The Hindu Business Line : $6.7-m grant for land ownership scheme

Bangalore, Nov. 25 Rural Development Institute (RDI), an international non-profit organisation working to secure land rights for the world’s rural poor, has received a $6.7 million grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to expand its ‘micro-land ownership’ programme in India to help landless women and their families achieve food security through access to agricultural services on land as small as one-tenth of an acre.

“Women comprise a significant majority of India’s agricultural labour force, yet they rarely have rights to land and are often among the most vulnerable groups in India,” said Mr Tim Hanstad, President and CEO of the Seattle-based NGO, which has been working in India since the late-1990s.

Since then, RDI has worked closely with national, State and local governments to secure land rights for India’s rural poor by demonstrating that a little bit of land can yield enormous benefits in terms of food security, shelter, income and status.

With at least 15 million landless rural households in India, the majority of which are agricultural labourers earning less than $1 a day, the need for a programme that demonstrates a practical solution that is both politically and financially feasible is paramount.

The grant will allow RDI to focus specifically on helping women in Orissa and West Bengal to obtain ownership of small plots, and maximise the nutritional and income-producing potential of their land.

According to Mr Hanstad, “The current Five-Year Plan calls for expanding micro-land ownership across the country, giving it the potential to help five million people – or 1 million families – secure land over the next five years.”

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