Land Acquisition-Profiling the "Willing" Land Givers: An Indian Case Study

In the growing body of literature on the issue of "Land Acquisition", not much work has been done to directly map the responses of the land losers or evictees on the issue of "involuntary" parting with land. This paper has attempted to "profile" the characteristics of the "willing" land g ivers who, given the fu lfilment of their "expected" compensation, would make available their lands for alternative uses like industry, schools or hospitals. Three researchers from IIPM Kolkata have conducted a primary survey of rural households located in five districts of the state of West Bengal in India to profile the "willing" land givers. The survey has revealed that the respondents with higher "education", bigger "landholdings", belonging to "general caste" and engaged primarily in "non-agricultural occupation" are more "willing" to part with their lands. The study has also revealed that the respondents living in "kaccha (mud) houses" are more "willing". The "willing" land givers expect co mpensation based on mu ltip les of "current market value". The study shows that this mu ltiple has a rising trend as the location of the respondents keeps approaching Kolkata, the State's polit ical cap ital.