KATHMANDU, AUGUST 10

Maiya Ale has been residing on the banks of the Bagmati River with her children for the past 36 years. She is a landless squatter. After the death of her spouse due to paralysis 11 years ago, the responsibility of raising and educating their children fell on her. She has been supporting her family by working as a street vendor in Kathmandu Metropolitan City.

But KMC's action against street vendors in the form of chasing them away and snatching their goods and stall equipment has taken a toll on them.

'As my daughter has heart disease and my leg is broken, I am making a living as a street vendor. But the municipality is giving trouble to us on the streets. They snatch all our goods,' she complained. 'I settled down on the banks of the Bagmati River after constructing a hut as I could not find any place to live,' she said. 'It is our compulsion to live here as landless squatters. All of the people residing here are landless squatters. Some of them were displaced by the floods.'

Bishnu Maya Raut, who has been living in a landless squatter settlement at Jagrit tole in Balaju since 1971 shared similar woes. As she does not have incomes sources, she is finding it hard to manage two meals a day for her family. She has constructed a hut on the banks of the river in Kathmandu valley. 'The municipality has been troubling us, adding to our woes,' she complained.

Raut claimed that they had many legal grounds for living in the settlement. 'We have family identity card from the local level, electricity meters, receipts of tax payments, citizenship cards, letters issued by then local level, registration certificates (marriage, birth, death and migration), voter ID card, water and phone bills, residential construction documents received from the Urban Building Department and details of house numbers received from the ward,' she said.

'As the right to live with dignity, right to personal liberty, right to equality and non-discrimination, right to social justice, right to social security and right to privacy are the prerequisites for enjoying human rights guaranteed by the constitution of Nepal and various international treaties, those living in squatter settlements should not be forcibly removed without any alternative,' argued advocate Raju Prasad Chapagain. 'It is the responsibility of the three tiers of the government to ensure their social justice by protecting their home and addressing their housing problems sustainably,' he said.

Chairperson of the National Land Commission Keshab Niraula said efforts were under way to resolve the problems of landless squatters in a sustainable manner. CPN-Maoist Centre Deputy General Secretary Pampha Bhusal has stressed the need to find a long-term solution to their problems instead of forcibly evicting them.

According to executive director of Nepal Mahila Ekata Samuha Bhagawati Adhikari, landless squatters have been living in various squatter settlements in Kathmandu valley for 15 to 50 years.

In a bid to manage the problems of landless squatters, the Department of Urban Development and Building Construction in 2009 had mentioned 'Squatter Settlement Management' in its annual programme.

Similarly, the government had prepared a policy to identity and manage landless squatters living on the banks of rivers in Kathmandu valley by allocating Rs 150 million in the fiscal 2009-10.

A version of this article appears in the print on August 11, 2023, of The Himalayan Times.