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Land Issues in Koraput

For Koraput's rural poor, land represents more than a source of income. Land is the primary determinant of wealth, status and power. It can be a security against abject poverty, a means to access credit, the capacity to challenge oppression and a symbolic sense of identity and control. On the other hand, landlessness erodes social status and makes people economically vulnerable and mentally insecure.

Land problems for villages of Koraput district have a long history. For a detailed summary, see Terra Firma: A Grounding in Koraput's Land Issues (pdf). Problems have included:

• repeated displacement due to government projects such as hydroelectric dams;
• mortgaging land to private lenders to meet basic needs, thereby losing the family's most important asset;
• family and village disputes as a result of incomplete land records, especially in the case of widows; and
• vulnerability to exploitation by government and corporations when official land records are not in hand.

SPREAD's Activities

Many of SPREAD's activities regarding land rights revolve around a specific defined process, whereby SPREAD staff meet with a village several times over a period of years and conduct in-depth land surveys, train villagers on their rights and on land laws, help villagers to fill out forms to secure new and replacement land titles (pattas) and advocate on a larger scale through meetings and media.

Activities as part of this process and through other means include the following:

• Village-level surveys on land holding status and individual land problems.
• Social maps developed by the community to track land status and visually represent the village's land issues.
• Training to villagers regarding land rights and land laws.
• Helping villagers to complete and submit forms for new and replacement pattas to homestead, agricultural, forest and cashew land.
• Land entitlements for women by requesting their name be added to the patta.
• Developing literature on land laws.
• Lobbying for land rights through media, rallies and meetings with officials.