The Role of Access to De Jure Rights in Resettlement of Displaced Farmers

Abstract: A right is accompanied by rules that specify choices a right-holder must make in order to exercise it. The right to claim compensation of land acquisition has rules, which specify two methods of claim – consent method and arbitration method. Does a choice between these affect the benefit stream and if yes, then what factors influence this choice? In this paper, we answer this question using a binary response model on a primary dataset of displaced farmers from Upper Krishna Irrigation Project, India. We validate ‘access based’ hypotheses in choice of compensation and test whether in addition to allocated property rights, benefits actually depend on ‘access’ to those rights. Results suggest that the choice is governed by access to political bargaining power and information. Therefore, farmers lacking these fail to get resettled despite the presence of a policy framework aimed at their rehabilitation.