This document summarizes land allocation and regularization programs in Odisha and West Bengal run by Microplot Homestad Programs. The programs aim to allocate or regularize land ownership for poor families. In West Bengal, land is allocated according to selection criteria prioritizing marginalized groups. In Odisha, existing squatter settlements are regularized. Both programs provide additional supports like housing, agriculture assistance, and infrastructure development. Evaluating the programs' gender impacts is challenging due to the sample composition and short time period of the Gender Assessment and Action Planning project.

1. Microplot Homestad Programs
Odisha & West Bengal

2. We Work with Governments to Design and Facilitate
Processes that Support Their:
Allocation or
Housing Home Capacity Homestead
Regularization
Assistance Garden Building Development
of Land
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3. We Work with the Government…
• Improving existing land programs
• Supporting mechanisms for convergence
• Promoting a “pilot  scale up” approach
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4. Land Interventions
Odisha Program regularizes land:
• for families currently squatting on government land (Vasundhara);
• for families on land that was collectively owned (GKP);
West Bengal Program allocates land:
• for poor families according to selection criteria that prioritizes
scheduled tribes and castes, female-headed households,
families who have been landless for 2 generations, etc.
• land allocated is either purchased or vested.
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5. Additional support – Odisha:
• Trained local youth as Community Resource Persons;
• Odisha Tribal Empowerment Livelihood Project;
• Housing Program;
• Women’s Land Facilitation Center.
Additional support - West Bengal:
• Housing Program;
• Extension services, seed provision;
• Cluster-level development: roads, terrain leveling, water provision,
etc.
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6. Program results can differ:
West Bengal:
• Families receive land,
• Plots are of adequate size and in adequate location,
• Families participate in selection of land (degree of participation varies)
• Families move to a “cluster” and can receive services as a group,
• Because they move, families may lose their ties to some of their
old networks;
“Treatment” = receiving land + receiving document + taking possession
(plus homestead development)
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7. Program results can differ (2):
Odisha:
• Families are already squatting on that land, but can gain security,
• Land might be small,
• Land might not be of good quality or in good location,
“Treatment” = receiving land document
(plus homestead development)
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8. Interesting Gender-Related Lessons to Date:
West Bengal:
Land documents only had one line for the beneficiary
 women’s names were often left out
We proposed a new format (adding one line to the document),
the government adopted this format and will re-issue documents.
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9. Interesting Gender-Related Lessons to Date (2):
Odisha:
• Land documents in the name of women/widow are not enough for
their children to obtain the caste and residence certificates needed
for admission at schools and higher education institutions.
• Widows cannot transfer land documents in their names to their
sons while they are alive if their sons live somewhere else.
• Women who are abandoned by their husbands and go back to their
natal house cannot get a residence certificate because they do not
have land in their name. As a result, they have limited access to
institutional credit, their children cannot get caste/residential
certificate and cannot enroll in school.
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10. Interesting Gender-Related Lessons to Date (3):
Odisha:
• It is difficult for young widows to inherit land because the land is
typically documented in their father-in-law’s names not in their
husbands’ name.
• Single women are not considered heads of household and therefore
cannot participate in this land regularization program on their own.
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11. How will we assess the projects’ impact?
Quantitative assessment:
• Sample designed considering who is more likely to receive the
treatment and who is more likely to be part of the control group;
• Baseline data had already been collected (pre-GAAP);
• Endline data for our project was supposed to be collected in 2013
but we are hoping to extend the project for one more year (to 2014)
• As part of GAAP, we will do a survey on 2012;
• Questionnaire will be adjusted to obtain more gender-disaggregated
information.
Qualitative research:
• Focus Groups and Life Histories
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12. Questions we hope to answer within GAAP
• What difference do these interventions make for women?
 sex-disaggregated impact on asset ownership and a few
other outcomes.
• What difference does it make when the intervention reaches
women (with land documents)?
 comparing families whose land documents include
women’s names to those who do not.
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13. GAAP related challenges
• Period to be covered by GAAP might be too short time to
observe measurable impact.
• How to ensure we end up with a sample that has a good
balance of treatment and control families?
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14. GAAP related challenges
Sample composition - West Bengal:
• Rolling sample with new treatment families added as they became
beneficiaries. Due to slow pace of the roll out, we have a relatively
small number of beneficiary families in the sample.
• Because the land documents had only one line, most of the land
was titled under the man. Documents are going to be reissued to
include women. We cannot guarantee sample composition. Next
survey needs to ask when the woman’s name was included.
• Will need to complement survey findings with thorough qualitative
work.
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15. GAAP related challenges
Sample composition - Odisha:
• At baseline we do not know who will receive land documents.
• Sample designed based on two assumptions:
• families are more likely to get documents in districts where RDI
is working than in those with no RDI presence.
• families who are on leaseable land are more likely to get
documents than those on non-leasable land.
• We cannot predict what proportion of the land documents will
include women’s names.
• Will need to complement survey findings with thorough qualitative
work.
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16. Current Sample Composition
WEST BENGAL
District Land Beneficiaries Control Group
Coochbehar 319 250
Jalpaiguri 170 200
Bankura 314 120
Total 803 570
Notes:
• Jalpaiguri is a recent addition (Nov 2010) and did not have many allocations.
• Time to do baseline survey is short (after plot is allocated but before they move).
• Baseline survey was done between June 2010 and July 2011.
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17. Current Sample Composition
WEST BENGAL
Land Documents Include
District Man & Woman Man Only Unclear/DK
Woman Only
Coochbehar 40% 15% 33% 12%
(N=319)
Jalpaiguri 5% 19% 75% 1%
(N=170)
Bankura 20% 10% 28% 41%
(N=314)
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18. Current Sample Composition
ODISHA
District In RDI Villages In other Villages
Ganjam 179 182
Gajapati 176 178
Jagatsinghpur 196 178
Khurda 251
Total 551 789
Notes:
• Families from villages or tehsils in which RDI is not working are less likely to
receive documents so we expect that many of them will be control families.
• Some of the families in RDI villages will receive documents and will become our
treatment families.
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19. Thank You. Questions?
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