om e 's Ali a - Land ss De elo en - Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung, India Office

y. The result is that the agricultural
land is being acquired and auctioned
for making big malls and hotels.
The laws are being changed to
facilitate this. This is leading to
marginalisation of the twin agendas
of agriculture and livelihood. The
peasantry, which leads a honourable
life, is thus being forced to take the
course of migrating to metropolis
and is forced to live in slums.
Thus, the Government of Rajasthan
is not only shirking its responsibility
of protecting, promoting and
sustaining agricultural activities
but on the contrary promoting the
non-agricultural use of agricultural
land and even changing land
laws to facilitate this. That is why
the government is increasingly
withdrawing subsidies given
to fertiliser, diesel, seeds and
agricultural implements. The result
is that it is becoming increasingly
unprofitable, and farmers are
looking to take up other profitable
ventures. Opportunities to earn
quick money are also weaning
them away from agriculture. The
Government of Rajasthan has taken
a decision to amend Section 42 B
of the Rajasthan Tenancy Act 1955
which prohibits transfer of land
Summary, Conclusion and Recommendations
belonging to the scheduled castes
and tribes to the general category
persons. In fact this section prohibits
sale, purchase, transfer or possession
of the SC/ST land by those from
the other categories. Once this
amendment is done, anybody will be
free to purchase the land belonging
to SC/STs. This would lead to SC/STs
becoming landless and will have
to face the crisis of sourcing a new
means of livelihood.
In Rajasthan class character also
pervades the resistance and the
movements on the issue of land
acquisition. The rich class is viewing
the sale of land as an opportunity to
progress and prosper; the marginal
and landless farmer community is in
despair and angry over the prospect
of losing its source of livelihood. As
a result the dalit-advasis have been
opposing the anti-people changes
being brought in land acquisition
Act and land laws.
The current trend of land
acquisition is forcing women to
migrate from their native place
in search of livelihood to urban
areas as domestic workers because
establishment of SEZ cannot
provide jobs/engagements to all the
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