For 16 Musahar families in rural Rupandehi, this year’s Dashain brought a long-awaited gift: legal ownership of the land they have lived on for years.

Families from Wards 8 and 9 of Gaidahawa Rural Municipality received land ownership certificates on Friday, ending a wait of more than four years. Some were working in other people’s fields when the ceremony began, prompting ward representatives to bring them from their homes.

“I had to go to their homes, gather them up and bring them here in an auto-rickshaw,” said Bhuwan Bahadur Rana, ward 8 chair of the rural municipality.

The delay left an unusual scene at the rural municipality office. Bishwaprakash Aryal, Rupandehi’s chief district officer and chair of the district land issues resolution committee, had arrived at 10.30 am, only to find the premises nearly empty.

“Usually, guests are the ones who arrive late,” he said. “For the first time, a guest had to wait an hour for the participants.”

The ceremony marked the first distribution of land ownership certificates to landless Dalit families in Rupandehi since the district committee began its work.

As couples came forward to receive their certificates, applause filled the room. Many documents carried photographs of both husband and wife. Some recipients ran their hands over the papers, while others held them close to their chests.

Sonmati Musahar thanked the rural municipality and the government, saying her long wait to become a landowner had finally ended.

“We are very happy. Please bring the same happiness to many more families,” she said.

Ayodhya Musahar examined his certificate closely, checking whether it included a plot number.

“Even though I have the certificate in my hand, I still can’t quite believe it,” he said, breaking into a smile.

Sahashram Musahar held his certificate against his chest and showed it to anyone who approached him.

“I received my land ownership certificate just before Dashain,” he said. “I can’t describe how happy I am.”

A process spanning four years

The process began in 2020, after the government introduced a policy to issue land ownership certificates to landless people and squatters. Gaidahawa Rural Municipality began allocating Rs10 million annually to advance the work, according to chair Surendra Poudyal.

The families had to pass through seven stages, including land surveys, mapping, record-keeping and verification, before the certificates could be issued. Four chief administrative officers changed during the process, Poudyal said, while successive commissions and committees tasked with resolving landlessness struggled to deliver results.

“We made granting land titles to poor, landless and Dalit families a priority,” Poudyal said. “The local government, executive and ward chairs were determined to make it happen. That is why we have finally been able to distribute the certificates just before Dashain.”

The municipality also redirected money originally earmarked for development projects to fund the land certification process, he said.

Around 4,500 landless people and informal settlers are registered in Gaidahawa. The municipality has completed documentation for many of them and is working to issue certificates to the remaining eligible households.

Chief survey officer Mani Prasad Regmi said the distribution marked a breakthrough in Rupandehi’s efforts to address landlessness. Once the required procedures were complete, the families became legal landowners, and their records would be entered into the land administration system.

The process begins with applications, followed by verification by ward committees and identification of eligible families. The rural municipality then recommends who should receive land and how much, after which notices inviting objections are published. The land problems resolution committee verifies the claims before certificates are issued.

Regmi said preparations were underway to distribute certificates in Sainamaina and Devdaha municipalities, Butwal sub-metropolitan city and Kanchan Rural Municipality.

Aryal said the government had given the programme high priority and urged local governments to speed up the process.

Hundreds still await land titles

The 16 families’ new status as landowners comes against the backdrop of a much larger problem. According to Aryal, 10,000 landless squatters and 72,000 informal settlers are registered across Rupandehi district.

The district committee was formed following a government decision on May 21. It subsequently asked local governments to verify landless people, squatters, Dalits and informal settlers and submit their details by July 9.

Many local governments have submitted their records, although verification remains incomplete in some areas, Aryal said.

The figures vary widely across the district. Butwal has registered 1,281 landless households and 15,971 informal settler households, while Devdaha has 492 and 16,024, respectively. Gaidahawa has 736 registered landless households and 3,846 informal settler households in the district committee’s figures.

Kanchan has 3,126 landless households and 10,477 informal settler households. Sainamaina has 729 and 15,663, respectively, while Tilottama has 2,488 landless households and 6,183 informal settler households.

For the 16 Musahar families in Gaidahawa, the certificates bring a long bureaucratic process to an end. But for thousands of others across Rupandehi, owning the land they live on remains out of reach.