Act of faith

Why is Mendha fighting for community ownership of land under gramdan law at a time when most other villages want to give up the tag and states are diluting it?

- SHAGUN,, RAJU SAJWAN, MONOJ GOGOI

MENDHA AND Tuljapur, two villages in Gadchiroli and Akola districts of Maharashtra, are a study in contrast. While the former is fighting to become a gramdan village under the Maharashtra Gramdan Act, 1964, the latter is trying to lose the category.

Gramdan is a village where all the land is owned jointly by the residents (see "Community ownership"). The concept is an expansion of Bhoodan-a movement for redistribution of land from big landowners to the landless, started by Gandhian Vinoba Bhave in 1951. Only seven states in the country-Uttar Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Odisha, Rajasthan, Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu-have laws that allow setting up these village republics. Uttar Pradesh became the first state to pass a law on gramdan villages in 1962.

Setting up a gramdan requires at least 75 per cent of the residents surrendering ownership of the land to the village. If the total surrendered land is at least 60 per cent of the village land, the government can recognise the surrendered land as a gramdan. All the land in such a village is under a common trust and cannot be sold to an individual from outside the gramdan. This aspect, Mendha residents believe, is key to self-rule that ensures conservation of their land and forests. "People sitting in Delhi and Mumbai cannot bring about the development of tribals. The village has to decide on its development itself," says 66-year-old Devaji Tofa, former president of Mendha.

Why, then, does Tuljapur want to give up being a gramdan? Since the land is not in the name of an individual, one cannot use it to avail bank loans or to claim agricultural subsidies, says president of Tuljapur gram mandal (gram sabha), Mahesh Aarey, who is fighting for removal of the village from the Act.