of public purpose, human rights are often Gaps in land policies and violated. Unfair compensation, threat to administrative hindrances life, and use of force to push people out of the area to be acquired are some of the have increased with more instances of human rights violations. The agricultural investment for arbitrary manner of land acquisition leads corporate benefits. This has to land conflict. resulted in human rights There are 660 land conflicts currently abuses among agricultural ongoing in India (Land Conflict Watch, n.d.). farmers and indigenous Most land acquisition schemes are carried communities. out in common lands, which affects a large number of people. The area of lands acquired varies from five to fifty lakhs (500 thousand to 5 million hectares). The Land Acquisition Act of 1894 is in place, but it is full of loopholes and has undergone many amendments. The National Human Rights Commission’s stakeholders’ report for India’s Second Universal Periodic Review (UPR) states that “usually those displaced are given neither adequate relief nor the proper means of rehabilitation” (Chodavadiya, n.d.). Even the Constitution of India, under Article 46, provides that the State shall promote with special care the education and economic interest of the disadvantaged members of the population, and in particular the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, and shall protect them from social injustice and all forms of exploitation. In almost all land acquisition cases, the victims of land acquisition are the marginalized. Hence, if they get evicted from their land, there would be great social injustice towards them (Debbarma, 2015). Rise of Business and Human Rights Violations in the Agricultural Sector Gaps in land policies and administrative hindrances have increased with more agricultural investment for corporate benefits. This has resulted in human rights abuses among agricultural farmers and indigenous communities. Various basic and heavy industries were created in order to boost India’s economic growth. While these projects boosted productivity, they gave rise to a spate of violations of human rights of farmers and tribal communities as their lands were converted for industrial purposes. These projects no doubt helped a lot in achieving the goals of the State like power generation, flood control, and irrigation. However, these projects physically uprooted a sizable number of 44 Upholding Land Rights amidst the Land Rush