Nepal: Nine Landless Families Receive Ownership Certificates
For Tulki and Hira Lal Bishwakarma, the wait for land ownership lasted more than four decades. On 8 August 2025 in Danda Tole, Ward No. 2, Gadhawa Rural Municipality, that wait finally ended. At a special ceremony attended by the Chair of the National Land Issues Resolution Commission and other dignitaries, the couple received their official land ownership certificate a legal document granting them rights to the land they have called home for over 40 years.
“After more than 40 years living on this land, we finally have the certificate. We can now call this land our own. This is a life-changing moment for us,” said Tulki and Hira Lal Bishwokarma.
For Tara Pun Magar, the document means more than ownership, it means dignity and security. She said,“This document has opened many opportunities for our family. We will no longer be stigmatized as landless and feel secure about the future.”
This milestone is the result of two years of dedicated work led by Gadhawa Rural Municipality in close coordination with the Land Issues Resolution Commission, the District Survey Office, and the Land Revenue and Survey Offices in Lamahi. Technical support was provided by UN-Habitat Nepal and the Community Self Reliance Centre (CSRC).
From the very beginning, members of the landless community themselves played key roles in the enumeration process, ensuring that the verification was transparent and participatory. This community-led approach built trust and ownership in the process.
While the ceremony directly benefited nine families, four families from the landless Dalit community and five families from landless Sukumbasi households, it also marked the start of large-scale certificate distribution in Gadhawa. In total, 1,558 landless Dalit and Sukumbasi families and 6,218 unorganized settlers have already been enumerated, with verification now in the final stages. Once complete, thousands more families will secure the legal right to their land transforming livelihoods, access to services, and future opportunities.
The achievement in Gadhawa is part of the “A Safety Net of Innovative Land Tenure Solutions for Near-Landless Sharecroppers and for a Greener Rural Nepal” (#L4ACT) project, implemented by UN-Habitat in four municipalities across the Deukhuri Valley. The project is funded by the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs (MAFRA) of the Republic of Korea, in collaboration with the Ministry of Land Management, Cooperatives and Poverty Alleviation (MOLMCPA). Implementation partners include Good Neighbors International (GNI), Global Land Tool Network (GLTN), Korea Rural Economic Institute (KREI), Korea Land and Geospatial Informatics Corporation (LX), and CSRC.
Just a month earlier, on 25 June 2025, twenty-three landless families in Lamahi Municipality, Ward No. 3, Kanchhi Tole, also received their land ownership certificates. With the latest distribution in Gadhawa, a total of 32 landless families in Dang district have now secured legal ownership of their land, a milestone that paves the way for long term security, stability, and dignity.
For Tulki, Hira Lal, Tara, and their neighbors, this is more than a piece of paper, it is the foundation for a secure and dignified future. And for Dang, it is just the beginning.
