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December 26, 2004 

The landless poor in the north must get a fair deal

Not long ago Joynal Miah had seven bighas of cropland and he was a happy man. He has lost five bighas of that land over the years and there is hardly any guarantee that he will be able to keep the remaining two bighas. ``The jotdar has taken away five bighas of my land. I may lose the remaining two bighas soon. Then I'll be a landless man and will have live on the street," says Joynal, a marginal farmer from Madhupur village in Naogaon district.

Joynal's fault was that his seven-bigha land was flanked by eight bighas of land owned by the jotdar or wealthy landowner of the area. He had to walk through jotdar's land in order to work on his land. The jotdar(never liked it and pressed Joynal to sell his land to him. Joynal was reluctant to sell the small plot of lanl. The jotdar, a powerful man in the area, resorted to many tactics, including coercion, to force the poor man to sell five bighas of hi{ land at throwaay price.

The jotdar's family used the same tactics to virtually grab land from Joynal's family from his grand father and father, Joynal says. When normal offer to buy did not work, the jotdar's family resorted to threats against the poor farmers in the area.

In the same process Mohmmad Bashir of Birganj upazila in Dinajpur district lost his ancestral land, incl}ding the homestead to a jotdar. Bashir's homestead stood just across the jotdar's house. The jotdar could not accept the fact that a poor man was his next-door neighbour and his homestead bordering with a poor man's land. The jotdar forced Bashir to sell his small land to him. ``The jotdar has the entire area under his grab. Yet he did not spare my small land," says Bashir who has taken shelter with a relative.

Long after the Jamindar system was voided, the practice still goes on in many parts of Bangladesh, especially the northern region. The Jamindar system was officially nullified in 1950 but the remnants have remained and getting bigger. The rich farmers resort to threats and coercion, and cheat poor farmers in order to grab their land. Thus farmlands have concentrated in the hand of the few who control the agricultural production system too. One of the consequences is the growing number of landless people.

According to a recent study on land use in the northern region, the number of landless people was only 16 per cent in the 1960s. In 2001 that figure jumped to 74 per cent. The study, approved by the Land Ministry, also found that only 10 per cent of the area's population own most of the land and wealth. The study divided the landless people in three categories: the homeless; those who have homestead but no farming land and those who own less than 40 decimal of land. The study say{ 82 per cent of the area's population have no homestead.

Sources at Bogra Land Registration Office admit that nearly 40 pmr cent of the land in the area is registered with only one person living on the outskirts of Bogra. This man has reportedly purchased 600 bighas of land in past one decade. It has also been found that only a few hundred families own the land in Naogaon, Natore, Dinajpur, Bogra, Rangpur, Rajshahi and Joypurhat. These families own land ranging from hundred bighas to three thousand bighas. They allegedly keep the officials concerned happy with their wealth and mite. Thus the poor farmers become poorer and marginalised, and the land and the economy related to it are dominated by the wealthy people and the middlemen.

A study conducted by Rajshahi University has recently tried to determine the factors that have contributed to the growing landlessness. Threats and coercion have been identified as key factors why poor farmers finally sell their land to rich farmers. The famine in 1974 and the floods in 1988 also contributed to the marginalisa|ion of the poor farmers.

Technologies such as introduction of tractors, thrashers, fertiliser and pesticides have also acted against the poor farmers and helped the jotdars. Those who have money can buy the technologies. The technologies have also thrown many farmers out of job.

The poor farmers are also unable to seek legal actions against the injustice they suffer. A lawyer, who spoke on condition of anonymity, says complaints by genuine farmers are often dismissed in favour of the land grabbers. Some say land reforms can help the poor regain their lands.

Says Mahbubul Alam, Director at Landless Distress Zehabilitation Cmntre that works among the poor farmers in the north: "We need to reform the existing land laws and ensure that state-owned Khas land is distributed among the poor. This is the only way to make the poor farmers self-reliant."

Source: News Network.