Empowering poor men and women through land literacy and advocacy

By Mizanour Rahman Choudhury
Executive Director, ALRD, Bangladesh

Poverty in both its economic and human forms is the outcome of deprivation of rights and lack of secure access to land is the root cause of socio-economic under development.

Land is the most precious and scarcest resource on earth and competition for it is always fierce.

To address this problem, the Association for Land Reform and Development (ALRD) in Bangladesh , works closely with peoples' organizations, government and civil-society, to increase awareness of land issues, such as land law, reform, management and land use policies. ALRD works with 273 local partners throughout the country to establish rights and access to land by conducting research into land issues and strengthening peoples' organizations.

ALRD's latest programme focuses on land literacy seeking to increase rural citizens' awareness of land-related laws and administration, such as land survey, registration, transfer and litigation. This empowers poor men and women by building up their knowledge on land laws, rights and practices so that their voices are heard and listened to. Programme activities are jointly undertaken with local partners, in collaboration with educational institutions, such as secondary schools and colleges.

ALRD developed a six-month land literacy programme which has already been incorporated into the curriculum of 40 educational institutions in six districts. The local people agree that the course material is very relevant to their daily lives; it has also assisted many households in avoiding harassment, exploitation and injustice at the rural-level, as well as in land offices and land courts. Many participants have been able to take an active part in the local land settlement surveys, as well as helping their neighbours to settle land disputes in an amicable way.

In addition to its latest work on land literacy, ALRD continues to conduct advocacy to mobilize policy-makers towards an agenda for land and agrarian reform. Since 1994, ALRD has worked in the Bilkurulia-Pabna area with the Landless Development Organization (LDO), a local NGO, to support community efforts to gain recognition for their settlements. According to national procedures, owners of the khas land (government-owned land) are supposed to distribute land to the landless. In Bilkurulia-Pabna, however, landless families were deprived of khas land by local elites who used false documents to illegally obtain the land, with the help of an assistant settlement officer.

Community members in Bilkurulia-Pabna resisted this land grab, taking local initiative to resolve the illegal activities with the help of LDO, while ALRD advocated on their behalf at the national level for a permanent settlement to the problem. With the assistance of ALRD and LDO, the landless families were able to put a stop to the illegal transfer of khas land in their area. However, this was only after a campaign lasting nearly ten years!