India's Andhra Pradesh government has been
generous in distributing land to the landless. About 4.5 million acres have been
distributed, but about 25 per cent of this has not reached the beneficiaries. To
remedy this, the state devised a unique solution. It set up land centers in every district and staffed them with
lawyers and surveyors -- called barefoot
lawyers and barefoot surveyors -- because
they were selected from the villages and trained.
Andhra Pradesh sets up centres
to provide legal help to the poor caught in land disputes; the model may be
replicated in other states
Sreelatha
Menon / New Delhi January 10, 2010, 0:54 IST
Business-standard.com: There are those who have land and those who don’t. Among those who
have land, there are those who have title deeds for their land and those who
have been assigned land by the government but are yet to get the title
deeds.
Then, there are those who have got the title deeds but have
no clue where their land is. And, there also are those who have been caught in
land disputes for generations.
Justice in land disputes, as in other matters, is distant
and unaffordable.
The Andhra Pradesh government has been generous in
distributing land to the landless. About 4.5 million acres have been
distributed, but about 25 per cent of this has not reached the beneficiaries,
according to government sources. To remedy this, the state devised a unique
solution under a programme called the Indira Kranti Pratham (IKP). It set up
land centres in every district and staffed them with lawyers and surveyors -
called barefoot lawyers and barefoot surveyors - because they were selected from
the villages and trained.
To read the rest of the
story, click to www.business-standard.com/india/news/sreelatha-menon-barefoot-lawyers/382217/.
Barefoot lawyers
January 12, 2010
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