What steps were taken by the government of lndia for the rehabilitation of the people displaced due to partition
Answers
Explanation:
REHABILITATION OF DISPLACED PERSONS
Within a few months of the Partition of the country in August, 1947 nearly 5 million Hindus and Sikhs living in West Pakistan had to leave their homes. Under somewhat different conditions I -5 million displaced persons migrated from East Pakistan. The disturbances in East Pakistan early in 1950 brought another million or so. According to the 1951 Census, about 7-5 million persons had moved into India in search of permanent homes, 4-9 million from West Pakistan and about 2-6 million lakhs from East Pakistan.
2. The displaced persons from West^Pakistan are dispersed over the Punjab, PEPSU, Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Saurashtra, Bombay, Madhya Pradesh, Madhya Bharat, Ajmer, Bhopal and Rajasthan. They are more or less evenly divided as between urban and rural avocations.
3. Although 2 -6 million Hindus had moved into India from East Pakistan by the beginning of 1951, there are still seven or eight million Hindus living there. The influx continues ;
sometimes it slows down and sometimes, as during recent months, it assumes serious proportions. There are at present over 2 • I million displaced persons in West Bengal and of them, i -4 million are in Calcutta and the two neighbouring districts of Nadia and 24-Parganas. The economy of West Bengal has thus been subjected to very serious strain. It is estimated that 92 per cent. or about 2-4 million of these displaced persons derived their livelihood from agriculture or ancillary occupations.
RURAL REHABILITATION
4. In some States of India, namely the Punjab, PEPSU, Rajasthan and Delhi, large areas of agricultural land were left vacant by the Muslim evacuees. The Government of India utilised these lands and explored other avenues for rural rehabilitation of displaced persons from West Pakistan. Three distinct policies were followed :—
quasi-permanent allotment of evacuee agricultural land in the Punjab and PEPSU;allotment of evacuee agricultural land on a temporary basis in other parts of India, especially the States of Delhi and Rajasthan;settlement of culturable waste lands reclaimed by the various State Governments or the Central Tractor Organisation.
The first policy constituted the single largest measure of rehabilitation and was carried out in respect of displaced land-owners from West Punjab and of Punjabi extraction from other parts of West Pakistan. These persons had left behind 6-7 million acres, whereas the area abandoned by Muslim evacuees in the Punjab and PEPSU was 4-7 million acres, or in terms of 'standard acres' (into which differences in qualities of land and differences of rights were reduced) 3-9 and 2-4 million respectively. This gap of nearly 1-5 million 'standard acres' was madeup by applying graded cuts on a slab system. A cut of 25 per cent. was imposed on holdings upto 10 acres. Higher cuts were applied to the larger holdings and the highest cut was at the rate of 95 per cent. in the case of holdings over 1,000 acres. An owner of 10 'standard' acres received an allotment of 7^ acres, of 100 acres 51^ acres, of 500 acres 126^ acres, of 1000 acres 176^ acres and of 5000 acres 376^ acres. The allotment was on a quasi-permanent basis. In all, 2-4 million 'standard acres' were allotted to about half a million families. About 93 per cent. of the allotted area has been taken possession of by the allottees. The allotments of those who failed to take possession of their lands were cancelled and the lands so vacated were reallotted to displaced persons whose claims had not been met so far.