Management of Property Rights Regime: An Empirical Exploration of Equity and Sustainability

Abstract

"This paper explores the issues of equity, sustainability and property rights regime in the context of converting a prisoner's dilemma situation into a positive-sum game relationship between big landlords-Zamindars-and landless villagers prone to militancy.

"The Chakriya Vikas Pranali (Cyclic System of Development) is an experiment on social negotiations that aims to halt and reverse environmental degradation and social disintegration. The CVP has established congruence among the physical and technical resources and the decision-making norms and thereby developed an equation in which unequal stakes of different groups generate a set of expectations that is equitable and sustainable. The core features of CVP are: (a) conversion of private fallow lands into common-pool resources; (b) the maximum utilization of rainfall through water conservation - in situ and in small tanks and ponds - and its concentrated use through introduction of a new, intensive, multi-layered land use systems with very high potential income yield; (c) mobilization of villagers' organization for management of regeneration of natural resources, and (d) distribution of benefits on a 1:1:1 basis - one share to the landowner; one share to be divided equally among all village workers as family income; and one share to the village society for the development of social infrastructure: school, health centers, etc.

"The CVP lays stress on the village as a unit of development, evolves common property resources institutions based on community participation, equitable distribution and land augmenting technologies and develops strategies for regeneration of degraded environment."