The fault in our lands

A film titled Kaagaz was released in 2021. It is based on travails of Lal Bihari, who was alive but was declared dead in land records. Legally dead, he struggled to prove he was alive. Problems of the living dead are not specific to India.

- BIBEK DEBROY

In France, Jeanne Pouchain is alive but has been declared dead by the courts. She too is struggling to prove she is alive. Pouchain’s case was not about land, but Lal Bihari’s was.

Land markets must become efficient, not merely because this contributes to growth, but because its absence is not fair to citizens, especially the poor. There are estimates that two-thirds of civil cases in India are due to land or property-related disputes. There are many reasons for land-related disputes; the multiplicity of laws and their mutual inconsistency being one, plus expected delays as a case winds its way through courts. As a slice of that bigger problem, we do not have clear titles to land.