Sita is among 33 families, residents of forest village, Maheshpur in Gonda who were given land ownership title by the district magistrate, Ram Bahadur on last Saturday.
Each family got around 16 hectare land for agriculture and around 13 hectare for building a house under the FRA. These families belong to Taungya community, which has been working as bonded labourers for the forest department since 1925. Maheshpur is the first Taungya forest village in the state to get land rights under "other forest dwellers" category of FRA.
The Act provides that besides tribals, communities traditionally dependent on the forests for their survival for last three generations, that is, 75 years, will be entitled for individual and community ownership of forest land.
A Burmese term, Taungya means planting trees between crops — hill (Taung) and cultivation (Ya). British officers, posted in Burma when sent to UP in 1920s, used bonded labourers for forestation in regions, where forests were plundered for timber. The labourers comprised Dalits, backward castes and backward Muslims. The labourers were given a piece of land for five years for plantation and then shifted to another place for the same job. They were not paid for the service, but allowed to grow crop in the allotted piece of land for livelihood. The Taungyas regenerated one lakh hectare of forests in 12 districts of UP between 1925 and 1980. The practice was abolished in 1980. But, Taungyas were not given the land to settle down, as promised by the rulers.