Chapter 4

The Socio-Economic Profile of Respondents

This chapter particularly emphases on the background information about the 263
respondents who have been interviewed in this study and who have been displaced from their
settlements. Socio-economic information of the respondents reflect the number of perceptions,
diverse attitudes, principles and views concerning the problem under the research. Which
helped to the researcher to sketch out the current status and means of livelihood of the affected
communities.

4.1: Age of the Respondents

Age has been chosen as the principal step to gather information regarding the
respondents. Because it significantly influences the nature of perceptions, attitudes and the
faced experiences of the respondents. Hence, age becomes an important variable. To comprise
different age groups in the sample, adequate attempts has been carried out in this study. The
age groups to which the respondents belong, shown in the following chart. From the given
figure (4.1) it depicts that a significant percentage of the respondents were under 31-50 years
of age. 16.3 percent of the respondents were under the age of 18-30 years; 51.7 percent of the
respondents were under the age of 31-50 years of age; 28.1 percent of the respondents were in
the age group of 51-70 years; and 3.8 percent of the respondents were under 71 years and
above.
Figure 4.1 Age of the respondent

Age of the Respondent

60.0 51.7
50.0
40.0
28.1
30.0
16.3
20.0
10.0 3.8
0.0
Percent

18-30 years 31-50 years 51-70 years 71 years and above

Different age of people perceived the issue of loss of land and livelihood challenges,
differently and responded accordingly. The first or second generation of the affected
communities had faced and observed the issue very closely, will have diverse views and
perceptions compare to those who were still young and belong to the newer generation. Their
answers and inputs had significant importance to attain a generalized and valid conclusion.

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4.2: Gender of the Respondent
Gender is one of the important facets, which affects the perceptions and attitudes. In
social science research, gender has been assumed with a greater significance. When we study
land and livelihood, because land alienation issue impact differently to women and children.
Hence, gender issue becomes prominent. In many alienation cases their rights and entitlements
have been bypassed in terms of compensations and resettlements and only their male partner
or head of the family has been considered. In case of tribal issues, tribal women have
completely different situation and status than non-tribal. Hence, it has been assumed in this
study tribal women were negatively affected by the Dimna Dam Project. Thus, the researcher
has tried to ensure a satisfactory representation of women in the sample as per their research
design and methodology. Out of the 263 respondents, 164 of the respondents (i.e. 62 percent)
were men and 99 of the respondents (i.e. 38 percent) were women.

4.3: Education Level of the Respondents

Education has the vital role to develop a family and their community. It makes sensible
and rational in the way of thinking. It influences the attitudes and the degree of awareness about

respondents. Moreover sustainable livelihood and development are linked to each other.
Education is the main tool which can bridge the gap between these. Hence, education has been
taken as an important variable in this study.
When we look at the education of the total respondents, 58.1 percent of the respondents
were illiterate, 21.3 percent of the respondents were educated up to 5th standard, 11.4 percent
of the respondents were non-matric, 8.0 percent of the respondents were matriculates and only
1.1 percent of the respondents had completed their graduation. As far as the education of
women respondents was concerned the data show that 68.7 percent women were illiterate, 17.1
percent were educated up to 5th standard, 10.1 percent of the respondents were non-matric, 4
percent of the respondents were matriculates and none of the women were graduate.
Low level of literacy among parents had caused poor understanding in terms of

their children. Dismal educational status was depriving these tribes from participating in the
decision making process which will further lead their subjugation. Technical and vocational
courses have considered as a tool to prepare the youth for a technical jobs. It provides learning
experiences and enhances the skills. For those students, who are not attending the higher
education after secondary level, it provides an opportunity to those students to develop

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expertise in scientific techniques and technology. But the awareness about technical education
was also very low among the sampled households. Only 37.3 percent parent had knowledge
about these courses. During the course of field work, only 9.5 percent children (related to the

polytechnic, diploma, computer training etc. The major reason was lack of awareness about the
vocational training programmes. Along with defined outcomes were also ineffective to attract
to the students. Mostly these courses were running by the private institutions which required a
handful sum to get enrolled and the tribes cannot afford the cost of these courses. Thus, above
mentioned all the major facets were undermining to get a quality education.

Consulting with respondents during group discussion, regarding education, they

revealed other issues as well such as lack of school teachers in their villages. Irregularity of the
teachers were very common in these schools. Hence, lack of teachers and their irregularity were
found to be the major reason for children not attending schools. The Sarva Sikha Abhiyaan and
the Mid-Day Meal Schemes in the schools, which was the main attraction for the children, were
not being implemented properly. Irregularity and poor quality of meal were common factors
that distracted the children to attend school.

In terms of available infrastructure, situations in the schools were found to be poor.

More specifically the distance of the schools from their settlements, lack of toilet facilities and
proper sanitation for girl students which had caused impediments for the girl students to attend
school regularly especially after attaining puberty. However, the parents and the students were
very concerned for good education. But due to financial incapability and several other obstacles
which have been mentioned above, they were not able to send their children in better schools
to receive finest education.

4.4: Family Type of Respondents

As a social institution family is considered one of the most essential parts in the human
life. For any individual (his/her) family is the primary group by which they associate
themselves. System of extended family or joint households were the main features in the tribal
societies. But loss of land and displacement among the tribal society caused significant changes
both in the function and the structure in this institution (Mohanty 2011, p.70). The main and
common form of changes which have been noticed among the people under study was
breakdown in the concept of joint family to a great extent. The Dimna Dam Project had
impacted the changes in the structure and the functions of the families under study. In this

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context researcher has attempted to explore the family types of the affected families. The
finding reveals that majority of the respondents (i.e. 80.2 percent) were living in the nuclear
families and 19.8 percent in the joint families. Earlier they were used to live in the joint families
due to several reasons like concept of common property, doing cultivation altogether etc. but
this transformation in the family structure as told by the respondents was mainly due to loss of
land and displacement caused by the Dimna Dam Project. It is important to mention here, that
people living in villages like Haludbani, Kutimakuli, Saldoha, Laylam and Bhadudih were
affected twice due to other developmental projects such as the Tata-Patamda road and Chandil
canal system in 1962-64 and 1986-87 respectively. In above situation it can be concluded that
displacement from their ancestral place and loss of land have led to a breakdown of the joint
family system.

4.5: Occupation of the Respondents

To determine the standard of living of a person or household, its occupation and income
play a significant and fundamental role. It affects the lifestyles and chances of a better life.
Occupation also shapes the perceptions and the attitudes of an individual. The status of
occupation of a household has a significant influence on the income and its command over the
resources. Income is considered as received money for work or through investments,
particularly on a regular basis. In the present study, occupation and income have been taken as
an important variables because it affect the attitude and sensitivities towards the issue of loss
of land, problems due to displacement, and challenges of livelihood. Such as persons who do
not have a regular and diversified source of income are likely to be more adversely affected by
their loss of access to natural and household assets and opportunities as well compare to those
who were partially affected (Mahapatra, Tewari and Baboo 2015, pp.420-432). It was found
that inhabitants of Saldoha, Bhadudih, Kutimakuli, Laylam and Haludbani villages were more
vulnerable and deprived because they were affected twice as mentioned above. Their feelings
of harassment due to land loss and displacement was found to be greater than those who were
deprived once. Occupation has been divided into two categories on the basis of the duration of
engagement in that particular work i.e. primary and secondary. Engagement of duration more
than four months has been considered as primary occupation while engagement is less than
four months has been considered as secondary occupation. The findings reveal that affected
tribal people are mostly engaged as daily wage workers or casual agricultural labour. It is so
unfortunate that the tribal people who were earlier the settled agricultural communities had
turned as a daily wage worker or agricultural labour. Their traditional foundation of livelihood

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like cultivation, collection of forest products, uses of common property resources etc. had been
altered.
Table 4.1: Nature of Occupation of the Respondents
As a Secondary
Gender As a Primary Occupation
Occupation
Male 12 (4.56%) 48 (18.25%)

Agriculture Female 15 (5.7%) 44 (16.7%)

Total 27 (10.26) 92 (34.9%)

Male 3 (1.14%) 0
Regular
Female 0 0
Jobs
Total 3 (1.14%) 0

Male 111(42.2%) 47 (17.8%)

Daily Wages Female 62 (23.5%) 24 (9.12%)

Total 173 (65.77%) 71 (26.9%)

Cattle Male 2 (0.76%) 5 (1.90%)

Rearing
Female 7 (2.66%) 10 (3.80%)

Total 9 (3.42%) 15 (5.70%)

Male 37(14.06%) 29 (11.00%)

Fisheries Female 0 0

Total 37 (14.06%) 29 (11.00%)

Male 3 (1.14%) 35 (13.3%)
Other
Female 11(4.18%) 21 (7.98%)
Works
Total 14 (5.32%) 56 (21.29%)

Figure 4.2: Primary Occupation of the Households in percent

Other Works Agriculture

Fishries 5% 10%Regular jobs
14% 1%
Cattle rearing
4%

Daily wages
66%
Agriculture Regular jobs Daily wages Cattle rearing Fishries Other Works

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 As far as primary occupation is concerned, it was found that respondents were engaged
more than four months in several kind of works like 66 percent respondents were engaged in
the daily wage labour; 14 percent respondents were working in fisheries mainly inhabitants of
Laylam and Kuti makuli; 10 percent respondents were engaged in agriculture as the cultivators
and vegetable producers where some kind of favourable conditions were available to them like
availability of plain and low
irrigation facilities; 3.42 percent respondents were engaged in cattle rearing; 5.32 percent

the brick kiln, traditional type of works like collecting minor forest produces, making
handicrafts, selling fuel wood and forest products or artisan and very few only one percent of
respondents were working as regular employee.
Apart from the primary occupation, secondary occupation is a work as an approach to
overcome exigency situations. As their secondary occupation, where respondents were
engaged less than four months, 35 percent were involved in agricultural activities either
cultivators or agricultural labours. 27 percent were engaged as daily wage labour, 6 percent

percent were engaged in fisheries.

Figure: 4.3 Secondary occupation of the Respondents

Other Works
21%
Agriculture
35%

Fishries
11%

Cattle rearing Regular jobs

6% 0%

Daily wages
27%

It was found that there was also a gender division of labour among the respondents such
as fisheries was completely under the control of male members. In the agricultural activities,

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4.6: Income of the Respondents
As far as the level of monthly income of a household is concerned, the data reveal that
about 53 percent of the respondents had monthly average income of rupees 4000-8000; 36
percent had monthly average income up to rupees 4000 while 11 percent of the respondents
had a monthly average income of rupees 8000. This figure also describes that almost 89 percent
of the respondents were earning up to rupees 8000 monthly while merely 11 percent had an
earnings of more than rupees 8000 a month. It seems that most of the families were living on
the stress due to various reasons like low level of income, irregular job opportunity, loss of
natural and individual assets, etc. which had adversely impacted on their lifestyles. The
respondents added further that most of the resources were being spent on the essential needs
like food, shelter and health care as 81 percent of respondents were spending around 2001-
4000rs per month on food items while less amount was being spent on the education and others
recreational activities. It was found that due to lack of sanitation and impure drinking water,
health related issues were very common among these villages. Malaria disease was very
common among those villages who were resettled in the foothills of the Dalma Mountain
Range like Saldoha, Bhadudih and Bonta. Moreover, jaundice and diarrhoea were also common
disease in the sampled villages.

Figure 4.4: Monthly Income of the Respondents

more than
8000rs
11%
up to 4000rs
36%

4000-8000rs
53%

up to 4000rs 4000-8000rs more than 8000rs

4.7: Ownership of Assets

4.7.1: Land
Earlier land was the main source of the livelihood of these tribes. They were the settled
agricultural community. The settled agriculturist tribes are the descendants of the original
clearers of the forests and soil who had in possession of land system, based on indispensable
ethical principles and most rationally regulated to the minutest details (Hoffman Vol. II, p.461).

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Later on they constructed check dams on the rivers and streams and made land cultivable
progressively. Their social, economic and political systems had been structured centuries
before they contacted other cultures (De Sa 1975, p.3). The original inhabitants consider the
land, forests and other resource bases belong to them and God has given them freely. Hence,
28
the later immigrants were co who came here only to exploit their
resources and made them subjugated.

As far as the present study is concerned, the data reveals that in the sampled villages,
due to land alienation and displacement only 35.36 percent of respondents had some piece of
agricultural land which they owned and cultivated. Hence, more than two third (64.63 percent)
of the respondents were deprived of agricultural land that has directly impacted their livelihood.
The incidence of landlessness of agricultural land was maximum in the Saldoha and Bhadudih
villages where more than 95 percent of respondents had no agricultural land or housing. Most
of the people of Saldoha village were working as either daily wage labour or agricultural labour
in harvest
The average size of land holding among affected households had reduced after the land
alienation. Since the agricultural land was the main source of their livelihood. All the
production activities were deeply rooted in their land and forests. It resulted in the destruction
in their system of livelihood. Displaced people of Saldoha and Bhadudih village were still living
in the scanty and under the foothills of the Dalma Mountain Range, land alienation has
adversely impacted their sustainable livelihood

Among the agricultural land owners, as data reveals, around 16.3 percent owned up to
one acre of land followed by 14.4 percent of respondents were owned 1-2 acres of land and 4.5
percent of respondents had more than 2 acres of agricultural land, as shown in the table.
Respondents who had some agricultural land belong to the marginal cultivators29.

28
The Dikus, the Thikadars, the Landlords, the Sahukars, the Mahtos etc. all were considered aliens in the
Chottanagpur regions. They were the apparatus of the British Colonial power and they were imposed in these
regions. The British economic policies, land revenue systems like the Permanent Settlement (1793) and
indiscriminate enforcement of contracts by the judiciary attracted a large number of outsider, land grabbers, traders
into the Chottanagpur region. By hook and crook, over the period of time, they seized the land from the original
land i.e. tribal communities. [P. K. Shukla, Colonial State and the Differentiations among the Adivasis
in Chotanagpur Division of Bihar, Proceedings of the Indian History Congress, Vol. 69 (2008), p.756.]

29
As per the Government of India, marginal farmer known as a farmer who is cultivating agricultural land (as an
owner or tenant or share cropper) up to one hectare (2.5 acres) and small farmer known as a farmer cultivating
agricultural land of more than one hectare and up to two hectares (5 acres).

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 Figure 4.5: Respondents having Agricultural Land Patta Ownership in percent
land patta on
own name, 9%
land patta on
family
member's
name, 26%

no agricultural
land, 65%

land patta on own name land patta on family member's name

no agricultural land

4.7.2: Homestead land

Apart from the agricultural land, some piece of land around the house has possessed by them,

feed their cattle on this land. They also cultivated some kind of vegetables like bottle gourd, brinjal lady
finger, maize etc. on this land for their personal uses. This was an additional advantage as support in
livelihood for those people who had such land.
Figure 4.6: Respondents having Homestead Land/Bari Land in percent
households
having no
homestead households
land having
45% homestead
land
55%

households having homestead land

households having no homestead land

However, almost half of the respondents (i.e. 45.0 percent) did not have this homestead or
backyard land. In which most of these lands were in bad quality (41.8 percent) and almost two fifths
(43.3 percent) had very small piece up to 3 decimals of land only.
Table 4.2: Nature of Possession, Quality, and Types of Homestead Land in Sampled Villages (in percent)
Total
Possession of Homestead Yes No
Land
55 45 100
Good
Quality of Homestead Bad Not Applicable Total
land
13.3 41.8 45 100
Up to 3 Total
Quantity of Homestead Decimal 3.1-6 Decimal More than 6 Decimal Not Applicable
Land
43.34 9.9 1.9 45 100

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4.7.3: Other valuable assets
Livestock, poultry, fruit and non-fruit bearing trees are valuable assets as well as
important sources of livelihood. Since these tribal people were settled agriculturists and used
to possess livestock. Due to loss of homestead land, farmland all these activities had been
adversely affected. Moreover, 68.4 percent of the respondents used to rear cattle. However, the
number of people who were raising big animals like cow, ox and buffalos were very less. Only
38.8 percent respondents had cow for milk. Only 32 percent had ox for agricultural purposes.
Poultry or goats were being reared by them for domestic or festival purposes like for sacrificing
during Makar Sankranti, Sarhul, Karma Puja, etc.

In the sampled villages only 39.2 percent respondents had some kind of trees such as
fruit bearing trees jackfruit, guava, mango, mahua, berries, kendu, kadamb etc. and non-fruit
bearing trees like palash, sagwan, sesaum, etc. Only 24 percent respondents had fruit bearing
trees and 32.3 percent respondents had non-fruit bearing trees while 17.1 percent respondents
had both types of trees.
4.8: Basic Amenities
4.8.1: Housing
As per the analysis of the field study, most of the respondents had small size of plots for
the housing. Almost two third respondents (i.e. 67 Percent) had housing plots less than 3
decimals, whereas 22 percent respondents had between 3 to 6 decimal of housing plots. Among
all the respondents, only 11 percent had more than 6 decimals of housing plots. These figures
can be compared with Census 2011, which described that almost 98 percent of households
owned some areas of housing plots in the rural areas of Jharkhand. Despite their economic
deprivation, to some extent, if tribal people possessed some area of land i.e. agricultural land,
homestead and housing plots it was mainly due to restrictions on transfer of their land imposed
by the Chotta Nagpur Tenancy (CNT) Act. It was an alarming situation to all.

As far as the number of rooms for sleeping are concerned, most of the respondents had
mentioned that they had only one room (39.6 percent) or two rooms (49.8 percent) irrespective of their
family size while very less respondents (only 10.6 percent) had more than two rooms.

4.8.2: Type of Houses

As far as types of houses are concerned around 91 percent respondents were living in
the Kutcha houses. These houses were made up of straw and kutcha tiles as roofing materials.
Mud floor and mud wall were another important features of these houses. Only 9 percent
respondents, whose income were comparatively better than others, were living the Pucca

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houses. However, some respondents had got it under the Indira Awas Yojna (IAY). It was
interesting to found that 89 percent respondents had electricity facilities in their houses.

4.8.3: Drinking water, Sanitation, Fuel, Electricity

The majority of households found to be collecting water from the common hand pump,
ponds and bored pumps. In rural Jharkhand, to get pure drinking water was found to be a
common problem. Since, scarcity of ground water and individual arrangements were expensive
so, families preferred to collect water from common resources like a lake, pond, common hand
pumps, etc. 50 percent of the respondents used hand pump as the major source of drinking
water followed by 32 percent using pond and 18 percent were used bored pumps. Hand pump
and local ponds were the two major sources of drinking water. Deep bored pumps had been
installed in some villages like Laylam, Kutimakuli, Mirzadih and Gedua by TSRDS (Tata Steel
Rural Development Society) which is being operated under CSR programme of Tata Steel.

Inhabitants of Kutimakuli stated that, availability of drinking water was very dismal in
their village. The Tata Steel Rural Development Society (TSRDS), a NGO operated by the
Tata Steel based in Jamshedpur, was supplying water here through the deep boring facility for
last three years. But last 3-4 months (February-March 2018) this deep boring was not working
due to technical causes. The respondents further added that for gaining technical support from
TSRDS for deep boring, firstly, villagers had to paid money in their office and later contacted
them for assistance. In this village two hand pumps were also bored through the government
support but due to lack of timely maintenance and proper caring one hand pump had become
completely defunct. It also revealed that during discussion with the villagers that, currently
only one hand pump in the village were in working conditions which remains over crowded
most of the times.

It is interesting to point out that, despite of availability of the canal system and Dimna
Lake very near to this village, inhabitants had no permissions to use this water especially for
the agricultural purposes. If they found to use water of the canal system or lake they were
punished as financial and charged of water theft as well. Hence irrigation, in this villages was
completely dependent on the rainfall.

Moreover, some villages like Saldoha, Barajpur, were completely dependent on the
ponds for drinking water. Neither hand pumps nor deep boring units were installed in these
villages either by TSRDS or other government institutions. Not only the availability but quality
of the water was not safe for domestic uses as reported by the respondents. However, 29 percent

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respondents admitted that the water which was being used was not safe for drinking purpose.
Distance of water sources from the settlements was also found to be an important aspect of
tribal livelihood. More precisely, 82 percent of the respondent claimed that they usually
travelled up to one kilometre every day to collect water while 18 percent used to travel more
than one kilometre for collecting drinking water. It was also found during course of this study
that, there was no piped water supply from state government in any village. However, fetching
water was mainly done by the women in every sampled villages. Most of the households (i.e.
92 percent) admitted that usually women and girl child were going for fetching water. In 8
percent of the households both male and female were jointly performing this responsibility.

It is a well-known fact that, Jharkhand is a state where plenty of coalmines are available.
Due to poverty and several other reasons like high cost of coal, kerosene oil and unavailability
of Liquid petroleum gas (LPG) or unaffordable cost as compared to wood rural tribal
population mostly prefer wood as cooking fuel. Wood was commonly used among all the
respondents as a source of cooking fuel. All the sampled households gave top priority to wood
as cooking fuel and they collected it on their own. Most of the respondents admitted that
collecting fuel wood was mainly performed by the women and children of their families. The
data reveals that 94 percent respondents were completely dependent on wood for cooking fuel.
Moreover, 6 percent respondents who also used fuel wood for cooking but used occasionally
LPG as secondary source of cooking fuel.
It was found that, as per the respondents, earlier firewood was available in abundant
but over the period of time its areas had been minimized. Mostly women of all ages were
involved in the collecting fuel wood. These women collected firewood during rearing cattle
and collecting fodder. In some households the children also joined them in such activities. They
further added that searching firewood to meet the daily needs had become a tough task for the
women. The reason stated by them as that earlier thick wood was easily available which was
highly in demand for the nearby dhabbas and it was a better source of an income, but now
forest are disappearing and merely shrubs were in existence. They added that if it continued at
the same pace then firewood will be disappeared in the forest and will adversely affect their
livelihood in coming 10 years. The women in their interview, specifically stated that,
sometimes they harassed by the local forest officials and officers by demanding unusual favour
to give them permission for collecting fire wood and forest products. Moreover, these people
had to face more difficulties, when surveillance increases, and it took more time to gather fire
wood.

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 As far as the toilet facilities are concerned, open defecation appears to be a common
practice among all the villages. The finding reveals that almost 70 percent respondents
practiced open field defecation which is a huge percentage. Only 30 percent respondents had
flush toilets. In some villages like Bonta, Saldoha and Barajpur, there were no toilet facility at
all in the entire villages and open defecation was found to be a common practice. Sanitation is
a major issue specifically related to the women. But since this is a problem peculiar to women,
it seldom draws attention. Loss of privacy in terms of problem of bathing and defecation and
lack of space due to absence of forests and fields women were affected worse during call of
nature in the day time. Not only did this make their lives physically uncomfortable. It also made
them more vulnerable to physical and sexual harassment and hence, their self-respect and
dignity were being diluted.

In this chapter, an attempt was made to provide a brief outline of the socio-economic

perceptions about various issues and dimensions related to land alienation and question of their
livelihood in general and tribal women in particular. To summarize it can be stated that to
gather information about several variables like age; gender; education; their family systems;
occupational structure and their income level; availability of valuable assets like agricultural
land, homestead land, livestock, fruit bearing and non-fruit bearing trees; availability of basic
amenities like housing, drinking water, sanitation, electricity, firewood, etc. have been chosen
in this study. Since age considerably effects the perceptions and attitudes about land alienation
and livelihood. So, reasonable and different age group composition such as starting from
eighteen to seventy years and above have been selected as sample under this study. Since land
alienation issue impact differently to women and children. Hence, gender issue becomes
prominent. In case of tribal issues, tribal women have completely different situation and status
than the non-tribal. Hence, it has been assumed in this study that tribal women were negatively
affected by the Dimna Dam Project. So, the researcher has tried to ensure a satisfactory
representation of women (i.e. 38 percent of the total sample) in the sample size. Education as
a tool can play important role to enhance the skills and capabilities of the deprived and
unprivileged societies. Hence, without a good educational system, a society cannot be sustained
and developed. Hence, education has been taken as an important variable in this study. The
socio-economic conditions of these affected tribes were very deprived. In this conditions they
were trying very hard to come out from the deprivation. But circumstances compelled them to
choose between quality education and immediate income. Hence, to get higher education was

102
not in their priority. Since family is the essential parts in the human life. Thus, in this study as
a social institution family has been chosen as an independent variable. Loss of the land in the
Dimna Dam Project had eroded the family life of the affected communities and led to a
breakdown of the joint family system. This project had undermined the structure and the nature
of the families to a great extent. Income and occupation are the essential parts of the livelihood.
Due to land alienation and subsequent displacement their occupational pattern and level of
income had adversely affected. The traditional pattern of their livelihood were completely
uprooted. Settled agricultural tribal people were turned into daily wage labourers and their
economic independence had also been lost. Almost two out of three persons had opted daily
wage labour as their primary occupation where they were getting work more than four months
in a year. Moreover, in terms of secondary occupation these people (two out of five people)
were mostly engaged in the agricultural field either cultivators or agricultural labours while

working in the brick kiln and other traditional works. In terms of ownership of assets, like
agricultural land, homestead land, livestock, fruit bearing and non-fruit bearing trees, were
important. Almost two out of three respondents were deprived of agricultural land.
Landlessness was very high among the respondents. Their average size of land holding had
reduced after the land alienation. Around forty five percent respondents had not homestead
land. Non-farm activities like maintaining livestock, poultry, their fruits and non-fruit bearing
trees were also badly affected. These were not only the extra sources of income but also
provided them with food security. As far as the issue of basic amenities are concerned there
are several aspects like housing, drinking water, sanitation, electricity, firewood, etc. Most of
the respondents were living in the Kutcha houses. Electricity facility was also available in most
of the houses. For drinking purposes, water was being used from the common resources like
lake, pond, common hand pumps, etc. Fetching water, collection of firewood were mainly
being carried out by the women members of the family. Sanitation as a major issue that was
primarily related to the women that had never attained properly.

Hence, these information will be used as independent variables to examine their

perception and attitude toward the issue of land alienation, displacement and livelihood.

103