Model answer & approach
- When land reform was a paradigm shift, then what type of land reforms would you recommend to make India a more equitable society? (Answer in 150 words)
Introduction
Land reform abolished landlordism in law without distributing much land.
Body
1. Why further land reform is still needed: The ceiling surplus redistributed was a small fraction of cultivated area. Land is still the principal rural asset, Dalit and Adivasi households hold far less of it than their numbers warrant, and tenancy went underground wherever leasing was banned.
2. The reforms you recommend: First, legalise and record tenancy, on the lines of NITI Aayog's 2016 model leasing law, so a tenant becomes visible to credit. Second, digitise records of rights and give homestead title, as Kerala did for its hutment dwellers. Third, enforce women's equal inheritance under the 2005 succession amendment. Fourth, settle the claims pending under the Forest Rights Act of 2006.
3. How each would make society more equitable: Recorded tenancy makes a hidden dependence contractual; a homestead gives a labouring household ground it cannot be evicted from; a title in a woman's name shifts the balance inside the house, as Bina Agarwal showed.
Conclusion
The equity still available lies less in taking land than in recording who holds it.
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