Social Inequality in Land Ownership in India: A study with particular reference to West Bengal Aparajita Bakshi

This paper deals with an important form of discrimination in the countryside, the lack of access of Dalit (Scheduled Caste) and Adivasi (Scheduled Tribe) households to ownership and operational holdings of land in rural India. It includes a case study of the impact of land reforms in one State of India, West Bengal, on land holding among Dalit and Adivasi households. The aim of this paper is to determine Dalit households’ access to land for production, and compare this access with that of other social groups. The findings suggest that the land redistribution programme followed in the state has increased land access for such marginalised groups.

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