The Dalit dimension to falling lease rates

But in 2015, these families managed to get the above land at a lower lease rent of Rs 25,000/acre. For the current year, 100 out of the total 550 bighas got auctioned at Rs 23,000 and the balance 450 at Rs 20,500 per acre.

The reduced lease rates — contrary to the past trend of reserve prices for panchayat land auctions being hiked by 7-10 per cent a year — have been a result of two factors.

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The first has to do with a fall in market farm lease rental themselves, which are, however, still well above the panchayat land auction rates. The second is collective action by Dalits to bring down the rates in the auctions.

“All these years, the landlords used to get dummy candidates to bid on their behalf. The Dalits could never, then, cultivate the land that was supposedly meant for them. But now, the land is being used by Dalits for group farming and dividing the income from sale of crops from it amongst themselves,” says Shankar Badra, member of the Zamin Prapti Sangharsh Committee (ZPSC).

ZPSC, Punjab Pendu Mazdoor Union and Kirti Kisan Union are among the organisations championing joint farming by Dalits on panchayat lands. Punjab has about 1.57 lakh acres of “shamlat” or village common lands, of which roughly 52,000 acres is reserved for allotment to Dalits through auctions.

Tarsem Peter, president of the Pendu Mazdoor Union, claims that regular protests by Dalit groups have ensured reduction in lease rentals and also reserve price in auctions of shamlat land: “It is a good sign, as Dalits cannot afford to take land on lease at high rates”.

The organisations representing Dalit lessee-farmers have been holding regular dharnas demanding cultivation rights on one-third of panchayat lands. These protests started initially in villages of Sangrur, before spreading to other districts, including Patiala, Mansa, Barnala, Muktsar, Firozpur and Fazilka. The unions are seeking to get the auction rates further lowered to below Rs 20,000/acre.

“These groups have a valid point that if the state government can give land to gaushalas at an annual lease rate of Rs 7,500 per acre, why cannot it give land for farming to Dalits at the same price,” notes Raj Kumar Verka, vice-chairman of the National Commission for Scheduled Castes.

With elections to the state Assembly approaching, the likes of the Congress and the Bahujan Samaj Party have already offered support to the protesting unions, who, however, term theirs to be an independent struggle.