Feature
Landlessness and its Impact on Economic Development
Sadman Khaled Monsur
 SOCIAL welfare through poverty alleviation is the first and foremost objective of any developing economy like Bangladesh. Normally the majority of the rural population in the developing countries is dependent on land as their primary source of income. The landholding pattern is a major determinant of their economic solvency, social power structure and hierarchy. Most of these countries have been experiencing an alarming growth of landlessness among their rural population over the past few decades. The state has been eradicating poverty by raising their standard of living through preventing the concentration of wealth and means of production and distribution in the hands of a few. Landlessness often proves to be both the cause and the manifestation of poverty, insecurity, indebtedness and powerlessness of the majority of rural households. It has been found that a steady increase in the number of landless households, which had reached over 50 per cent of all households in 1994, is alarming, particularly in the context of the scarcity of alternative employment opportunities in the rural farm and non-farm sectors . Landlessness has increased at almost the same rate of growth as the population in Bangladesh in the recent past. Between 1960 and 1984, while the number of rural households increased at 2.2 per cent per year, the number of rural landless households increased at 2.5 per cent per year. Therefore, a close correlation was found between landlessness and poverty. In rural areas, precisely 2.10 million households are simply landless. Due to this phenomenon, there is an absolute increase in the asset-less people who cannot meet their livelihood requirements on their own that leads to the expansion of slump with all concomitant social problems. In fact, landlessness, which is a function of economic, demographic and environmental factors, is the major determinant of rural poverty. All these factors have definite impact on country's economy to destabilize the macroeconomic environment to a great extent. Past and recent government efforts to check the growth of landlessness in view of all these socio-economic problems have not yet been experienced with positive outcomes and hence could not eliminate poverty. This paper has prepared for formulating a critical appraisal on landlessness through conducting a primary survey in the context of Bangladesh and finding out what are the best alternative recommendations to ameliorate land ownership pattern of the economy.
This has accomplished a critical appraisal on landlessness and economic development of Bangladesh through conducting a primary survey and traced out what are the best alternative recommendations to ameliorate land ownership pattern of the economy. In this regard, many scholars and researchers have set out to examine the prevailing patterns of land ownership in developing countries. These investigations generally conclude that rural landscapes in developing countries are characterized by highly inequitable social structures, or what many have called “bi-modal agrarian systems,” in which expansive commercial estates control vast tracts of fertile land while large numbers of landless or nearly landless people cultivate little or no land. Where measurable evidence is available, indications suggest that polarization is increasing and that new inequalities and conflicts are emerging.
One has found that ironically landlessness is one of most frequently cited cause of poverty, particularly among the chronically poor. The analysis shows that once landless, the chronically poor are exposed to several interlocking factors that push them further into poverty. Some of these factors are both causes and consequences of poverty and landlessness, thus bringing in the aspect of multidimensionality.
In Bangladesh, the percentage of landless households (defined as those with less than 0.2 hectare) on total was 46% in 1988 but increased to 49.6% in 1995, and their share of total land had declined by nearly half a percentage point. Most of landless in rural areas are poor and work as agricultural wage laborers. Marginal farmers and tenants are found everywhere in the sub-region but they predominate in countries like Bangladesh, India, Nepal and Pakistan. In particular, the high level of landlessness or near landlessness and rural social deprivation are quite closely related in Bangladesh. Nearly half of all rural households are considered landless, and out of a total of 14 million agricultural households, 11 million possess no more than 0.05 acres (0.02 hectares). Since the 1950s, the state has formulated land reform laws with a view to providing land to the tillers, and improving the living conditions of the rural poor. At the same time, however, national elites have lacked the political commitment required to implement legislation and promote land reform. This is primarily because both state institutions and local power structures have tended to be strongholds of landlords. Until the beginning of the 1980s, land reform measures were limited to the fixing of a land ceiling at around 33 acres (13.4 hectares) per household and attempts to acquire the excess land for eventual distribution to the landless. In a country where landlessness is so widespread and the average land holdings are unusually small, the land ceiling for the landlord has remained remarkably high. Moreover, attempts to appropriate land beyond the ceiling from landlords have been slow and largely ineffective.
Landlessness of Bangladesh in retrospect is both a historical and structural phenomena. To tackle it one has got to understand the problems both in terms of their cause and effects. Only then a political document can seek for such bottlenecks through the administrative and planning reforms. There is a presumption in the mainstream economic postulation that there remains a negative relationship between landlessness and economic development. However, after conducting a primary survey in the context of
Bangladesh, it has been found that landlessness could make a positive push towards economic growth from the consideration of utility facilities (i.e. access to pure drinking water, sanitary latrine, and the rate of electricity consumption). The rationale behind this finding may be due to create a positive push for encouraging rural landless people to migrate urban areas. At this instant, the policy makers have to make their own research towards landlessness for economic development. At present, there are very limited banking services available in rural areas and the wealthy has relatively a better access to cheap credit. The public sector institutions are unsustainable, with a recovery rate of less than 20 per cent in 1994/95. As a result, the member-based institutions (e.g. Grameen Bank and NGOs) target the landless poor. In this regard, Grameen Bank has achieved a remarkable success. Therefore, rural financial sector aimed at creating a strong and efficient system of financial intermediation have become imperative towards landless people. They can innovate diversification in income generating activities through getting credits. If some funding could be made available to the landless poor on reasonable terms and conditions, they could engage in non-agricultural productive self-employment, thereby alleviating poverty.
There is no doubt that the modern high-yielding variety (HYV) seed-fertilizer-irrigation technology has made a significant impact on rural poverty alleviation. Modern agricultural technology for proper utilization of land has also helped generating employment in the rural areas of Bangladesh, particularly for the landless. In this regard, it can be pointed out that the policies for mitigating landlessness generally create the fragmentation of land that prohibits the landowner to adopt modern technology in production process. The tendency towards splitting up of existing holdings poses problems in applying modern techniques, increases loss of land to boundaries and forces management of scattered plots. Specifically in the absence of modern technology, the agricultural productivity goes down, which hinders real GNP to hike up. Therefore, from this point of view, landlessness has a significant level of positive impacts on economic development. For social welfare, the policymakers can rehabilitate the landless people through creating income generating activities. In this regard, setting up agro-based industries as well as promoting employment in non-agricultural sector is a must for achieving potential economic development. It is also observed that when any rural development initiatives accelerates for raising employment opportunities, the landless people becomes the beneficiary target group as they supply the highest proportion of human resources. Matters to be pondered that- when any development strategies leads to infrastructural development for adopting modern technology in agriculture, landless group is also benefited through the further employment opportunities in backward and forward linkage agricultural industries.
In brief, resolving the landlessness issues within a macroeconomic framework under microeconomic perspective. However, it can be an attempt to see and examine the problems of landlessness for suggesting remedies within the overall context of the economic development of Bangladesh. A national level survey for understanding the trend of landlessness could be the better option whether it is development or not.
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