by various groups, such as class, ethnicity, religion, caste and other disadvantaged groups and second, it also necessitated the analysis of causal factors associated with lower level of human development among certain disadvantaged groups. Since among other factors, the deprivation of marginalized groups like women, ethnic, social religious and other minorities generally occurs through the process of exclusion and discrimination, the efforts are directed towards understanding the societal inter-relations and the institutions of exclusion, the form of exclusion, discrimination and their consequences on the deprivation of these group’s. ( Thorat et al. 2007:1-2)

Here the researcher incorporated the HDI status in context of the various socially excluded group particularly scheduled caste in India. There are some provision for Dal-its in education and poverty eradication by the SC/ST devel-opment department, government of Orissa which is dis-cussed below.

2.4 Human Rights, Atrocities and Land Rights

It is clear that Dalits are a discriminated community and that they have been excluded in social, economic, cultural and political spheres. This discrimination is based on their

16

caste identity. The issue of historical denial of resources boils down to an issue of caste. Just because of their caste identity these communities have been prey to regular atro-cities.

Across the world, the caste system involves ritual sub-ordination of one group by another whether, it is a product of the Hindu religion or any other religion. It is clear that lower caste people experience less respect and enjoy fewer rights than others, because of their birth into a low status in the hierarchy. Dalit human rights movements emphasize equality and fight for respect, dignity and rights (Clifford 2007). Dekker argues that combating poverty, sustainable agriculture and forestry are directly related with the land issues. Ownership of rights to land and the legal protection of land tenure security is a matter that has attracted atten-tion at a global level. This issue was raised at the UN Rio conference in 1992, in agenda-21 and at the UN Commis-sion on Human Settlement Habitat II conference in Istanbul in 2000 (Dekker 2003 :25). Atrocities against Dalits moun-ted when they started asserting their rights over resources.

Dalit issues do not only apply in Convention on Elim-ination of Racial Discrimination (CERD), but also in other conventions, as they relates with economic, social and cul-tural rights and civil and political rights as recognized by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) (1948) and International Convention of Economic, Social and Cul-tural rights (CESCR) (1966). Articles 1 to 21 recognize what are commonly considered to be civil and political rights, such as right to life, liberty and property. The international community discussed descent based discrimination as hu-

17

man rights violations of economic, social and cultural rights. The duty of the government is to respect, protect and fulfil the rights of citizens, such as rights to food, hous-ing, health, education and work. This issue presents a nexus, as right to food is related with nutrition, water and sanitation. The right to housing is related to privacy and right to land is related with access to natural resources (Kethineni and Humiston 2010). It is clear that international law does not only focus on community or group rights but also on individual rights. For example, UDHR Article 20 states that everyone is entitled to freedom of peaceful as-sembly and association. Article 18 of the declaration recog-nizes the freedom of everyone to participate in their own religion. The Optional Protocol to the ICCPR, the Conven-tion on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimina-tion and the European and the American Convention on Hu-man Rights provide certain recourse for the individual to report violations to an international body. There are several activities and discussions within and outside of the United Nation (UN) around descent based discrimination (Kethineni and Humiston 2010).

18

Chapter 3 Overview of Orissa – Land Revenue Administration in Orissa.

3.1 IntroductionOrissa is the one of the poorest states in India in terms of human development indicators. Poverty levels were around 37.6 percent in urban areas and 57.2 percent in rural areas of Orissa (Government of India 2009: 17). Approximately 35.9 percent households are self employed in agriculture, but self-employment in agriculture among Scheduled Castes stands at only 20.2 percent. This indicates a high level of landlessness among the Scheduled Caste com-munity in Orissa. As discussed earlier, dependence on land among SCs is very high, while ownership rates are low. This indicates that the Scheduled Caste communities did not benefit greatly from the land reform programme. With their small land holdings, the SC communities did not bene-fit much from the Green Revolution either. High landless-ness among the SCs and severe discrimination in the non-farming sector, forced the community to depend on com-mon property resources for their livelihood. However, this did not provide them with a secure and lasting livelihood, for long time as the state opted for more economic growth after liberalization. This aggravates the marginalization of Dalits through forceful disposition of land. The issue here is to understand the status of Dalits, programmes initiated for the Dalits in Orissa and the working of different institutions (Judiciaries, revenue and civil administration) in delivering justice to the Dalits (Mahamallik, 2009).

According to the 2001 Census the total population of the Scheduled Caste in India is about 16. 67 crores and ac-

19

counts for about 16.20 per cent of total population. Their share in total population is by and large same but the total has shown an increase from 10.47 crores in 1981 to 13.82 crores in 1991 The SCs constitute 16.53 percentage of the total population of 36,804,660 in Orissa. There are pock-ets in certain districts where the concentration of SC popu-lation is as high as 55.37 percent (Ganjam, Cuttack, Baleshwar, Jajapur , Bhadrak , Puri, Kendrapara, Bargarh , Khordha , Kalahandi). Homelessness in Orissa is an acute problem at present and unless taken very seriously, it will only become more chronic in the future. Around 2, 49,334 families have no homestead land in the state of Orissa. Of this number, 70118 and 84723 families are Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribes respectively. Of the 4, 45,450 families without cultivable land, 1, 25,494 are Scheduled Caste. Jajpur has the highest number of homeless and land-less families (i.e. 22,653 and 44,646 respectively) where as homelessness and landlessness is lowest in Bhadrak (1521) and Puri (2455) respectively in the state. There are 93 (See Appendices) sub-caste among scheduled caste one can find in Orissa (Census of India 2001 and Mahamallick 2009).

The below map indicates the six sample districts selec-ted as study areas; Jajpur, Kendrapara, Dhenkanal, Ganjam, Puri and Khurda.

Map 1 : Orissa map and 6 district study areas

20

(Source: Map of India6 )

Dalits in Orissa are left far behind the upper caste com-munities in terms of human development and human poverty indices (Thorat et al. 2007). The head count ratio of poverty among SCs is as high as 52.6 percent in Orissa as against the 37.4 percent level for India. Landlessness cum near landlessness among SC communities in Orissa is as high as 70.80% as against 69.73% for all India.

The state has initiated a number of land distribution programmes since the 1950s, including the land reform programme. The state has shifted its priority from agricul-tural land distribution to residential land distribution, even though it is clear that land reform in the agricultural sector remains unfinished. Distribution of House-sites to

6 Please see http://www.mapsofindia.com/maps/orissa/orissa.htm#)

21

Homesteadless Families, Vasundhara Yojana and Mo Ghara Mo Jami Yojana are among the initiatives taken by the gov-ernment of Orissa.

3.2 Residential Land Distribution Programme of the Government of Orissa

3.2.1 Distribution of House-sites to Homesteadless Families

Under this programme, the government distributed land to needy persons under the Orissa Government Land Settle-ment Act of 1962 and Rules of 1983. During the year 2010, 5775 homesteadless families, including 2958 ST, 1316 SC and 1501 homesteadless families of other categories, were provided with housing sites (Government of Orissa 2011: 27).

3.2.2 Mo Jami Mo Diha (My Land, My Homestead) Land Programme

Mo Jami Mo Diha (My land, my homestead) is a campaign set up in 2007 by the government of Orissa to restore lost land and to protect and ensure the land rights of the poor who had been allotted lease of government. The objectives are: to achieve convergence with development schemes to ensure that the land allottes are in a better position to uti-lize the land and to assist the poor, especially those belong-ing to Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe communities, to retain their land within the existing legal framework. The campaign aims to legitimize physical possession of ceiling surplus land, settle cases of homesteadlessness, distribute wasteland for agricultural purposes, and restored cases of regulation 2 of 1956 and section 23 of the Orissa land Re-form Act. The Act said Scheduled Caste and Scheduled

22

Tribe land cannot sell to non Scheduled Caste and non Scheduled Tribe. As per the provision of the campaign, all the claims records will be reviewed, and the data from the case records will be verified on the ground. Data collected in the field through the campaign by means of application, grievance petitions, etc., shall be crossed referenced with the Tahsil (small revenue unit in the district) office files and cases records to decide follow up action. Complaints about common property government land and communal lands forcibly possessed by the influential and rich in the village would be investigated and corrective measures taken. In the campaign approach, meals were organized alongside each Tahsil’s collection of applications/grievance during the months of September and October 2007. In the months of January and February 2008, the provision of a second set of meals was proposed for the receipt of suo moto enquiries and the distribution of possession certificates to the benefi-ciaries. (UNDP 2008: 20-21).

The Mo Jami-Mo Diha is a campaign by government of Orissa aimed at confirming and protecting the land rights of deprived people who were granted lease of government land through. The campaign functions via the initiation of suo motu cases based on records as well as through invited applications. Since the campaign is scheduled to end on 31st

December 2008 and government involve the local NGO to accelerate the campaign. The NGO can help to the benefi-ciaries deprived of their right, title and possession of lease by the vested interested and assist them to file petition with Thahsildar for redresses of their grievances.

23

3.3 Agricultural land distribution programme by Government of Orissa:

3.3.1 Bhoodan land distribution programme for Landless

On 1951 Acharya Vinoba Bhave was initiated a moment is called Bhoodan movement in India is basic objective is break gap between rich and poor. He felt land is the only means of source if poor will get land then we can manage gap between landlord and poor landless. Under the move-ment Vinoba Bhave requested to people to contribute land which land will be distributed among the landless poor. Later its became a Act which know as Bhoodan Act 1953 and Rules 1954 which later replaced by the Boodan Act 1970 and Ruels 1972. Now Bhoodan is a specially depart-ment under Revenue Department in Orissa. All the land has been distributed among the landless and poor people spe-cially the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Caste community (UNDP:2008:20). 58,799 acre and 29 dismile Bhoodan land not yet distributed among poor people. On dated 18th April 1951 Acharya Binoba Bhabe started a movement call Boodan movement in India. The primary objective of the movement was bring land from the rich and land lord peo-ple and distribute among the poor people to reduce dis-tance among the poor and rich. Because of Binoba Bhave many rich people contributed land to Boodan Jaynga Samti. In Orissa63706 acre 50 dismile land collected by Boodan movement, out of that land 57984 acre 21 dismile has been distributed among the poor people.58,,722 acre 29 dismile land not yet distributed among the poor. In Sundargh dis-trict 901 acre 03 dismile, Angul district 201 acre 97 dismile, Dhenkanal district 109 acre 33 dismile, Kendujhar district 179 acre 09 dismile, Balangiri district 255 acre 79 dismile,

24

Sonpur 24 acre 50 dismile, Sambalpur 750 acre 70 dismil; in Bargarh district, 7365 acres 93 dismil; in Jharsuguda dis-trict, 67 acres 25 dismil; in Kalahandi, 4865 acres 58 dismil and in Nuapada district, 1505 acres 37 dismil. In many ar-eas, the government is not even aware of which land is held in the name of Bhoodan. The Bhoodan office has been fight-ing many land related cases in court (The Prajayabekshyak: 2006).

3.3.2 Distribution of Wasteland to Landless Families for Agricultural Purposes

During the year 2010, 1175,752 acres of government waste-land has been distributed among 1074 families. This figure includes 617.072 acres of land to 449 ST families, 297.415 acres of land to 286 SC families and 261.265 acres of land to 339 landless families belonging to other categories (Orissa Govt. 2010-11: 27)

3.4 Revenue Profile in OrissaOrissa became a separate state in 1936 after its separation from the province of Bihar, which was itself separated from the province of Bengal in 1912. At the time of its formation in 1936, the state of Orissa comprised six districts, Cut-tack, Puri, Balasore, Sambalpur, Ganjam and Koraput. By 1949, the 24 princely states were also integrated within the state of Orissa, which then comprised of 13 districts; Cuttack, Puri, Balasore, Ganjam, Koraput, Sambalpur, Dhenkanal, Sundergarh, Keonjhar, Balangirpatna, Boudh-Khonmandal, Mayurbhanj and Kalahandi. These 13 dis-tricts are presently referred to as ‘the undivided district’. According to committee recommendation, the districts were reorganized by the government of Orissa in 1993,

25

and 30 districts were declared, namely; Cuttack, Puri, Balasore, Ganjam, Koraput, Sambalpur, Dhenkanal, Sun-dergarh, Keonjhar, Balangirpatna, Boudh-Khonmandal, Mayurbhanj and Kalahandi, Khurda, Nayagarh, Sonepur, Bargarh, Kendrapara, Jagatsinghpur, Jajpur, Nuapara, An-gul, Bhadrak, Jharsuguda, Deogarh and Boudh.

Geographically, Orissa is divided into four zones: (1) The coastal plains of Balasore, Cuttack, Puri and a part of Ganjam, which cover 18 percent of Orissa’s geographical spread; (2) The eastern ghat region includes the erstwhile Kalahandi, Phulbani, and Ganjam and Koraput districts, oc-cupying about 36 percent of the state’s territory; (3) The central river basin encompassing Bolangir, Sambalpur and Dhenkanal districts, covering 23 percent of Orissa’s territ-ory; (4) The Northern plateau, covering the districts of Mayurbhanj, Keonjhar, Sundargarh and part of Dehnkanal district, constituting 23 percent of the state’s total geo-graphical area. However, Orissa is divided into three rev-enue divisions for the smooth functioning of the land rev-enue administration.

The main functions of the revenue department include

the assessment and collection of land revenue

the recovery of land arrears and other loans

preparation of crop reports

maintenance of revenue accounts

declaration of ceiling surplus land

distribution of ceiling surplus land among the landless poor

identification of those affected by flood and fire and other natural calamities

26

provision of relief and rehabilitation for the above

redress of public grievances

maintenance of law and order with the help of the police administration

running of revenue courts

issuing of NOC licenses under the explosives, arms, cinematography, minor mineral and petro-leum acts

acquisition of government land for various devel-opmental activities

issue of miscellaneous certificates

issue of land pass books,

resettlement and rehabilitation of displaced famil-ies

consolidation of settlement of holdings

(Mearns and Sinha 1999: 10-11)

3.5 Structure of Various Institutions in Orissa in Relation to the Revenue Department

Chart 1 below illustrates the structure of the Revenue De-partment of Orissa, and its functioning at different levels. Chart 2 illustrates functioning at court state level as well as at centre level.

27

Revenue Commissioner

Revenue Divisional Commission (RDC)

District Collector

Sub Collector

Tahasildar

Revenue Inspector

Supreme Court of India (SC)

High Court of (State)

Sessions/District Court

Judicial Magistrates of First Class/Metropolitan Magistrate

Court of the Judicial Magistrates of Second Class

Executive Magistrate

Chart 1 Chart 2

This chart illustrate

28

Director General of Police (DGP)

Inspector General of Police (IGP)

Deputy Inspector General of Police (DyIGP)

Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP)

Superintendent of Police (SP)

Additional Superintendent of Police (Addl.SP)

Deputy Superintendent of Police (Asst. Dy.SP)

Inspector

Sub-Inspector

Assistant Sub-Inspector

Head Constable

The following table shows the functioning of police de-partments in the state of Orissa. They work closely with the Revenue Department and court when land disputes arise.

(Source: Police Organisation in India7)

7 Please see http://www.humanrightsinitiative.org/publi-cations/police/police_organisations.pdf)

29

3.6 Structure of Land Revenue Administration in Orissa

The main purpose of the Land Revenue Administration is to collect land revenue and to protect the rights of cultivat-ors. This dual role is reflected in the division of roles and responsibilities between the administrative section re-sponsible for policy formulation and the collection of rev-enue and the Board of Revenue, which is concerned with judicial matters and policy implementation. The Depart-ment of Revenue and Excise in the government of Orissa functions under the Ministry of Revenue and Transport with the principal secretary of Revenue and Excise as head of the department. The major activity of the DRE relates to policy formulation in revenue administration for the entire state. The Board of Revenue (BOR) implements policies. It is the highest authority in the matter of revenue adminis-tration, and maintenance of land records as undertaken by the BOR. The DRE on the other hand, is the policy-making body with respect to these areas.

The BOR is the chief controlling revenue authority, whose judicial authority is delegated to the Revenue Devel-opment Commission (RDC). There are three RDCs in Orissa, for the North, Central and South zones. District col-lectors report to the RDC of their respective zones on rev-enue matters. Each district is sub-divided into one or sev-eral sub divisions headed by the sub-collector. The next unit of administration is the Tehasil, which functions under the Tehsildars. The BOR functions through several divi-sions in correspondence with different wings of the rev-enue administration (Mearns and Sinha 1999 : 20).

Apart from the revenue department, civil administra-tion (police administration) is associated with the handling

30

of land issues, if not directly then indirectly when litigation and atrocities occur. Apart from the land revenue adminis-tration and police, judiciary at different levels (civil court, district court, high court and supreme court) play a role in providing justice to land victims.

31

Chapter 4 Discrimination and Deprivation in Access to Land

4.1 IntroductionThis chapter focuses on how Dalits experience caste-based exclusion and have been deprived and discriminated against in terms of accessing and owning land in rural Orissa. Discrimination and deprivation often followed claims to access and ownership of land. As discussed earlier, land is not equitably owned across social groups in India and the only way to bring about an equitable society is through the transfer of land. Transfer of land generally takes place in four ways: firstly, hereditary transfer of prop-erty; secondly, transfer through market transactions; thirdly, transfer through government programmes; and fi-nally, transfer through illegal occupancies.

4.2 Hereditary Transfer of Land The hereditary transfer of landed property occurs infre-quently among Dalits, as historically they do not own land. Around 11 percent of SCs in India are landed. However, landlessness cum near-landlessness among them is as high as 65 percent. Therefore, hereditary transfer is confined to the few Dalit households that have land. The majority of Dalits included in the case studies have been landless for generations. It has been reported that, even those Dalits that have received a piece of land from the government have been forced to sell due to abject poverty. For this reason, hereditary transfer among SCs is low.

In one of the case studies, Nisakar Mallick of Siha vil-lage of Jajpur district did not manage to keep his land in the

32

village. His father has a small piece of land, but the land is not sufficient to maintain their family and he was forced to lease out and then mortgage the land to upper caste people. The land has now been illegally occupied by the upper caste party.

For Dalits, hereditary land transfer is a dream. In Sampur, Sandapur village Dalits received land from the government under the land distribution programme, but this land is still being occupied by upper caste people.

4.3 Market Transfer of LandIt has been observed that land transactions among Dalits are infrequent in India. They cannot sell land, as they do not have any. They cannot buy land for two reasons; (1) In-sufficient funds because of poverty, and (2) discrimination in land transaction. This is true, in both in cases, of residen-tial as well as agricultural land. No Dalits are allowed to purchase residential land in upper caste localities, even if they are ready to offer a higher price. In the sale of a piece of land by an upper caste person, preference will always be given to other upper caste people. During the study it was observed that Dalits are not able to buy a piece of land for residential purposes. In Bhuban village, many Dalits were too poor to lease government land, and instead occupied government land for homestead purposes. After displace-ment in Kalinganagar and Gopalpur areas Dalits lost their residential plots, agricultural land and common land. A few Dalits who received compensation due to displacement, tried to buy land in the locality but could not succeed, as (1) nobody wanted to sell land to Dalits, and (2) poverty.

33

4. 4 Government transferThe state has initiated different programmes to distribute land to landless households. However, due to faulty imple-mentation of land distribution programmes, Dalits are not benefitting (Wadhwa 2002:4703). It has been observed that land distributed under the Land Reform Programme is still not in the hands of the poor. There are three reasons for this situation; (1) Patta is in their name but the information was not communicated to them, (2) they are cultivating a different piece of land (inferior in quality) other than the land distributed to them, (3) those who have received the land they have already sold it due to poverty, and (4) land is in their name, but occupied by the land lords.

37 families received land under the Ceiling Surplus Pro-gramme in Sandapur village. At the same time in Sampur village in Khurda district, the government distributed land to 62 Dalit families under the Bhoodan Land Distribution programme. These families still do not have possession of said land. This is due to the control and manipulations of some upper caste people and landlords. The land is at the centre of much litigation and legal tussling, and people are fighting cases at different judicial levels to get land. In Sandapur village of Puri district, people are fighting cases in lower and high court, with the support of different NGOs, in order to get back the land.

Table-1: Land status of the cases

Case Area of Land un-der Con-

flict

Types of land Legality of Land

Land Occu-pied by

Nishar Mallick, Ja-jpur

1 acre Agricultural land

Owned land

Perpetrator

34

Alsua, Khurda

17 acres Homestead Govern-ment land

Dalits

Sampur, Khurda

80 acres Homestead/agriculture

Bhoodan land/gov-ernment land

Perpetrator

Sandapur, Puri

35 acres Agricultural land/government land

Govern-ment land (ceiling surplus land)

Perpetrator

Bhuban, Dhenkanal

2 acres Homeland Govern-ment land

Dalits

Karandiap-atna, Kendrapra

4 acres Grazing land/ public purpose

Govern-ment land

Non-Dalits

Kalingana-gar, Jajpur

352 acres

Homestead/agricultural

Owned/govern-ment

Company

Gopalpur, Ganjam

400 acres

Homestead/agricultural

Owned/Govern-ment

Company

Sources: Field Study

In most of the cases, the land used by Dalits was for both homestead and agricultural land purposes. In one case in Siha village in Jajpur district, the victim’s land was purely for agricultural use. Whereas, in Sampur village in Khurda district, Sandapur village in Puri district, Kalinganagar in Jajpur district and Gopalpur areas of Ganjam district, the land was used for both as agricultural and homestead pur-poses. In both Alasua and Bhuban village, villagers use the land purely for as living purposes. In Karandiaptna village, people used the land for public purposes and as grazing land. According to the villagers, as they have no sufficient land for other purpose, they use the land in front of the vil-lage for public purposes. The disputed land which the Dalits have used for so long belongs to government. According to villagers of Karadinapatna, Kalinganagr and Gopalpur vil-lage, as they have no sufficient homestead land, they use the common land which is near to the house for various

35

purposes, like a children’s playground, for domestic animal grazing, during festival times and for any other public func-tion.

In Alasua village, 17 acres of land was occupied by the Dalits after due permission from the government of Orissa to do so. But in Sampur and Sandpur, Dalit villagers who received land from the government or land distribution pro-grammes were given the land records, but the land itself was occupied by non-Dalits. Similar cases can be found in Sampur village of Khurda district, where 80 acres of land distributed among the Dalits for homestead, agricultural and common land uses in the village, was taken by compan-ies. In Kalingnagar areas, Zindal companies have occupied 352 acres of land owned privately by Dalits or by the gov-ernment. TATA companies have taken 400 acres of land in Ganjam district, which consists of private land such as homestead and agricultural land, and government land such as playgrounds, forest, grazing land and cremation ground. Most Dalits are totally dependent on that government land, as they have no homestead land or agricultural land.

In three cases, the land remains occupied by non-Dalits. In Siha village, Dalits do not dare to possess the land as they are poor and illiterate, and cannot hope to fight the occupiers, even though they hold the title to the land. In Sampur and Sandapur villages, the land is still occupied by non-Dalit people. Although the land was given under the government programme, the Dalits have no land record of the transfer. Previously the land had belonged to non-Dalit people. In Karandiapatna village, the government land was still occupied by the government. It is common land which should be used by the whole community, but it is used only by non-Dalit. The government land in Alasua and Bhuban

36

village is still occupied by Dalits, as they have built homesteads on the land, and cannot leave.

4.5 Illegal OccupanciesTransfer of land through illegal occupancies is a common occurrence in Orissa. Upper caste people, by virtue of their social supremacy and economic and political power, did not allow the Dalits to occupy any land, even in rural areas. In In Alasua village of Khurda district and Bhuban village in Dhenkanl district, when Dalits attempted to occupy the gov-ernment land, upper caste villagers physically attacked them and set fire to their village.

4.6 Exclusion with regard to residential landIn almost all villages, Dalits stay in a segregated residential area at the end of the village. These segregated Dalit ham-lets have no access to electricity, water or connected to good roads.

In Bhuban village of Dhenkanal district, the women must travel far to collect drinking water. There is no road access in the rainy season. During the rainy season, people even boats in order to reach the main village. Dalits want to buy land in their locality, but upper caste people will not al-low it. In rural areas as well as in urban areas, Dalit cannot rent houses in an upper caste section

Figure 1 : Bhuban village of Dhenkanal District

37

Source: Field work documentation

4.7 Discrimination in Terms of Agricultural landExclusion and discrimination occur through denial to cer-tain groups of sale and purchase rights for factors of pro-duction like agricultural land and denial of access to com-munity resources like water bodies and land (Thorat 2007: 4-5). Dalits face discrimination in terms of agricultural land in the following ways: (1) not having access to water sources, (2) not having passage to agricultural fields. In Kalinganar areas, Dalit only cultivated once in Kharif sea-son. Even in the Kharif season, when Dalits need water from the river, in many cases it is not allowed by the upper caste. Nisakar Mallick was unable to cultivate his land, as it was located in an upper caste locality, and the upper caste would not allow him to do so. Finally, he leased out the land to upper caste people for cultivation.

4.8 Discrimination with Regard to Communal LandIn Karandipatna village of Kendrapra district, Dalits used common land for grazing, as they had no sufficient homestead land. Unexpectedly, upper caste people physic-ally attacked the Dalits to restrict the use of that land. Even in Kalinganagar and Gopalpur, compensation has not been provided for the areas of land taken by companies and gov-ernment, even though Dalits had long been staying on that land. In Kanrandipatan, Bhuban, Sandapur and Sampur,

38

Siha village, and in most other villages, Dalits have no cremation ground. Cremation ground has tremendous cul-tural and religious value, but Dalits are forced to either burn their dead on government land or on their own land. All the village people are demanding access to cremation ground, as all the common land has been occupied by the upper caste. In addition, Dalits could not manage to cling to the piece of land received during the Land Reform Pro-gramme because of faulty implementation of land reform measures which, pushed them into a vicious cycle of poverty.

4.9 ConclusionHuman development, Human Rights and Land Rights are complementary and supplementary to each other. However, the link is in threat. Unless and until clear titling of land is not given to Dalits, this threat will continue. Therefore, pri-ority should be given to providing ‘land rights’ to Dalit which will take care of other issue like human rights and human development of Dalit at a large scale.

39

Chapter 5 Victim, Perpetrator and other stakeholders: Understanding the dynamics of land grabbing and role of the State

5.1 IntroductionThis chapter analyse the dynamics of land grabbing, land related atrocities and the role of various institutions of the state in protecting and promoting the land rights of Dalits in Rural Orissa. Here, the researcher analyzes the nature and extent of land grabbing, victims and perpetrators, methods of land grabbing and the role of the institutions of the state in providing justice. This chapter also explains how caste based discrimination and atrocities leads to low human development among Dalits in Orissa, India. It also discuss the roles of various institutions in providing justice to Dalits for land related atrocities.

5.2 What is land grabbing?Any illegal transfer of property rights to land can be termed land grabbing. As the present titling of land in India is not conclusive in nature, ‘land grabbing’ is a difficult concept to define. However, this research takes into consideration the present system of land ownership, and tries to develop a concept of land grabbing from the people’s perspective. Thus, any forceful, involuntary or/and uninformed transfer of property rights of land from any legal or semi-legal8 owner of land by any individual or institutions without any mutual consent can be treated as land grabbing. Even the

8 Semi-legal ownership can be defined as the ownership which is being contested in court

40

encroachment of the state for developmental purposes is treated here as grabbing.

5.2.1 Victim, Perpetrator and Land grabbingWhile anybody, irrespective of caste, religion, sex and ori-gin could be a victim of land grabbing, it is mostly those on the lower rungs of the power equation that suffer. There-fore, in most cases, the poor, who have only a small piece of land become the victims of land grabbing in India. How-ever, the focus of this study is Dalit victims. It is because of their low bargaining power, lower status in the caste hier-archy, historical denial of ownership over resources, low level of human development, and continuous suppression that Dalits in India have become exposed to the threat of land alienation. Other marginalized communities and wo-men headed households are equally vulnerable, but Dalits, being so low in caste hierarchy, are easy prey.

Perpetrators are opportunists who make use of their ‘influence’ to grab land from illiterate, socially oppressed poor households with low bargaining power and less access to administration and judiciary. Perpetrators may be indi-viduals, groups or institutions.

In addition to other grabbers, it has been observed that state facilities have been in the process of land grabbing in the name of economic development. All these perpetrators have been using a range of similar techniques to fulfil their objective. According to an National Campaign on Dalit Human Rights alternative report (2008), under the new regime of liberalized economy, Dalits are being further alienated from land. This happens because of large portions of land provided to MNCs and big projects. The government is supporting this type of activity, so small and marginal

41

farmers are being directly affected in the process. The set of Special Economic Zones (SEZ) which provide huge tracts of land to multinational corporations, have lead to large scale displacement (NCDHR 2008: 45).

Table 2: Types of Victim and Perpetrator

Case Victim PerpetratorNisakar Mallick, Jajpur

Individual Individual (Upper caste)

Alasua, Khurda Group Group (Upper caste)

Sampur, Khurda Group Individual (Upper caste)

Sandapur Group Individual (Upper caste)

Bhubana, Dhenkanal Group Group (Upper caste)

Karandiapatna, Kendrapara

Group Group (Upper caste)

Kalinga Nagar, Jajpur Group MNC & StateGopalpur, Ganjam Groups MNC & stateSources: Field Study

The sample cases demonstrate that individuals or groups can be victimized, and that perpetrators are upper caste individuals, groups, MNCs and the state. In most of the sample cases, entire Dalit households, rather than indi-viduals, were affected.

5.3 Violation of Human Rights while Ascertaining Land Rights

The report card prepared by the National Coalition on Strengthening the SC/ST Act mentions 22 criminal offences deliberately aimed at shattering the self respect and esteem of SC/ST groups through the denial of economic, demo-

42

cratic and social rights, and through discrimination and ex-ploitation. A study conducted by the National Commission for SC and ST in 1990 found an increasing number of atro-cities being committed because of land disputes and land alienation (National Coalition 2010: 1).

While ascertaining land rights, Dalits have to face vari-ous types of human rights violations. Verbal abuse, threats, destruction of standing crops, burning of houses, attempted murder, rape and murder are the seven types of atrocities commonly associated with the land litigation issue. Social supremacy and the verna system embolden the upper caste community to these extreme actions.

5.3.1 Verbal abuseIt has been observed that verbal abuse (calling someone by their caste name) is the most common form of atrocity found in the rural areas. Even some non-Dalit people found abuse by caste name to be common in rural areas.

5.3.2 ThreatsAs most of the Dalits are landless, they have traditionally been permitted to use government land. However, the up-per caste people in the villages often threaten and attack them when they refused to leave the land they have been occupying with due permission from the government.

For instance, in Bhuban village, Dalits had no residen-tial land. Around 37 Dalit families have been staying on gov-ernment land near to the village. The upper caste people of the same village warned them to vacate the land, and sub-sequently attacked them.

43

5.3.3 Burning and Destruction of Houses House burning is another common trend in land dispute cases. In Alasua, Karandiaptna and Sandpur village, three cases were reported by the Dalit community. In Alasua vil-lage, Dalits did not even have time to collect their essentials from houses. The logic behind this attempt at murder by ar-son is to intimidate the Dalits into leaving their land. De-partment of Housing, Government of India, registered 22 cases in 2008 at different police stations of Orissa. In three of this study’s sample cases, non-Dalits have destroyed the houses of Dalits. Sambhu Bhoi of Alasua village is of the view that it is a strategy adopted by non-Dalits in order to obtain land Generally, the non-Dalits set fire to the houses of the Dalits if they will go against their will.

Figure 2: Alasua village house burning

Source: Field work documentation

5.3.4 Not Allowing Access to Common Property and Forceful Eviction from Land

Restriction of access to common places or public amenities like bathing huts, temples, village ponds and village roads is still prevalent in some villages of Orissa. It is reported

44

that Dalits are not allowed into village temples or to the ponds where non-Dalits take baths (Nishakar Mallick in Siha village). Access to government schools is also restric-ted for Dalit students in Karandiapatna village. Non-Dalits even threaten the Dalits against and registering cases at the police station.

Forceful eviction from land by non-Dalits is another common atrocity reported in the sample areas. The state and multinational companies are also forcefully evicting Dalits from their lands. It is reported that, in Kalinga Nagar village, companies evicted the Dalits from their own land with the help of police. Even though the state has some re-habilitation and resettlement policies, they are not being followed.

5.3.5 Types and Extent of Land Related Atrocities Table 3: Types Violence and Action by Dalit Victim

Sample case

Type of vio-lence

Police in-formed of vio-lence

Civil society/com-munity /oth-ers informed of violence

Case filed in court

Nishar Mallick, Jajpur

Abuse, death threats

Community

Alsua, Khurda

Abuse, threats, physical attack, house destruc-tion, arson

Yes Civil society Yes

Sampur, Khurda

Abuse, death threats, physi-cal attack, house destruc-tion

Yes

Sanda-pur, Puri

Abuse, death threats, assault in public place, house destruc-tion, physical attack

Yes NGO High court

45

Bhuban, Dhenkanal

Abuse, death threats, physi-cal attack, as-sault to women, house destruction

Yes, FIR not reg-istered

Case filed in lower court

Karandia-patna, Kendrapra

Abuse, death threats, physi-cal attack, as-sault to women, house destruction

Yes

Kalin-ganagar, Jajpur

False cases, abuse, death threats, as-sault, house destruction

Community organization

Gopalpur, Ganjam

False cases, abuse, death threats, as-sault, house destruction

Community organization

Source: Field Study

The above table analyzed the forms of violence faced by the Dalits while asserting their rights over land. As stated, Dalits are the prey of as many as seven forms of atrocity or violence, ranging from abuse by caste name to murder of the head of the Dalit family.

A reaction from the Dalits can lead to physical attack. Out of 8 sample cases, physical attack to the Dalits had been reported in 5 cases.

In almost all sample villages (Alasua, Karandiapatna, Sanapur, Bhuban, and Sampur) it is reported that Dalits are physically assaulted by non-Dalits. In Kanrandipatan vil-lage, the attack was so severe that a few Dalits families were admitted to hospital. The civil society organizations came forward and intervened in this matter and filed a case under the SC/ST atrocity act against the perpetrators. They also demanded compensation. As a result of this, the dis-

46

trict welfare office (DWO) provided financial support to these victims for medical treatment.

Attempted murder is another form of atrocity very of-ten faced by the Dalit communities in relation to land is-sues.. As non-Dalit people are socio–economically powerful, they are at liberty to use any means to serve their purpose. In our sample of eight observations, attempted murder of a member of a Dalit household by non-Dalits were reported by four households.

A study of 500 cases of violence against Dalit women in different states in India between 1999 and 2004 revealed that the majority of violence against women came from or-dinary members of non SC/ST communities. Dominant caste landlords emerged as the largest single class of perpetrat-ors. Police and business people were other key perpetrat-ors. Where police were not active perpetrators, in a signific-ant number of cases they colluded with the perpetrators by failing to enforce the law when violence against Dalit wo-men took place (Irudayam et al. 2006 :106-11).

5.3.6 Area of Land under ConflictIn our sample the area of land under conflict ranges from 1 to 400 acres.

Table 4: Area of Grabbed Land and Duration for which Perpetrator has held it

Case Area of land under conflict

How far back conflict over land dates

Nishar Mallick, Jajpur

1 acre 1976

Alsua, Khurda 17 acres 1999

47

Sampur, Khurda 80 acres 1980Sandapur, Puri 35 acres 1978Bhuban, Dhenkanal 2 acres 1976Karandiapatna,

Kendrapra4 acres 2010

Kalinganagar, Jajpur

352 acres 1996

Gopalpur, Ganjam 400 acres 1996Source: Field Study

The largest area of land has been taken by the gov-ernment and companies in the name of development pro-jects. In ‘Kalingnagar’, the Zindal Company has taken 352 acres of land for the expansion of the company. In Gopalpur areas, 400 acres of land has been taken by the TATA com-panies. In 1996, both companies took land which includes both private and government land. According to the dis-placed people, it was agreed between the government, com-panies and people that the affected people would receive benefits from the companies in compensation. However, this compensation has not been delivered, and so people are ready to leave the land. Therefore the land is under con-flict.

In 1987, the government of Orissa distributed ceiling surplus land to Dalits in Sandapur village. Around 35 acres of land was distributed among 37 Dalit families. Similarly in Sampur village, 80 acres of land was distributed to Dalit households under the Bhoodan Land Distribution. Although the government gave land records to the Dalits, that land is still occupied by landlords. When Dalits started claiming over the land, conflicts arose.

Table 5: Different Methods of Land Grabbing

Cases 1st stage 2nd stage

3rd stage 4th stage 5th stage

48

Nishar Mallick, Jajpur

Land taken for cul-tivation purpose

Land mortgaged

Threats of occupation

Total occup land

Alsua, Khurda Threaten to leave land

File case in low court

Physically attacked

Set fire house

Sampur, Khurda

Threaten to leave the land

File cases in court

Physically attacked

Sandapur, Puri

Threaten to leave the land

File cases in court

Physically attacked

House destroyed

Bhuban, Dhenkanal

Threaten to leave the land

File cases in curt

Socially boycotted

House destroyed

Karandiapatna, Kendrapra

Threaten to leave the land

Socially boycotted

Threaten to leave the land

House destruction

Set fire in house

Kalinganagar, Jajpur

First notice to take land

Second notice to take land

Police complain to leave the house

Break the house

Gopalpur, Ganjam

First no-tice to take land

Second notice to take land

Police complain to leave the house

Break the house

Sources: Field Study

5.4 Methods of Land GrabbingGenerally perpetrators adopt (1) Cheating, (2) non-physical molests, (3) physical assault, (4) Rape, (5) Burning the as-sets and house, and (6) Murder for land grabbing. Different stages of grabbing adopted by the perpetrator are docu-mented in the table above. The perpetrators apply a range of method to grab land depends upon the need.

Nishakar Mallick leased out his piece of land to a Non-Dalit person as he does not have any instrument to cul-tivate. He was working as a daily labourer for their liveli-

49

hood. After few days when Mr Nishakar Mallick needs some money he mortgage out that piece of land to the same per-son. Now the non-Dalit is not leaving the land. When he is asking to leave the land by receiving the due amount the Non-Dalits people threaten him to forget about the land.

Similarly in other cases like Alasua, Karandiapatna and Bhuban village the non-Dalits perpetrator adopted a range of methods like, (1) threatening, (2) abuse in caste name, (3) physical attack, (4) social boycott, and (5) des-troyed their house and set fire for grabbing land of the Dal-its. The non-Dalit perpetrator tries their best to prolong the cases in different court so that the poor Dalit people cannot keep patience for long time and with draw their case.

If it has not been realized in the above process, there is evidences of extreme steps taken by the non-Dalits for grabbing the land.

In the cases of Kalinganagar and Gopalpur areas where both state and companies grabbed land of Dalits. First to send public notice that the government of Orissa have taken the land in question to give to a company for devel-opment purposes, and requesting the inhabitants to leave the place. Then a time period is given in which the people must leave their land. In the next stage the state, through the local police, threatens the filing of a case if anyone seeks to involve in law and order in the situation. Finally, the government will evict people off the land with help of the local police.

5.5 Response to Atrocities against DalitsIn the eight selected cases, there is no record of help being offered by the community. This is because in almost all cases the community itself is involved. However, when

50

Nishakar Mallick asked the non-Dalit community for help, they prevented him from taking action against the accused. The Dalit community did not dare to raise its voice against the perpetrator. In Sampur village, the Dalit community asked for help from a Dalit community in a different village, but not from the non-Dalit community of the same or differ-ent villages.

Table 6: Help Received from Different Agencies

Case no

Help from Community

Help from Government

Help from Civil society

Nishar Mallick, Jajpur

No 1) Thasildar directed to local office for in-quiry

1) Assisted him in writing a complaint to officials

Alsua, Khurda

Dalit community affected

1) Registered FIR2) Compensation3) Arrest of accused4) Police protection

1) Informed commission and media and offi-cials.

2) Demonstration in front of government office

Sampur, Khurda

Dalit community affected

1) FIR not registered2) Cases are pending

1) Demonstration in front of SP office

Sandapur, Puri

Dalit community affected

1) No FIR2) Cases are pending in

Court

1) Cases filed in High court

Bhuban, Dhenkanal

Dalit community affected

1) No FIR2) Cases are pending in

Court

1) Informed media, gov-ernment officials

Karandiapatna, Kendrapra

Dalit community affected

1) Registered FIR2) Compensation given

to victim3) Cases are pending in

Court

1) Informed media, gov-ernment officials and Commission

Kalinganagar, Jajpur

All communities affected

No 1) Demonstration against government action

Gopalpur, Ganjam

All Communities affected

No 1) Demonstration against government action

Source: Field Study

51

5.5.1 NGO HelpIn most cases, people receive help from civil society mem-bers, especially local NGOs. Basically, after the incident local NGOs take the initiative to provide justice to the vic-tim by informing the government, writing to national and local media, and by sending written complaints to different commissions such as the National Commission for Sched-uled Caste and the National Human Rights Commission so that the necessary action against the accused can be taken. According to Thorat, NGO and civil society participation is very low. Few NGOs work on land, employment and credit access issues because of poor financial support from the government as well as donors (Thorat 2007: 5).

In Alasua village of Khurda district, civil society mem-bers were very active, and have written complaints to the National Commission for Scheduled Caste, who are taking necessary actions to give compensation to the victims. Ac-cording to records, National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) cases No- 704/18/28/07/08, dated 09/07/2011 with a case complaint date of 28/11/2007, the commission direc-ted to the state government to give compensation to the Dalit victims. The sum of Rs 5,75,000, sanctioned under rules 12(4) r/w Serial no 15 of the Scheduled, was granted. In response, the collector and district magistrate, Khorda Orissa, in his letter dated 27.05.2011, has informed that an amount of Rs 5,50,000 out of the Rs. 5,75,000 allocated has already been disbursed to the 22 victims and affected famil-ies at the rate of 25,000 per victim. The remaining Rs. 25,000 could not be disbursed because of the death of a vic-tim. The same will be disbursed to his legal heirs after re-ceipt of the legal heir certificate.

52

Similar incidents occurred in Karandiapatana in Khurda district on 2 December 2010. Kendrapara district administration paid around 2.9 lakh as compensation to 43 Dalit persons, who were the victims of a few non-Dalits. Ac-cording to the District Welfare Officer (DWO), the district administration also gave Rs 12,500 to each of the eight per-sons who had fled their homes in fear. They will be paid the same amount after the end of the cases. 35 others affected in the village have been paid Rs 3,125. The National Com-mission for Scheduled Caste instructed the district collector and superintendent of office to submit a report regarding the incident. This compensation given to victims was based a complaint from Orissa Dalit Adikar Manch made through a state level organization working for the protection and promotion of Dalit Rights.

In Sandapur village of Puri district, after an incident, Janmangal Mahila Samiti, a voluntary NGO, wrote to the Swedish prime minister to request that pressure be put on the chief minister of Orissa to give land to Dalits. This was because Janamangal Mahila Samiti received support from Sweden. The NGO filed a case on behalf of the 34 Bhoi families who were beneficiaries of ceiling surplus land un-der OJC No-7666/95. Orissa Dalit. Adhikar Manch, had also written complaints to all the concerned departments and to the National Commission for Scheduled Caste asking that they look into the matter and give justice to Dalit people.

Sometimes NGOs use joint action to provide justice to victims. In Alasua and Karandiaptna, all the civil society members joined the demonstration in front of the col-lector’s office at Kendrapara to demand compensation, the arrest of the accused and police protection for the victim. But this action was not long term. NGOs do not follow cases

53

in the judiciary very actively; their activities lie in the field, raising people’s awareness of their rights.

Narotam Patra is about 75 years of age and is staying at Trinjanga Rehabilitation Colony at Danagadi, Jajpur district. He is a member of the Periphery Areas Develop-ment Committee formed by the District Administration and is also president of Kalinga Nagar Jamihara Chasasi Surakshya Sanga.

Last month we are sitting in demonstration (Dharna) in front of the thasildar office, Dhanagadi for better land compensation to the Dalits. But still government is not listening to us. Though I am in the member of the Periphery Areas Development Committee, when they will call the meeting and they will circulate everything in English so it will be difficult to for me to read. Also most of the meeting is conducted in English. I don’t know much about the law and police of the government on mining and industries, even the SC/ST PoA Act. (Narotam Patra, Kalinganagar, Jajpur)

5.5.2 Government HelpThere are different stages at which the government

helps people in atrocity cases. But according to the Na-tional Commission for Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe’s study on the implementation of the SC/ST (PoA) Act in Uttar Pradesh, which analyzed 1,311 cases of atrocities, several implementation problems exist. The study revealed patterns of late registration of FIRs, delays in investigation, the accused not being arrested, charge sheets being sub-mitted late and relief and compensation not being paid in time (Irudayam and Mangubhai 2010: 18).

5.5.2.1 FIR (First Information Report)Two cases when Dalit victim requested to police to re-gistered FIR against the accuse police refused to registered the cases. In Bhubana village of Dhenkanal district after in-

54

cident when Jhuna Rani Nayak a women victim went to the police station police did not registered the case. Again she file a cases in lower court for file the cases. The lower court directed to the police station to registered cases. The Mrs. Jhuna Mallick W/o Jitendra Mallick in same village and one of the victim filed a complaint case in Judicial Magistrate first class (JMFC) court to directed to police for file a cases under 3 SC/ST (PoA) Act. The JMFC case no is 1CC 38/10. The JMFC registered FIR Under section 202 CRPC. U/S 294/427/506(II)/354 IPC & 3 SC/ST (PoA) Act. The case was file against Bidyadhar Sahoo & 13 other accuse in same vil-lage.

Similar incident happen in Sampur village of the Khurda district when Non-Dalit perpetrator attacked to the Dalit villager police not register the complain in the police sta-tion. Then with help of the community Dalit villagers did demonstration in front of the Superintendent of Police (SP) office, then SP assured to the Dalits to take necessary ac-tion against accused and directed to local police officer to investigate.

In Sandapur village police not register cases against the accused because he is economically and politically sound. Though the land dispute matter is in court so police cannot take any decision on this, may be after the court decision has been made the revenue and police department will take joint action to give land to the victim.

In the cases of Kalinganagar and Gopalpur areas, the state is directly party to the cases. If the police make any mistakes or if forceful land grabbing takes place, no cases need be registered at the police station.

55

5.5.2.2 ArrestIn the cases of Alasua and Karandiaptana, the accused was arrested immediately after the incident because of pressure from civil societies, media and higher officials. But in other cases like Sampur , Bhuban and Sandapur, the accused have not been arrested. Dalit people have many times re-quested that the police department take necessary action. If an FIR has not been registered, then the accused cannot be arrested. Even in Bhuban village, Dalit victims struggle to file FIRs in the police station, and even after an FIR, police do not dare to arrest the accused, as they are very influen-tial people in that locality. Sometimes the police also inten-tionally neglect the victims. In Sandapur village, Puri dis-trict, villagers complain that the police are caste biased and that they are taking bribes from the accused.

5.5.2.3 CompensationIn the cases of Alasua and Karandiaptna, Dalit victims re-ceived compensation from the government after interven-tion by a local NGO. In other cases, Dalits did not get any compensation because of the negligence of government offi-cials. Though there is a provision under the 3 SC/ST Pre-vention of Atrocity Act for compensation of Dalit victims, the government has not obeyed the rule of the law. Inter-views with police officials and NGO members indicated that sometimes official procedure takes a long time to give com-pensation to the victim. For instance, in Alasua village a vic-tim received compensation in 2010, 3 years after the griev-ance had occurred. Dalit victims have to wait a long time to receive compensation. Based on information from local NGOs, some officials are caste biased, and are not prepared to give compensation to victims.

56

5.5.2.4 Police protectionIt is a general trend that the government does not give po-lice protection to Dalits. This study found Dalit victims to be socially, economically and politically impoverished and unable to compete with non-Dalit people. Dalits are neg-lected by the police. In Alasua village, prior to the incident, Dalit villagers informed the police that non-Dalits had threatened to set fire to houses and requested protection. The police responded that the situation was beyond their control, and advised them to leave the village. The non-Dalit people set fire to houses in Alasua village in front of the po-lice. According to police officials , Sachidanada Ratha, OIC of the local police station, was injured during the incident, when he tried to prevent the non-Dalit people from setting fire to Dalit houses. The non-Dalits attacked the police offi-cials, and a local officer was admitted to hospital. After the incident, local police camped in Alasua village to avoid any further incidents.

Similarly, in Karapndiapatana village, police were sta-tioned in the village for one month after the incident to pre-vent further violence. In other villages, the police have not provided protection to the victims. Sometimes the police simply instruct the victims to wait until the court decision. The police also suggest compromises occur at the police station level, so that there will be no need to file cases.

In Kalinganar and Gopalpur areas, police have violated government orders by threatening local people, telling them to leave their land or face being beaten and arrested.

57

Table 7: Problems Faced by Dalit Victims after an Incident

Case Problem after IncidentNishar Mallick, Jajpur

1) Socially boycotted2) Non-Dalits restrict availability of work in

the village3) Restricted from contacting the police sta-

tion or Revenue Department.4) Going outside the village for daily work.5) No cooperation from villagers.

Alsua, Khurda

1) No work in the village.2) Share cropping in the village stopped.3) Going outside of the village for daily work.4) Police calling for investigation on a regular basis

5) Much time spent in court hearings.6) No money for advocate fees.7) Restriction of use of community land.

Sampur, Khurda

1) No work inside the village.2) Share cropping in the village stopped.3) Going outside of the village for daily work.4) Police calling for investigation on a regular

basis5) Much time spent in court hearings.6) No money for advocate fees.7) Restriction of use of community land.

Sandapur, Puri

1) No work inside the village.2) Share cropping in the village stopped.3) Going outside of the village for daily work.4) Police calling for investigation on a regular

basis5) Much time spent in court hearings.6) No money for advocate fees.7) Restricted use of community land.

Bhuban, Dhenkanal

1) No work inside the village.2) Share cropping in the village stopped.3) Going outside of the village for daily work.4) Police calling for investigation on a regular

basis5) Much time spent in court hearings.6) No money for advocate fees.7) Restricted use of community land.

Karandiapa 1) No work inside the village.

58

tna, Kendrapra

2) Share cropping in the village stopped.3) Going outside of the village for daily work.4) Police calling for investigation on a regular

basis5) Much time spent in court hearings.6) No money for advocate fees.7) Restricted use of community land.

Kalinganagar, Jajpur

1) No work inside the village.2) Share cropping in the village stopped.3) Going outside of the village for daily work.4) Restricted use of community land.

Gopalpur, Ganjam

1) No work inside the village.2) Share cropping in the village stopped.3) Going outside of the village for daily work.4) Restricted use of community land.

Sources: Field Study

According to this study, there are many problem faced by Dalits after an incident. Having to go far in search of work, making time for police investigations and court pro-ceedings, insufficient funds for travelling to court by bus or train, and lack of cooperation among villagers are only a few of the difficulties faced by Dalits after an incident. Many crimes against Dalits are premeditated; in Karandipatan village, for example, soon after an incident, non-Dalits came together and decided not give any work to the Dalit victim in their fields. Dalits work for non-Dalit landlords as agricultural or daily labor. The result was that the Dalit had to go far to search for work. This long journey in search of work, sometimes undertaken by female mem-bers of the family, is not secure. In that village, Dalit stu-dents were even forced to withdraw from their local school as they abused by upper caste people when walking along the village road to school. According to a village source, about 20 Dalit children were forced to take their school

59

leaving certificates (SLC) from Surendra Bidyapitha of Rankal and to stop attending school.

5.6 ConclusionLand is very close to the hearts of people in general and Dalits in particular. Not only has land has been grabbed at an individual level, but the state and companies have also participated in land grabbing. The perpetrators have adop-ted a range of methods to occupy land, which range from cheating to murder. Prolonging cases is another method ad-opted by perpetrators. The types of atrocities faced by the Dalits as a result of asserting their rights vary from hate speech to murder.

60

Chapter 6 Conclusion

6.1 IntroductionThis paper has explored ways in which land impacts on all spheres of Dalits’ lives, socially, politically and economic-ally. The poor level of education, the presence of poverty, landlessness and caste discrimination are major causes for exclusion from society. In this chapter, a conclusion is drawn based on the analysis of data on key findings in rela-tion to the main theme of land rights and marginalized com-munities in India, with reference to case studies of sched-uled caste in rural Orissa.

6.2 Caste & Untouchability Traditionally in the caste system, untouchables, who are at the bottom of the caste hierarchy, have suffered the most from unequal assignment of the entitlement to rights. They have no rights to property, occupation, education, or civil and cultural rights. It is also necessary to recognize the other ways in which untouchables have been denied rights and entitlement (Thorat and Sabharwal 2010:9). In India, exclusion revolves around the societal inter-relations and institutions that exclude, discriminate, isolate and deprive some groups based on group identities like caste, ethnicity and religion (Thorat and Sabharwal 2010:7). For example, according to Hindu religion Brahmin people only perform ritual work, while Dalits perform manual work. The re-searcher strongly feels that land provides shelter, food se-curity, identity, social prestige and control over other eco-nomic and social institutions in rural areas. This is the main reason for the creation of a social system and institutions

61

which control land resources in India. The system allows for the intentional deprivation and economic exploitation of Dalits. Although the government of India has made provi-sion for developmental programmes for the Scheduled Castes, a number of factors prevent these benefits from reaching the Dalits.

6.3 Constitutional Provision and Dalit LandThe government of Orissa implemented several land distri-bution programmes for the Dalits and Tribals, such as the Bhoodan Land Distribution Programme, the Wasteland Dis-tribution Programme, Vasundhara Yojana and Mo Ghara Mo jami Yojana. According to the government and NGOs, there are several objectives of the land reform in Orissa. The main objectives are: (1) imposition and recovery of land rev-enue (2) maximum utilization of the land for productive pur-poses, whether agricultural, industrial or otherwise (3) ab-olition of intermediaries, illegal grabbing and fraudulent dealings with regard to land (4) protecting and safeguard-ing the rights, titles and privileges of land owners. The an-cillary objectives are: (1) eradication of poverty; (2) removal of economic disparities between the rich and the poor; (3) equal distribution of land amongst citizens; (4) regulation of the law and order problem and maintaining social har-mony among people by assigning rights over land. All the programmes are designed for the poor, Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe peoples in Orissa (Swamy 2006: 15-16). Land is a central issue for Dalit livelihood and dignity and land is considered to be the symbol of status, power and prestige in the caste hierarchy. It is one of the most im-

62

portant causes of major caste atrocities in India. Historic-ally, Dalits are denied rights to land, education and political power. The social, economic and political hierarchy of the caste system places Dalits on the lowest rung of the ladder.

Dekker argued four main reasons for an increased in-terest in access to land, namely, alleviation of rural poverty, concern for the environment, reduction of inequalities in distribution of agricultural assets and improvement of food security (Dekker 2003:14). The government of India has provided programmes for the development of Dalits, but these provisions and programmes have not been imple-menting properly.

Dalits have no access to judiciary and executive sys-tems, and the jucidial system is often caste biased. Dalits are more vulnerable and have no access to resources, par-ticularly land. Even though the government has made some legislation for the socio-economic development of the Dal-its, this development is not possible because of the hege-mony of the upper caste. The constitution can provide state machinery like the Legislative, Judiciary and Executive branches of the government, but the people of the country will manage the law.

6.4 Children and Women are More VulnerableAccording to the National Commission for Scheduled Caste report, the number of atrocity cases involving Dalits are in-creasing due to land disputes. Dalits are facing several forms of atrocity like murder, rape, house burning, abuse, physical attack and social boycotting. All of these atrocities are driven by an economic interest. Even the government is not able to provide protection from these atrocities. Caste bias often obstructs the course of justice. Due to threats

63

from upper caste people, many Dalits do not to go a police station to report incidents. Most of the atrocity cases stud-ied by the researcher were perpetrated by upper caste people, and targeted women. Women were attacked and houses were burned during social boycotting of the Dalits. Children are also vulnerable in atrocity cases.

6.5 Role of Civil SocietyThe role of civil society is very limited in atrocity cases. Their role is confined to fact finding and informing govern-ment departments and commissions (National Commission for Scheduled Caste, National Human Rights Commission, State Human Rights Commission). Even though many civil cases continue for a long time in different courts, the NGOs do not providing any legal assistance to victims. Legal as-sistance available to victims is very limited. The NGOs have several constraints, financial, political and social, and there-fore they cannot follow the cases closely. Some cases have been highlighted by the media. It has been observed that media attention can be more helpful than NGO work. The media facilitates the involvement of different community members, including government officials, in the case. In Sampur village, after cases received media attention, the police were forced to registered cases against perpetrators.

6.6 Law and Government InstitutionsMany victims and activists have said that government offi-cials are caste biased. In many cases, Dalits have not dared to go to a police station to register a complaint. As Dalit people often do not know about the provisions in place for their protection, they cannot claim them. For instance, in Alasua although victims are supposed to receive compensa-

64

tion soon after an incident, government officials delayed this compensation. The victim also did not know that he was entitled to compensation. Only when this case was high-lighted in the media did the government official release the compensation to the victim. In judicial system, all land re-lated cases taking a long time. One case has even taken 20 or 25 years to come to the judgment stage. In Sandapur vil-lage, victims have been fighting cases for land in the high court for the last 10 years. They are still waiting for justice.

6.7 ConclusionThe attempt to establish a link between human rights, hu-man development and land rights was long overdue. Through the present study I have tried my best to establish this link in a systematic manner. In a developing country like India, the majority of households directly or indirectly depend on land for their livelihood. Whereas, with the pres-sure of capitalist forces, the state and a few other people have been grabbing land for higher profit. This not only has implications for human development, but also has an im-mense impact on human rights.

It has been reported that land has been grabbed by four types of perpetrators. Even if their processes of grabbing are different, their objective, i.e. profit, is the same. In search of profit, these agents will even resort to gross violations of human rights. The classical inverse rela-tionship between caste and human development makes lower castes an easy target for atrocities. Land has been the central point behind this issue in the present context.

Land grabbing functions both at an individual level and at a state level. Other agents of the state have recently been found to be associated with the process of land

65

grabbing. Land grabbing directly restricts the human devel-opment potentials of poor households. Without land, the Dalits have no other means of livelihood. When their tiny piece of land is grabbed, they lose not only their livelihood, but are forced to use their time to protect their land. There is little support from administration or the judiciary. The victims have been trying their best to get justice and have been approaching different agents of the state for this pur-pose. However, the feudal mind set of Indian administration does not facilitate the delivery of immediate justice to vic-tims.

The most important observation is the silent attitude of the state and agents of the state towards the atrocities committed against Dalits in relation to land issue. Whenever Dalits dare to assert their rights over their own piece of land, they become prey to a series of atrocities.

The historical denial of Dalits’ rights to resources has some implications for the present issue. Dalits are con-sidered by society as well as the state to be easy targets of atrocity. Individuals, as well as the state, have been taking advantage of Dalits’ illiteracy, ignorance, poverty and caste in order to exploit them in a variety of ways.

66

ReferencingAction Aid, Indian Social Institute & LAYA (2008) ‘Resource Rich

Tribal Poor: Displacing People, Destroying Identity in India’s Indigenous Heartland’. Accessed 28 October 2011 <http://www.actionaidindia.org/download/Resource_rich_re-port.pdf>

Bob, C. (2007) ‘Dalit Rights are Human Rights: Caste Discrimina-tion, International Activism, and the construction of a New Human Rights’. Human Rights Quarterly 29(1): 167-193.

Champer, R and G.R. Conway (1991) ‘Sustainable Rural Liveli-hood: Practice Concept for 21st century’, IDS Discussion Pa-per 296.

Clover, J. ‘Land Reform in Angola: Establishing the Ground Rule’. Accessed 1 November 2011 <http://www.iss.co.za/pubs/Books/GroundUp/7Land.pdf>

Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (2008) ‘On the Implementation of the International Covenant on Eco-nomic, Social and Cultural Rights (A periodic Report Submit-ted by the state parties under Articles 16 and 17 of the Con-vention’. New Delhi: National Campaign on Dalit Human Rights (NCDHR).

Dekker, H. (2003) The Invisible Line: Land Reform, Land Tenure Security and Land Registration. England: Ashgate Publishing Ltd.

Deshpande, R.S. (2003) ‘Current Land Policy Issues in India’. FAO Corporate Document Repository. Access to 28th October 2011<http://www.fao.org/docrep/006/y5026e/y5026e0b.htm>

De Haan, A. (n.d.) ‘Social Exclusion: Enriching the Understand-ing of Deprivation’ Pp. 22-40. Access to 5th August 2011

<http://www.sussex.ac.uk/cspt/documents/issue2-2.pdf>Government of India (2009):” Report of the Expert Group to Re-

view the Methodology for estimation of Poverty”, Plan-

67

ning commission. Access to 3 November 2011 (http://plan-ningcommission.nic.in/reports/genrep/rep_pov.pdf)

Government of Orissa, (2008)”Crime Report, Home Department”, 2006/2008 Government of Orissa Pubication.

Home Department Orissa (n.d.) ‘White Paper, Annual Report 2006/2008’. Government of Orissa Publication.

Irudayam A.S.J and J. Mangubhai,(2010). 20 Years: Sched-uled Caste and Scheduled Tribe (Prevention of Atrocity Act) Report Card. National Coalition of Strengthening SCs and STs Prevention of Atrocity Act

Irudayam, A.S.J., J.P. Mangubhai and J.G. Lee (2006) ‘Dalit Wo-men Speak Out: Violence Against Dalit Women in India’, New Delhi: National Campaign on Dalit Human Rights, National Federation of Dalit Women, Institute of Development Educa-tion, Action and Studies.

Jena, M (2005) ‘Dalit Adhikar’. Orissa: Manas JenaKethineni, S and G. Humiston (2010) ‘Dalits, the “Oppressed

People” of India: How are their Social, Economic, and Human Rights Addressed? Journal of War Crimes, Genocide & crimes against Humanity, 4 (1) 99-140)

Mahamallick, M (2008) ‘The Political Economy of Special Eco-nomic Zones in Orissa: An Analysis from a Dalit Perspective’. Orissa: Development Initiative

Mearns, R and S. Sinha (1999) ‘Social Exclusion and Land Ad-ministration in Orissa, India’. Policy Research Working Paper 2124. Washington DC: World Bank

National Campaign on Dalit Human Rights (n.d.) ‘Dalit Rights situation and Dalit and Untouchability’. Accessed 20 March 2011 <http://www.ncdhr.org.in/nfdlrm/about-nfdlrm>

National Campaign on Dalit Human Rights (NCDHR) and Insti-tute of Dalit Studies (IDS) (n.d.) ‘Dismantling descent-based discrimination: Report on Dalits’ Access to Rights’. Access to 25th August 2011 <http://www.satyaguru.us/yahoo_site_ad-min/assets/docs/Dismantling_Dr_Thorats_institute.323171159.pdf>

National Federation on Dalit Land Rights Movement (NFDRLM) (2008) ‘Dalit Land Rights’. Vol. 1

National Federation on Dalit Land Rights Movement (NFDRLM) (2009) ‘A study on Dalit Land Grabbing in the State of Orissa’. New Delhi.

O´ Leary, Z (2010) ‘The Essential Guide to Doing Your Research Project’. SAGA Publications Ltd.

Pattnaik, U. (1986) “The Agrarian question and develop-ment of capitalism in India “Economic and Political Weekly, Vol. 21, No. 18.

68

The Prajyabekshyka (2006) ‘Non distribution of Bhoodan Land in Orissa’

Ratnam, K.Y. (2008) ‘The Dalit Movements and Democratisation in Andhra Pradesh’, East-West Centre Working Paper No.13. Washington.

Revenue and Disaster Management Department (2011) ‘Report on the Activities of Revenue and Disaster Management Department for the year 2010/11’. Government of Orissa. Access to 5 October 2011<http://orissa.gov.in/revenue/activity_rep/2010_11.PDF>

Sahay, G.R. (n.d) ’Globalisation, Liberalisation & Agrarian Dis-tress: A study of Suicides among Farmers in India’, paper presented at Global Labour University Conference in Berlin. Accessed on 2 November 2011

<http://www.global-labour-university.org/fileadmin/GLU_conference_2010/papers/51._Globalisation__Liber-alisation_and_Agrarian_Distress..pdf>

Sarap, K (1998) ‘On the operation of the Land Market in Backward Agriculture: Evidence from a village in Orissa, Eastern India’. The Journal of Peasant Studies, 25(2):102-130.  

Sen, A (2000) ‘Social Exclusion: Concept, Application and Scru-tiny’. Social Development Paper (1). Office of Environment and Social Development and Asian Development Bank.

Swamy, M (2006) ‘Land Laws under the constitution of India’. Hyderabad: Asia Law House

Thorat, S (2007) ‘ Economic Exclusion and Poverty: Indian Experience of Remedies Against Exclusion’. Prepared for Policy Forum on Agricultural and Rural Development for Reducing Poverty and Hunger in Asia: In Pursuit of Inclusive and Sustainable Growth. (9-10 2007)

Thorat, S. (2008) ‘Social Exclusion in the Indian Context: Theor-etical Basis of Inclusive Policies’ Indian Journal of Human De-velopment 2(1).

Thorat, S., M. Motilal and S. Vankateshan (2007) ‘Human Poverty and Socially Disadvantaged Groups in India’. Discussion Series Paper 18. Human Development Re-source Centre, January 2007.

Thorat. S. & N. S. Sabharwal (2010), Children, Social Exclusion and Development, Caste and Social Exclusion: Issues Related to Concept, Indicators and Measurement, Working Paper Series, Vol. 02, Number 01.

UNDP (2004) ‘Human Development Report 2004’. Planning and Coordination Department, Government of Orissa.

69

UNDP (2008) ‘Status Report: Land Rights and Ownership in Orissa’. August 2008, New Delhi.

Wadhwa, D. C. (2002) ‘Guaranteeing Title to Land’, Eco-nomic and Political Weekly: 37(47) (November 23) 

Appendices

70

Appendics-1

List of atrocity-prone areas identified by the Gov-ernment of Odisha.

SSD, Dated Bhubaneswar the 10th January 2003

NotificationGovernment after careful consideration have been

pleased to appoint the Additional District Magistrate of the District named in the Schedule as the Special Officers in the respective Districts to perform the duties and discharge the functions of special Officer under rule 10 of the SC& ST (POA) Rules 1995 in the identified atrocity prone areas of these Districts.

Where there will be more than one A.D.M, the A.D.M in charge of the judicial/Law & order section of the District Office will be the Special Officer. This will take immediate effect. By Order of Governor Sd/-A.S Sarangi PrincipalSecretary to Government

SCHEDULE

SI. No District Atrocity Prone Areas1 Angul Pallahara, Chhendipada, Jarapada PSs areas

2 Bhadrak Bhadrak town, Rural (sadar), Naikanidhi, Dhusuri, Bansada PSs areas.

3 Boudh Boudh, Baunsuni, Manamunda, Kantamal, Purunakataka, Harab-hanga, P.Ss areas

4 Balasore Balasoretown, Khantarapara, Industrial areas, Oupada, Singla,sadar PSs areas

5 Cuttack Baramba, Niali,Govindpur PSs areas

6 Dhenkanal Sadar, Gondia PSs areas

7 Deogarh Entire Deogarh district,all the 4 police stations areas

71

8 Khandamal Entire Khandhamal District is the atrocity prone area as intimated by the S.P Kandhamal

9 Kalahandi Dharmagarh, Junagarh, Jaipatana ,Kaksara ,sadar Kegaon and Bhawanipatana Town P.Ss areas

10 Khurda Badagada, Lingaraj, Balianta ,Balugaon, Banapur, Jankia, Balipatana, Khandagiri P.Ss areas

11 Keonjhar Keonjhartown, sadar, patina,Ghasipura, Ghatagaon, Anandpur, Cham-pua, Joda, Barabil PSs areas

12 Mayurbhanj BaripadaTown, Bangiriposi, Khunta, Udala, Thakurmunda, Karanjia, Jhar-pokharia, Rasagovindpur, Barasahi P.Ss areas

13 Nuapada Sinapali Block areas

14 Puri Sadar, Town, Seabeach,Chandanpur, Satyabadi, Brahamagiri, Delang, Kanasa, Pipili, Gop, Balanga,Nimapada, Krushnaprasad PSs areas

15 Sonepur Sonepur, Birmaharajpur PSs areas

16 Sundergarh Sundargarhtown, Sadar, Lephripada, Hemgiri, Bisra, Rajgangpur and sector-19 P.Ss areas

Appendices-2

72

Nomenclatures of Scheduled Castes in Odisha

List of Scheduled Castes notified (after addition/dele-tion)as per the Constitution (Scheduled Castes) Order, 1950, as amended vide Modification Order 1956, Amend-ment Act, 1976 and the Constitution (Scheduled Castes) Or-der (Amendment) Act 2002 No. 25 dated 27.5.2002. of Min-istry of Law, Justice and Company Affairs, read with The Constitution (SCs) Order (Second Amendment) Act, 2002 No. 61 of 2002 dated 18.12.2002 of Ministry of Law & Justice republished vide Notification No. 7797-I- Legis-5/2002-L dated 7.6.2003 of Law Deptt, Govt. of Orissa and, vide Gazette of India No.381dt.30.8.2007.

Adi-Andhra, Amant, Amat, Dandachhatra Majhi, Aud-helia, Badaik, Bagheti, Baghuti, Bajikar, Bari, Bariki, Basor, Burud, Bauri, Buna Bauri, Dasia Bauri, Bauti, Bavuri, Bedia or Bejia, Beldar, Bhata, Bhoi, Chachati, Chakali, Chamar, Mochi, Muchi, Satnami,Chamara, Chamar-Ravidas,Chamara-Rohidas, Chandala, Chandhai Maru

Deleted vide Constitution (SCs) Order (Amendment) Act, 2002. No. 25 of 2002:- Dandasi, Dewar, Dhibara, Keuta, Kaibarta, Dhanwar, Dhoba, Dhobi, Dom, Dombo, Duria Dom, Dosadha, Ganda, Ghantaragada Ghantra, Ghasi, Ghasia , Ghogia, Ghusuria, Godagali, Godari, Godra, Gokha, Gorait, Korait, Haddi, Hadi, Hari, Irika, Jaggali, Kandra, Kandara, Kadama,Kuduma,Kodma,Kodama, Karua, Katia, Kela, Sapua Kela, Nalua Kela, Sabakhia Kela, Matia Kela, Khadala, Kodalo, Khodalo, Kori, Kummari, Kurunga, Laban, Laheri, Madari, Madiga, Mahuria, Mala, Jhala, Malo, Zala, Malha, Jhola, Mang, Mangan, Mehra, Mahar, Mehter, Bhangi, Mewar, Mundapotta, Musahar, Nagarchi, Namas-udra, Paidi, Painda, Pamidi, Pan, Pano, Buna Pana, Desua Pana, Panchama, Panika, Panka, Pantanti, Pap, Pasi, Patial, Patikar, Patratanti,

Patua, Rajna, Relli, Sabakhia, Samasi, Sanei, Sapari, Sauntia, Santia, Sidhria, Sinduria, Siyal, Khajuria, Tamadia, Tamudia, Tanla

Deleted vide Constitution (SCs) Order (Amendment) Act, 2002 No. 25 of 2002

Turi, Ujia, Valamiki, Valmiki, Mangali (in Koraput & Ka-lahandi dist.) inserted vide Constitution (SCs) Order (Amendment) Act, 2002 No. 25 of 2002, Mirgan (in Nowrangpur dist.) inserted vide Constitution (SCs) Order (Amendment) Act, 2002 No. 25 of 2002,

73

Appendics-3

Statistics of the Offenses on Scheduled Castes under different Sections between 2006 to 2008

Offense Re-gisteredCase

Chargesheeted

Final Report(True)

FalseRe-port/ Law

Non-cog-niz-able Of-fense

False Case

Case Dis-posed Off

True Case

Cases under Investigation

Probly charge sheeted

%of charge- sheet(With probable charge sheeted)

Con-victed

Acquittal Case under trial

2006

Murder case 12 8 _ 1 _ _ 2 9 1 1 100.0 _ _ 8

Attempt to Murder 74 46 2 2 _ 2 5 65 17 16 95.3 _ _ 46

Rape 52 36 1 _ _ 3 4 45 8 8 97.7 _ 5 31

Set Fire 17 7 2 2 _ 1 2 12 3 3 83.3 _ _ 7

Other Section 998 458 28 28 2 204 103 661 175 160 93.4 _ 8 450

Total 1153 555 33 33 2 210 116 792 204 188 93.8 _ 13 542

2007

Murder Case 13 11 _ _ _ _ _ 13 2 2 100.0 _ _ 11

Attempt to Murder 102 43 1 1 _ 4 6 91 47 43 90.5 _ _ 43

Rape 57 36 1 _ _ 3 1 53 16 16 98.1 _ 1 35

Set fire 19 6 1 _ _ 1 3 15 8 8 93.3 _ _ 6

Other Section 1164 419 20 21 4 136 75 928 489 449 93.5 _ 45 415

Total 1355 515 23 22 4 144 85 1100 562 518 93.9 _ _ 510

2008

Murder Case 17 5 _ _ _ _ 2 15 10 10 100.0 _ _ 5

Attempt to Murder 105 11 _ 1 _ 1 _ 103 92 83 91.2 _ _ 11

Rape 71 17 _ _ _ _ _ 71 45 50 94.3 _ _ 17

Set fire 20 1 _ _ _ _ _ 20 19 18 95.0 _ _ 1

Other Section 1039 107 7 4 _ 44 9 982 868 798 92.1 _ _ 107

Total 1252 141 7 5 _ 45 11 1191 1043 959 92.3 _ _ 141

Source : Home Department of Orissa, 2008

74

District-wise Statistics of the Offenses on Sched-uled Castes under different Sections, in the Year 2008

SL.No Name of the District Murder Case Attempt to Murder

Rape Setfire Other Sec-tion

Total Human Rights Protection Case

1 D.C.P Cuttack _ 1 3 _ 10 14 _

2 D.C.P Bhubaneswar 1 5 2 1 55 64 _3 Cuttack 4 16 7 _ 79 10

6_

4 Jagatsingpur 1 4 4 _ 38 47 _

5 Jajpur _ 3 5 _ 46 54 _6 Kendrapara _ 5 2 _ 38 45 _7 Puri _ 18 4 3 88 11

3_

8 Nayagarh _ 4 1 _ 36 41 _9 Khurda _ 6 _ 1 35 42 _10 Balasore 1 7

4

1 51 64 2

11 Bhadrak _ 3 2 1 59 65 _12 Mayurbhanj _ _ 1 _ 25 26 _13 Sambalpur _ 3 1 _ 23 27 _14 Baragarh 2 7 3 _ 34 46 _15 Deogarh _ 1 1 _ 6 8 _16 Jharsuguda _ 1 2 1 12 16 _17 Dhenkanal _ 4 2 4 80 90 _18 Angul 1 _ 3 1 61 66 _19 Balangir 1 2 2 _ 34 39 _20 Sonepur _ 1 _ _ 24 25 _21 Ganjam 1 9 4 3 42 59 _22 Gajapati _ _ _ _ 5 5 _23 Brahmapur _ 1 3 2 12 18 _24 Kandhamal _ _ 1 _ 6 7 _25 Boudh _ _ _ _ 17 17 _26 Koraput _ _ 3 1 12 16 _27 Nawarangpur _ _ _ _ 13 13 _28 Rayagara _ _ _ _ 11 11 _29 Malkangiri _ _ _ _ 6 6 _30 Kalahandi 2 2 2 1 22 29 _31 Nuapada _ _ 2 _ 21 23 _32 Sundargarh 1 _ 3 _ 3 7 _33 Keonjhar 1 2 2 _ 23 28 _34 Rourkela 1 _ 1 _ 9 11 _35 Railway(Cuttack) _ _ 1 _ 2 3 _

36 Railway(Rourkela - _ _ _ 1 1 _

75

37 Total 17 105 71 20 1039 1252

2

Source: Home Department of Orissa, 2008

76

77