Operation Barga: An Exercise in Legal Empowerment? (A qualitative study of sharecroppers (‘bargadar’) and landowners in a West Bengal village)

Abstract: The central premise of this thesis is an analysis of one major land reform programme (Operation Barga) initiated in the Indian state of West Bengal, from the Legal Empowerment of the Poor (LEP) perspective. Specifically, the research question addressed is the role of Operation Barga as a tool in legally empowering the poor bargadar (sharecroppers) and its impact on the landowners, over a period of thirty years, in a West Bengal village. It places the perspectives of the bargadar and the landowners at the centre of analysis in executing the research objective. The analytical framework used in the study is the LEP conceptual framework as expounded in the Commission on the Legal Empowerment of the Poor (CLEP) Report, Vol. 1 (2008). The study does not aim to generalize and hence the results only pertain to the study group. The study results reflect that Operation Barga did act as a tool of legal empowerment, securing the livelihood of the bargadar interviewed for this thesis. Furthermore, legal security of tenure that it entailed empowered the bargadar to negotiate land transactions, emerging as landowners themselves. It also played a role in facilitating better access to justice and protecting the rights bestowed on the bargadar by the Land Reforms Act of 1955 (amended). However, the impact on the landowners raises a question of parallel disempowerment. As Operation Barga helped secure the rights of the bargadar, the landowners were left unprotected, ending up in the throes of poverty in the long run. Thus, importantly, in order to make law work for the poor, a constant evaluation of legal reform should be in place that factors in the evolving socio-economic circumstances.