Constraints in Implementation of Land Reforms Policies as Perceived by Agricultural Labourers of Erstwhile Cannanore District of Kerala, India

Abstract

Kerala state was formed in 1956 by the amalgamation of three political units Travancore, Cochin and Malabar and agrarian relations were developed independently in these three units. The term land reforms refers to the redistribution of agricultural land from existing public or private landowners to tenant farmers and agricultural labourers who work on such land without owning it. The land reforms implemented in Kerala is considered and propagated as a model one. Land reform resulted in the end of feudalistic production relations and reduction in caste inequality. But the fact is that actual tillers of the soil failed to get benefits from the land reform policies. The present study was conducted in Erstwhile Cannanore district of Kerala state (Present Kannur, Kasargod and North Wayanad). Thirty agricultural labourers each from five selected blocks of three districts (Kalliasseri & Taliparamba from Kannur, Kanhangad &Nileswaram from Kasargod and Panamaram from North Wayanad.) were identified randomly and the total number of respondents was 150. A well-structured interview schedule was used for collecting data from the respondents. Delphi technique was used to identify the constraints. The data were tabulated and inferences were drawn after appropriate statistical analysis. The results shows that constraints like ‘Most beneficiaries of land reforms were from upper part of the society’ is having highest total score (297) among the others and it is considered as the most severe constraint perceived by the agri. labourers followed by ‘Agricultural labourers are not much benefitted by the law’ (283) and ‘During tenancy reforms, bigger share of benefits went to richer sections than the actual tillers of soil’ (273).