Sreelatha Menon: Too much of nothing

EAR TO THE GROUND

When 80 per cent Dalits continue to be landless and under-represented despite countless quotas and free housing, OBC reservations in central educational institutions may make little difference.

Rural Development Minister Raghuvansh Prasad, a rare combination of earnestness and political achievement, recently made an admission that should have stunned the nation. He said the government's housing scheme for the homeless does not apply to the landless. So, the 160 million Dalits, of whom 80 per cent are landless, have not got a single home in the last 60 years.

This was confirmed with brutal firmness by another spokesman of rural causes, BN Yugandhar, a member of the Planning Commission. He asked: "Who told you that the Indira Awas Yojana is meant for all homeless? It is only for those who have land. Please check your facts before you talk to me." This journalist was numbed out of thoughts for some time by both the tone and the content.

Wouldn't the homeless be without land? Or are they expected to dwell on tree tops till the government of India builds them houses? Often, what seems obvious to the common man is invisible to policy-makers.

If the most needy man in the country does not get a hut, what use is this programme, which proposes to build six million homes by 2012 under the grand scheme of Bharat Nirman.

In fact, in a country where decades of reservation for the Dalits has not meant an increase in their presence in top jobs, and where half-a-century later the government realises that its housing scheme leaves out the landless Dalits, the OBC quota in higher education should be regarded as a bold beginning.

There is no dearth of such beginnings. The irony is that none of them achieve their ends.

The government of Andhra Pradesh, in a frenzy of pro-Dalit sentiment, distributed six lakh acres to the landless under the Indira Prabha scheme. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh inaugurated the drive with a patta for 3,000 acres in Medak district in August 2005.

The beneficiaries have since been trying to locate the lands that belong to them as no surveyors have been appointed, says Binay Kumar of the Dalit Bahujan Front. They now comfort themselves with the pattas, which find a prominent place in their belongings.

A piece of land brings with it dignity, livelihood and freedom from social evils like untouchability, says Vincent Manoharan, who heads the National Federation of Dalit Land Rights Movements. Weren't movements like Bhoodan aimed towards this end? Obviously, the land never got distributed, as Bhoodan workers will tell you.

Manoharan says programmes like the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme are ways to short-change the Dalit landless. It is meant to keep them as agricultural labourers all their lives, he says, adding that 80 per cent Dalits live on land that belongs to others and need permission to even bury or cremate their dead.

The activists are demanding the setting up of a Dalit land commission to look into the demand of the Dalits for land.

The federation is looking at a ferment of the landless across the world and finds strength. There is the Movement of San Terra in Latin America, land riots in Nairobi and now NOVOX or Voiceless in Europe, the coming together of the jobless, the homeless and the landless.

Recently, another movement, led by the Ekta Parishad, marched to Delhi to seek the setting up of a Land Commission. The federation begs to differ. We are for Dalit land rights, not just for the landless, says Manoharan.

Now, this comes decades after the Scheduled Castes Commission was set up. The reason is that the latter have no say on land issues.

"What use is such a commission?," ask Manoharan and his friends in the federation. Does it matter?