The COVID-19 pandemic has changed the world abruptly, affecting nearly all of humanity with breath-taking speed. At the time of writing in mid-September 2020, almost 20 million people have contracted the disease and more than 900,000 have died.[1] Besides its tragic direct toll on human lives, the…
In a landmark decision, the Supreme Court of India last week ruled that daughters shall enjoy equal rights to inherit family land – an overdue and welcome shift toward greater equality for India’s women.
The Court’s decision provided much-needed clarity on the scope of equal inheritance rights…
Covid-19 pandemic has further worsened India’s hunger and malnutrition woes, more so for the millions of informal workers, now struggling to meet two ends in their rural homes, post the mass migration from their place of works, during lockdowns. Their embedded informality over labour, land,…
The land use change has been recognized as a major factor associated with the emergence of zoonotic diseases (diseases transmitted from animals) such as COVID-19. Various documentations on zoonotic outbreaks worldwide have found that the richness of the biodiversity works as a buffer against…
The 21st century is seeing the impacts of modernisation of the previous century. The most apparent impact is climate change.
Land is intertwined with the human trajectory and powers of access to land come from social, political or other kinds of dominance, writes Nikita Sud in this commentary.
By…
The Government of India has announced an ambitious effort to map residential areas in villages using drone technology and provide “property cards” to these rural owners. In its first phase, the Svamitva (“Ownership”) scheme will map 100,000 villages in six states, with the scheme ultimately…
COVID-19 refugees rushing back home, rural population in India, as elsewhere in the developing countries and emerging economies, is fast swelling up and suddenly it has become the new sink of labour, with cities and new-economies emptied up their workers. Corona lockdown has witnessed one of…
Informal workers and desperate journeys
‘Corona lockdown’ led to one of the biggest migrations in India’s modern history. Hungry, thirsty and hapless- millions of migrant workers who form the backbone of our glittering megacities- took to the road, on desperate journeys home. These migrant…
India-Land and Development Conference (ILDC) – 2020 held in New Delhi from March 2 to 4 saw a lively debate on a wide range of issues relating to India’s land sector. More than 100 academicians, young researchers, activists and policy makers made their presentations in the conference spread across…
About 350 land actors from government, academia, civil society and business came together from more than 15 states and outside India to discuss and debate various land issues. In more than 30 sessions, about 150 speakers and panelists deliberated over 3 days around interdisciplinary land-…
The National Council of Applied Economic Research (NCAER) recently released India’s first Land Records and Services Index. The NCAER Land Records and Services Index (N-LRSI) 2020 is based on data collected over 2019-20 on two aspects of the supply of land records—the extent of digitisation of land…