Land is Property, Livelihood, Habitat and more....

The recent agitation by the Uttar Pradesh farmers over land acquisition and the death of agitating farmers in police firing has again brought the issue centre stage.
The media rose to the occasion and grabbed the issue for their Breaking- News stories. The politicians, never to be left far behind, also jostled to get maximum sound bytes and eye balls. Voices of farmers seemed to be drowned.
Briefly, the UP Government acquired land for the Yamuna Expressway, between Noida and Agra and claims that farmers willingly parted with their land and accepted a compensation which was much higher than previous cases in UP and other states. However, parts of the land was later allotted to private developers for market and township at rates 10 times that of the compensation paid. Therefore, the farmers were demanding a part of the profit made by the Government. The Government acted tough, resulting in agitation, killing of policemen and subsequent atrocities by policemen.
The controversy has also revived demand for amending the 100 years old land acquisition act. As a result the Central Government has promised to bring a new bill in the next session of Parliament.
This entire debate seems to be focused on politics and money- which political party is more guilty for atrocity on farmers and why higher price can not be paid to the farmers. But this is not an isolated case. Agitation by and brutalization of farmers/tribals on the issue of land is an oft repeated act on the Indian political canvas. It is time the issue is addressed head-on.
In my view, when a farmer or villager or tribal loses his land to a project it entails three things.
1 Loss of property
2 Loss of livelihood
3 Loss of habitat
Some people might like to add intangibles like loss of history, emotional attachment and identity to the list. But then these are intangibles and beyond the realm of compensation.
Presently the society and the State talks of compensation for the property alone. That, I think, is the crux of the problem. Social tensions can not be avoided unless the issue of loss of livelihood and Habitat (if applicable), is also adequately addressed.
The problem is complicated because often those who lose their livelihood and habitat are not the owners of property. Land belonging to a farmer or 'raiyat', as it is known legally, is the source of livelihood for many farm labourers. Similarly, land belonging to Government, forest department or a corporate house/PSU is often the habitat for many poor citizens including tribals.
The new proposed Land Acquisition Bill must take this into account and address it adequately. Otherwise, farmers and tribals will continue to agitate and die and development will continue to be halting, painful and bloody. It has taken 100 years and much suffering to review the old bill. Let us not wait for another century to find a good solution.