[Dec 2007, Volume 4 Quarterly Issue] Pdf File size - The IIPM Think ...

Mrutyunjay Dash
Professor of Economics and
Business Environment,
Asian School of Business
Management,Bhubaneswar
Tenancy Reforms in Orissa:
A Critical Perspective
"He who owns the soil, owns
up to the sky."
- Douglas Gerrold
I. Introduction
Orissa is primarily an agrarian economy.
Agriculture is the state’s dominant sector
with a contribution of nearly 28.13 percent
to net state domestic product during 2001-
2002. Agriculture alone provides direct
and indirect employment to around 65
percent of the total workforce of the state
as per 2001 provisional Census. Nearly 87
percent of total population lives in rural
areas. It has remained as an agriculturally
backward state of India with high incidence
of concealed tenancy. Though tenancy
is legally prohibited in the state, it is
observed in large scale across the length
and breadth of Orissa. The Orissa Land
Reforms Committee, 1980, has brought to
the limelight the existence of a vast number
of tenants, mostly unrecorded sharecroppers,
in the rural areas of Orissa. Neither
these tenants have opted for the legal provision
of applying to the revenue officers
for obtaining ryoti right nor the latter, empowered
to initiate action to confer ownership
rights on tenants, have shown any
interest in this regard. Adam Smith (1969)
has rightly remarked that a person, who
has no property rights over land, can have
no other interest except eating as much
and labouring as little as possible, since
the fruit of his hard labour is expropriated
by the proprietor. Psychological feelings of
non-ownership coupled with insecurity
kill their efficiency, enthusiasm and physical
ability. Besides, social distinctions between
landowner and agricultural labourer
deaden the interest and the zeal of the
latter. This is why land reforms in general
and tenurial reforms in particular have to
be assigned the top-most priority in bringing
about the transformation of agricultural
sector so as to make it vibrant, dynamic
and more productive. However, lack
of proper implementation of tenancy reform
measures, prevalence of large scale
concealed tenancy with oral leases, absence
of rent receipts, ignorance of the
legal provisions of tenancy legislations,
built-in legal loopholes and above all, lack
of political will can be attributed for the
results being not so encouraging. In this
paper an attempt has been made to give a
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