Landless Flood Victims Ensure Access to Land

There was a village of 33 landless households in Guleriya municipality-4 of Bardiya district. The landless people had been living there since 1987. The land where they were living remained unregistered and belonged to government. The landless farmers were struggling to get land rights certificate for long. However, due to the apathy of government’s officials they were deprived of having access to land. Meanwhile, the DLR, Bardiya formed a village level land rights forum (VLRF) in 2006. Since then the VLRF had been continuously working for claiming their access to land through collective efforts.

Unfortunately, an unintended catastrophe occurred in the village. In a night of 2015 the whole village was swept away by massive flood of village. Six members of the village were killed in the flood. Many organizations including DLRF distributed relief amount to the flood’s victims. Several discussions were held to include the name of the landless and land-poor farmers in flood victim’s list. Although the name of the flood victims was listed as beneficiaries for getting relief the land where they were living remained still unregistered in their names. Meanwhile, the government of Nepal decided to provide Rs 300,000 (three hundred thousand) to each household of flood victims. Provision was made to provide the amount in three tranches. It was mandated that the flood victims would only get second tranche when they complete the Damp Proof Course (DPC). However, they were deprived of getting second tranche due to the lack of land rights certificate.

The DLRF raised their issues with district level stakeholders. Several discussions were held to provide land to the landless flood victims. The same issue was also raised in the meetings, dialogues and other programmes conducted by CSRC and MoLRM in central level. After several attempts the MoLRM dispatched a letter to district land revenue office of Bardiya. After getting ministry level decision the district land revenue office urged the DLRF to submit recommendations of beneficiaries. Following DLRF’s recommendations the 33 landless flood victims acquired land rights certificate of 0.67 hectare of land. Gopal Singh Rana, one of the flood victims said, “We have acquired land rights certificates after long struggle. This achievement became impossible without assistance of DLRF, Bardiya and CSRC. This certificate paved way to construct our homes.”

CSRC Nepal

Announcement

Regional Environmental Policy Dialogue

Securing land rights of women and indigenous peoples in the face of climate change in South Asia

 4- 6 April 2023 | Park Village Resort, Budhanilkantha, Kathmandu, Nepal

The National Land Coalition (NLC) Nepal, is holding a Regional Environmental Policy Dialogue on 'Securing IPLCs and women's land rights for increasing communities' adaptative capacity facing climate change in South Asia' from 4-6 April 2023 in Kathmandu, Nepal. This forum is co-organized with the Community-self Reliance Centre (CSRC), International Land Coalition (ILC) Asia and the Ministry of Land Management, Cooperatives and Poverty Alleviation (MoLMCPA), Government of Nepal and supported by the Stockholm Environmental Institute (SEI) Asia.

The event provides an interactive forum for sharing, , discussion and reflection on recent policy development and future challenges to people centered land governance in support of inclusive and equitable climate change adaptation, mitigation, and local agency in South Asia, namely – Bangladesh, India and Nepal.

The event is open to participants from all over the world who are interested in understanding land and environmental issues in South Asia and developing professional ties for opportunities to contribute to this domain. The conference provides a platform for professionals involved in land rights, gender transformative approaches, human rights-based instruments and land governance to exchange knowledge and gain insight into the state of the art in the current land-related policies, innovation, and solutions. Participants include a wide variety of stakeholders from civil society organizations (CSOs), social movements, development partners, and academia as well as government agencies.

Important Dates:

Preconference Events15 and 21 March 2023
Pre-event – I: Social inclusion & gender justice among south Asia’s people’s organisations led National Land Coalitions (NLCs)15 March 2023
Pre-event – II: Challenges and opportunities to operationalise commitments made under the Rio+ Conventions in South Asia21 March 2023
Arrival in Nepal3 April 2023
Main Conference4-6 April 2023
Departure6 April 2023

For more information, please visit https://www.lgwg.org / https://www.csrcnepal.org / https://asia.landcoalition.org/en/engage-ilc-asia/events-opportunities/regional-policy-dialogue-securing-womens-land-rights-in-south-asia/ and/or contact  nes_nepal@landcoalition.info

Focal person: Dharm Raj Joshi, National Coordinator, NLC Nepal

Contact Address:

National Land Coalition (NLC) Nepal C/O

Community Self-reliance Centre (CSRC)

https://www.csrcnepal.org

Tokha-7, Dhapasi | Indrapuri Awas-361, Kathmandu

Tel: (+977 1) 4 357 005/ 4 360 486  | Mobile/WA: +977 9849 206101 Email: dharmraj.joshi@gmail.com  / nes_nepa@landcoalition.info / landrights@csrcnepal.org