Ironies on the road to property rights

Please visit Pragati: The Indian National Interest Review, December 2007 issue for my article on property rights. When Nitin Pai, editor of Pragati, asked me to write on property rights the first thing that came to mind was the internet headline (tribal leaders had petitioned Tamil Nadu government not to lease out their land) and later my chance meeting with young tribal activists who had submitted the petition.

Enough has been written on property rights and how important it is for anyone with property. From my experience, giving lectures on liberalism and attending seminars, it is obvious that most people don’t think ‘poor’ when they hear the words ‘private property rights’. Usually they are pleasantly surprised when they get the link.

Finding examples of how poor suffer in the absence of property rights, included in rule of law and protected by it, was not difficult. Take the following: Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, 2006; Janadesh 2007, A Peaceful March for Dignity; Dalit struggle to regain their lost ‘Panchami’ lands; and you get three sets of ‘the unlikely new heroes in the saga of the return of the right to property’.

I would have never heard of Panchami lands if it weren’t for the School Choice Campaign. Many of the Dalit activists who are part of the campaign are also involved in the struggle for their lost lands.

Please download full version of the article from Pragati: The Indian National Interest Review. Please subscribe to Pragati for monthly issues.

Property rights debate

• who should be in charge of the following?: “Net potential loss of livelihood resources should be accessed thoroughly and seriously before
  industrial and development projects are sanctioned.”
• I am as pro decentralisation as the next guy. But “Eminent domain of the State not withstanding, control and utilisation authority should vest with the panchyats.” could mean abuse of ‘eminent domain’ by the panchayat head instead of the state and central government. Check out Institute of Justice
  for examples of local abuse by local heads. Unless private property rights is reinstated as a fundamental right, with the accompanying protections, this will just mean devolution of power to abuse.
• If the following : “Any land used for food production provides economic security and the government system should guarantee timely necessary inputs” was possible then much of the farmer suicide may not have happened. Obviously the system is riddled with inefficiency and corruption. Get the government out of the input business. Let the food producer decide inputs. Help him with direct subsidies if necessary.

Of course each of those demands can be questioned and analysed. But Janadesh hopefully will trigger a national debate on property rights. Any debate and rethinking is welcome.