A new report exposes the stark reality of land inequality in rural India, where a small percentage of households control a disproportionate share of land, leaving millions landless and vulnerable.
Photograph: Rina Chandran/Reuters
Key Points
- The top 10% of rural households in India own 44% of the land, highlighting significant land inequality.
- Nearly half (46%) of rural households in India are landless, exacerbating economic disparities.
- Historical factors, such as British colonial rule, continue to influence land distribution patterns in rural India.
- Social stratification, particularly the presence of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, correlates with higher rates of landlessness.
- Agricultural productivity is linked to land inequality, with more favourable conditions leading to greater land concentration.
A World Inequality Lab working paper reveals that the top 10 per cent of rural households in India own 44 per cent of the land, while 46 per cent of rural households are landless.
The paper, titled ‘Land Inequality in India: Nature, History, and Markets’, further states that the top 5 per cent of households own 32 per cent of land, while 18 per cent of rural land ownership is held by the top 1 per cent.
The paper is jointly authored by Nitin Kumar Bharti, David Blakeslee and Samreen Malik, drawing on one of the largest datasets ever assembled on land ownership in India, covering around 650 million people across 2,70,000 villages.
“The average village land Gini (an index measuring landholding inequality on a scale of 0-100) reaches 71 when landless households are included, and 46 per cent of rural households are landless,” the paper said, adding that on average, the largest landholder controls about 12 per cent of village land, and in some villages a single owner controls more than half of all agricultural land.
The World Inequality Lab (WIL) is a research laboratory based primarily at the Paris School of Economics (PSE).
Regional Disparities in Land Ownership
According to the paper, the diversity of land inequality levels across Indian states is almost as large as that between countries at the world level.
The paper noted that agricultural productivity is strongly associated with higher land inequality.
“Villages with more favourable agro-ecological conditions tend to exhibit greater land concentration, increasing the share of land controlled by large landowners,” it said.
Historical and Social Influences
While pointing out that historical institutions leave persistent effects on land distribution, the paper said the villages falling under the direct-rule of British colonialism tend to have higher land inequality compared to those which were under Indian rulers.
The paper highlighted that social stratification also shapes land ownership.
“Villages with higher shares of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes tend to exhibit higher rates of landlessness, reflecting the enduring role of social hierarchies in structuring access to productive assets,” it said, adding that the notable exception is in Kerala and West Bengal, which have long been governed by left-wing parties.
Market Access and Inequality
The paper opined that market access does not fully eliminate historically rooted inequalities.
“Proximity to towns, roads, and markets appears insufficient to overturn deeply embedded patterns of land inequality shaped by natural conditions and institutional history,” the paper said.
