Amit Prakash and Rahul De

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Importance of Development context in ICT for
Development projects A study of
computerization of land records in India

• Amit Prakash and Rahul De
• IIM Bangalore
• Presented By
• Ajanta Akhuly
• Dept. of Humanities and Social Sciences

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Introduction

• In this paper we build a case for the importance
  of the development context in ICT4D projects.
  Only by broadening our perspective we can see how
  development is interpreted by different people
  and how technology fits in accordingly.
• IT projects are not episodes disconnected from
  history, organizational and economic
  circumstances from which they emerge. Therefore,
  ICT4D projects should try to situate themselves
  within the development context from which they
  are derived and of which they become a part.
• In the Bhoomi project the desired consequences
  were not met. The author argues that this
  happened because the development paradigm that
  was chosen dismissed a greater proportion of the
  population.

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Choice of the Development Paradigm

• Development as Economic Growth
• Modernization Theory Developing countries need
  to emulate developed countries. Basis is Rostows
  (1984) five stages that lead to economic growth.
• Dependency theory (By Prebish) Industrialized
  countrites in the center and developing countries
  in the periphery. Dependency theorists prescribed
  protectionist and import substitution model.
• Neoliberal paradigm Get the prices right and
  let the market forces do their work. Achieved
  through structural reform, deregulation,
  liberalization and privatization.
• But in the absence of perfect conditions for free
  market many intended beneficiaries of development
  programs will not be able to participate in the
  market and get left out.

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• Development as Capacity Building (Amartya Sen)
• People are the centre of development.
• Building capacities and creating societies where
  individual potential can be realized.
• Poverty is a deprivation of basic capabilities
  rather than merely low income.
• Highlights the importance of political freedoms,
  economic facilities, social opportunities,
  transparency guarantees and protective security
  that will lead to overall freedom.
• Schumacher Development does not start with
  goods, it starts with people, their education,
  organization and discipline.
• Therefore, distributional justice and individual
  capabilities are equally important as aggregative
  growth.

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Computerization of land records in India

• Land Reforms in India Land to the tiller. To
  introduce advance technology and increase
  productivity land reforms was necessary. On
  12.5 of the land reforms had taken place. While
  in Taiwan it was 37, Japan 33 , South Korea
  32.
• Computerization of land records (CLR) scheme CLR
  is a part of land reform.
• Land records in India were not up to date since
  decades.
• Influential and powerful sections of the society
  used to manipulate land records.
• From 1988-89 to 2003-04 GOI has released Rs 300
  crore (US 70 million)to be implemented in 582
  districts and 2400 talukas.
• Bhoomi project of Karnataka is an acclaimed and
  publicized CLR project which can be replicated
  elsewhere.

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Methodology of the study

• Objective Explore how different meanings
  attributed to development influence the choice of
  technology solutions.
• Case study method
• Multiple methods of data collection.
• Secondary data Govt reports, Bhoomi website,
  newspaper reports.
• Primary data Structured and Unstructured
  interview of 120 land owning and landless
  farmers, kiosk operators, bureaucrats etc.

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The Bhoomi Project of Karnataka

• Project Features
• 20 million land records.
• Issue an RTC (Record of rights, tenancy and
  crops).
• RTC certifies the ownership of land, location,
  unique identity number, crops sown, identity of
  the tiller, loans taken against the land etc.
• Ownership of land can be changed by mutation.
• Bhoomi was supposed to replace the manual methods
  of issuing the RTC. Village accountants (VA )
  used to issue RTC, who were corrupt and harassed
  farmers.
• In the Bhoomi system farmers have to travel to
  sub-district headquarter (taluk250 vilages, 177
  taluks in Karnataka).
• Pay Rs 15 as fee, get print out with signature
  and hologram as verification.

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• The Design of the Project
• The first (1991) and second (1996) attempt failed
  as they did not anticipate the size and scope of
  the project.
• Farmers and institutions that use Bhoomis
  services were not consulted.
• All manual RTCs were declared illegal.
• Entire system was designed and implemented by
  senior officials of the Revenue Department.
  District, Taluk and village officials were
  excluded.
• Initially Bhoomi was very actively resisted.
  Govt. officials resisted as it upset their
  existing ways of working and also because it was
  a new technology they were not familiar with.

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• Project Consequences
• Bhoomi helped in the sale and transfer of
  agricultural land via the automated mutation
  system. Lesser chances of corrupt officials
  tampering with the data. In the Bangalore
  periphery region land mutations happened v fast.
• 40 usage for RTC documents is to obtain bank
  loans. Yet secondary data shows no significant
  increase in rural credit in Karnataka.
• The RTC document by itself did not help to get
  credits to small land owners. So anyways they
  went to moneylenders as it was instant and
  involves less paper work.
• Landless farmers who did not have RTC
  certificates and cannot officially apply for
  formal credit were unaffected by Bhoomi. Their
  ability to access credits remained unaltered.

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• Some landless farmers they have an official chit
  called saguvali chit that states their right to
  farm on the land. This document is not a part of
  the Bhoomi database and so such farmers cannot
  check their status on the system.
• The system allows farmers to verify the status of
  their property. This transparency and easy access
  of RTC is important for bigger land holders.
• Bhoomi has computerized only 1 document out of
  many that are used for land administration.

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Conclusion

• It did bring about greater efficiency in the
  govt. service delivery.
• Benefits only the land owning farmers and
  overlooks the landless.
• Allows land sharks to target vulnerable farmers
  as it makes it easier to view and select records
  and also transfer property.
• People have to travel beyond 20 km to get their
  RTC.
• Bhoomi project adopts an essentially neoliberal
  view of technology. When technology projects are
  designed with this conception the substantial
  freedoms of marginalized sections are not on the
  top of their agenda. Caters to the interest of
  dominant global functionaries.
• The desire for technical solutions to development
  problems should not take on a life of its own
  where we forget that development is about people
  and what they think and how they feel matters
  (Olukoshi, 2007).