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TENANCY REFORMS
brief outline of the extent, types and incidence
of tenancy in the second section. In
the third section reference to important
tenancy legislation is undertaken. Finally,
evaluation of tenancy reforms in Orissa is
made followed by concluding remarks.
II. Extent, Types And
Incidence Of Tenancy
India achieved independence from British
Rule in 1947. Having been created with six
districts: Balasore, Cuttack, Puri, Ganjam,
Koraput and Sambalpur initially, in 1936
Orissa acquired a new geographical shape
after merger of 26 feudatory states on
January 1,1948. In the first stage an attempt
has been made to give a brief account
on the extent of tenancy, types of
Table-1: State-Wise Tenancy Statistics For Rural India,
1981-82 And 1991-92
State
% of Tenant Holdings
to Operational
Holdings
% of Leased-in
Area to Operational
Area
% of Leased-in
Area under
ShareTenancy
1981-82 1991-92 1981-82 1991-92 1991-92
Andhra Pradesh 13.8 14.1 6.2 9.6 20.9
Assam 12.9 10.1 6.4 8.9 27.8
Bihar 19.7 5.6 10.3 3.9 43.5
Gujarat 4.8 3.7 2 3.3 23.7
Haryana 25.9 17.1 18.2 33.7 19.9
Karnataka 10.7 8 6 7.4 28.6
Kerala 6.7 5.2 2.6 2.9 2.1
Madhya Pradesh 8.0 9 3.6 6.3 24.9
Maharashtra 10.6 6.9 5.2 5.5 20.9
Orissa 18.2 16.9 9.9 9.5 50.9
Punjab 21.3 15.9 16.1 18.8 11.3
Rajsthan 7.1 6.5 4.3 5.2 23.4
Tamilnadu 24.7 15.3 10.9 10.9 16.5
Uttar Pradesh 20.5 15.5 10.2 10.5 46.5
West Bengal 23.1 14.4 12.3 10.4 46.5
India 15.2 11 7.2 8.3 34.4
Source: Sarvekshana, Vol,20, No.3, 70th issue, Jan-March, 1997, NSS 48th Round.
tenancy NSS (National Sample Survey).
In India data on extent of tenancy are
available from two sources: National Sample
Survey estimates and Agricultural
Census data, out of which the former is
more reliable being based on independent
household surveys.
However, it will not be out of place
to mention that there is commonality
of opinion on reliability of official data
on incidence of tenancy due to several
reasons. Principally because lease contracts
are mainly oral without any written
record of lease details and tenants’
hesitation to reveal their tenurial identity
in fear of eviction by the landowner.
With this reservation in mind NSS
estimates on incident of tenancy have
been furnished. This is the reason for
which NSS is referred to in this section.
And secondly different tenancy reform
measures undertaken by the Government
of Orissa and their evaluation are
considered also. Orissa belongs to the
category of high Tenancy State in India.
This is supported by NSS findings. As
per NSS data in the year 1981-82 tenants
household constituted 18.2 per cent
of total operational household and it
has been reduced to 16.9 percent (only
by a meagre 1.3 percent), in 1991-92, as
reflected in Table-1. In 1991-92 there
were numerically 6.9 lakh tenant holdings
and leased-in land constituted
4.5 lakh hectares of land. This was 9.5
percent of total operated area and infact
surpasses the All India average of 8.3
percent in the same period. Tenancy in
Orissa is manifested mostly in the form
of sharecropping. Share tenancy is more
pervasive than fixed rent tenancy based
on either fixed produce or fixed money.
Nearly 42.0 percent of leased-in area is
under shared tenancy compared to that
of 13.6 percent and 7.6 percent are on
fixed produce and fixed money respectively
NSS (1971-72) and this figure has
further been increased to 50.9 percent in
1991-92 (Please refer Table-2).
Further, in a labour abundant coupled
with land scarce agrarian economy like
ours, i.e., of Orissa, the tenant is subject
to weak bargaining power and thus
is placed in a disadvantageous position.
The obvious alternative left with, therefore
relates to leasing-in-land irrespective
of the degree of benefits accruing
to the tenants from a certain mode of
lease contract. This is more prominent in
case of marginal and small farmers as is
evident from Table-3. The distribution of
THE INDIA ECONOMY REVIEW
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