A Study of Land Alienation and Indebtedness among Irula Tribes in Kerala

Abstract

Land alienation and indebtedness are serious problem faced by the Irula tribes in Kerala. Land is the mainstay of them, the main causes of land alienation and indebtedness among the tribal are poor economic condition, drinking habits, urbanisation, and industrialisation, lack of land records, administrative inefficiency, a delays in getting judgement, oral mortgage of lands in the hands of non-tribal, non-possession of judgement, interest- not shown, fear from police and court and money lenders activity in the scheduled area and lack of alternative sources of credit. The problem of tribal indebtedness often gets aggravated and compounded with the Government subsidy-cum loan schemes which further lead the tribal into deep indebtedness