Role of Civil Society Organizations towards Homestead Land Entitlement to Scheduled Castes of Gaya District, Bihar

It is a fact that along with food and clothes, housing is one of the three most important requirements of a human being. We cannot imagine a better and healthy society without shelter right. Housing is in primary order of needs. No doubt, it is a global issue and persists in India as well. Since Independence, We have crossed a long journey of land reforms in India. In particular, regarding the homestead land entitlement, the State is unable to provide safe housing to each and every citizen of India. It is familiar with the challenging situation of housing conditions in rural India, particularly Bihar. Substandard implementation of the BPPHT Act 1947 (Bihar Privileged Persons Homestead Tenancy Act 1947) at the grassroots level demonstrates the governance failure of the concerned state and also helps to understand how ultimately state has been sluggish to deliver this act on the ground since the independence. In the context of Bihar, There is separate law i.e. Bihar Privileged Persons Homestead Tenancy Act 1947. According to the provisions of this act (Annexure I), a privileged person who has built his house on private land given to him by a landowner for residential purposes and has been living on that land continuously for one year has a permanent right over his homestead land. The Act defines a homestead as any land which is held by a privileged person for residential purposes. The respective household should belong to be SC/ST/OBC category. For nearly a decade, there are networks such as Deshkal Society Gram Nirman Kendra, and Lok Shakti Sikshan Kendra that have worked towards the community mobilization program aimed at facilitating entitlement. Their work has been based in Gaya, the district with the highest proportion of SCs and lowest rates of homestead land entitlement in Bihar. Their initiatives center on the formation of community-based organizations (CBOs) which assist households in obtaining entitlement while acting as pressure groups advocating higher quality land rights governance. This article illustrates understanding the process and struggles of Scheduled Castes people of the Gaya district of Bihar to get homestead land entitlements from the concerned administration with the support of a network of Civil Society.