Why landlessness is on the increase

Who are landless?
The Agricultural Census (1983-84) defined landless as "those who possess up to one half of an acre." The survey classified the landless into three different categories: category-I are those who have no homestead or cultivable land; category-II are those who have a homestead but no cultivable land; category-III are those who have a homestead and cultivable land up to one half of an acre.

The Agricultural Census of 1996, which is so far the latest, showed that in all the three categories mentioned above, the percentage of landless people increased in 1996. The table below shows the category wise distribution of landless households in the agricultural censuses of 1983-84 and 1996.

It appears from the data that compared to 1983-84 landless households belonging to the above mentioned three categories have increased since the last census of 1996. The data of the two censuses further show that the landless under category-II has tremendously increased, but in category-I and category-III the increase has been moderate.

Why increasing landlessness?
It is said that there is a close correlation between landlessness and poverty. Poverty is generally defined as "an economic condition of lacking both money and basic necessities needed to successfully live such as food, water, education, and shelter."

Poverty has also got classifications. The World Bank defines "extreme poverty as living on less than $1 per day, and moderate poverty as less than $2 a day."

Available data show that about half of the total population in Bangladesh live in extreme poverty as their per capita income is less than $1 a day. A key factor behind the high rate of poverty in Bangladesh is the increasingly insecure relationship between people and the land. In a country where agriculture continues to be the biggest sector in the economy and, in one form or the other, it affects the livelihood of the preponderant number of the people who are mainly rural inhabitants, land is the most important resource for the rural people. Without owning or having access to land, it is difficult for the rural people to sustain themselves.

Now the question is: what causes rising landlessness in the country? Economists, researchers and others have identified the following factors that are primarily responsible for the increasing landlessness in the country:

-- The ratio of land ownership is uneven in the country. Available data show that more than half of the families in the country own only 4.2 percent of the country's total land area while only 6.2 percent of the families own 40 percent of the land.

-- Wealthy and influential people have been the beneficiaries of the distributed khas land. The 12 lakh acres of cultivable khas land distributed between 1980 and 1996 constitute 44 percent of the total khas land, and 88 percent of the distributed khas land went to wealthy and influential people while only 12 percent went to landless people.

-- Successive governments have not been serious about recovering khas land from illegal grabbers who are elite politicians and influential people. In its editorial on June 18, The Daily Star wrote: "The political leadership has failed to tackle the problem of land grabbing, rather the grabbers are exerting political influence to throw their weight around and bend government policies. It is an example of the government failing to protect the interests of the poor and check the process of pauperization."

-- Available information suggests that in the last 10 years the government allocated almost no khas land. Distribution of khas land among the landless people during this period could have saved thousands of landless families from extreme poverty.

-- The core problem facing Bangladesh is the scarcity of land. With a high and increasing rural population, farm sizes are declining rapidly and landlessness is rising. According to inheritance laws, land is divided among siblings and such fragmentation of landholdings gradually leads to landlessness as categorised above. Further, unplanned housing pattern in the rural areas leads to huge loss of valuable agricultural land and ultimately contributes to landlessness.

-- The major rivers of Bangladesh -- the Jamuna, the Padma and the Meghna -- annually consume several thousands hectares of floodplain land through river erosion. According to one study, about 5 percent of the total floodplain of Bangladesh is directly affected by erosion. Another study shows that about one million people are directly affected each year by bank erosion in the country. The total monetary loss is estimated to be approximately $500 million a year. An estimated 300,000 displaced persons usually take shelter on roads, embankments and government-requisitioned lands.

-- The pressure of too many people on a limited land base is also an important cause for increasing landlessness in the country.

Socio-economic impact
Landlessness and poverty are inter-related. Annual population growth rate surpassing the growth rate in food production, and increasing landlessness, outweighed whatever little success had been achieved in the reduction of poverty in the last two decades or so.

Further, poverty resulting from increasing landlessness and lack of employment opportunities in the rural areas leads to massive rural to urban migration. Large-scale migration of landless and poor people to big cities and their living in slums and squatter settlements create social, environmental and many other problems.

To conclude, some of the major factors contributing to the rise in the number of landless people, in particular in rural areas, will have to be addressed on a priority basis. Appropriate measures are also needed to check further rise in the number of landless people in the country.

M. Abdul Latif Mondal is a former Secretary to the government.