A state of denial
In December of 2009, at a mass gathering at Dudejhari, Maoist Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal assured all landless people that his party would “shoulder all responsibility” if the then-government failed to compensate for and relocate those affected by the Dudejhari incident. It was a few months earlier that a clash between police and landless squatters in the area had left at least four persons, including a policeman, dead. While most had fled Dudejhari following the incident, more than 18,000 people from various districts had eventually returned for the gathering, summoned by the Maoist-affiliated All Nepal Landless Association (Revolutionary). And given Prachanda’s reassurances, many chose to stay on, taking up residence in the Covered Hall area near the Matribhumi Community Forest in Lamki Bhuruwa.
Origins of the landless
The term sukumbasi actually originated with the first Sikkimese refugees in Nepal, who had been chased out from Sukhim—as Sikkim was called back them—and referred to as Sukhim-basis (residents of Sukhim), which had later morphed into the present form of the term. Over time and influenced by a number of political, social and economic factors, it eventually expanded to denote all those who were landless and forced (by various reasons) to live in makeshift communities on public lands.
Most commonly, sukumbasis came to describe those groups who had come down from the hills to inhabit forest areas in the flatlands of the Tarai. It was the eradication of malaria in the Tarai in 1950 that had been the starting point for this mass movement. Furthermore, the construction of bridges and roads had rendered the Karnali region and other areas to its west accessible to these first settlers, who began clearing forests for agriculture, a practice that was initially encouraged by the Nepali government itself. However, the unchecked growth of settler communities—about 4500 families in the Kailali region at present, according to the District Forest Office (DFO)—soon led to widespread deforestation which is still continuing. While in 1958, there used to be about 2894 sq. km of forest in Kailali, this had come down to about 1724 sq. km in 2001.
Politics at play
Election times generally abound with politicians promising to provide land rights to squatters. In reality, these reassurances appear to be designed for the benefit of those who profit illegally from the encroachment of forest resources. In the past, for instance, in the Kailali region, groups under individuals like PH Bhatta, Chandrabahadur Sawad and Chandrabahadur Madai would lure in large numbers of flood-afflicted and other landless families to
various forested areas in Kalaili and offer them a place to settle, while charging them a substantial fee for the service. Madai and Sawad even set up a number of institutions supposedly for the welfare of the landless, through which they accrued large sums of money by charging membership fees.
Another example can be seen in the collusions between leaders of community forests and members of the DFO. While it is actually a network comprising of the Land Reform Office, the DFO and local political bodies that has the sole authority to consent to the cutting down of forests in any given area, corrupt community leaders and DFO officials are found profiting from illegal sales of timber, and at the same time allowing unscrupulous politicians to use these denuded lands to settle the landless in a transparent attempt to win votes.
No resolution
In order to systematically identify the landless and grant them land ownership certificates, committees were formed by the Nepali government in 1990, offices for which were established all over the country. However, these committees only exacerbated the issue. Corrupt political influences within the committees meant that land rights were given to cadres of ruling parties instead of to the landless, and many of these offices were eventually dissolved. Meanwhile, the problem of the squatters remains unresolved; their numbers still increasing exponentially. Dukhalal Tharu, who lives in the Matribhumi Community Forest with his family, had been first displaced from the banks of a river in the Fulbari VDC when the area became flooded. “We went to Dudejhari when the Maoists offered to provide us lands to re-settle in,” he says. “But after the clash with the police, we were once again displaced.”
He explains that there are close to 100 families living near the Covered Hall area at present, all of whom are increasingly uncertain about their futures.
He speaks of how the politicians and leaders who had promised to look after their needs have now conveniently disappeared. “You see our condition, don’t you? We live under tarpaulin sheets and have no real roof over our heads. There are only two water taps that serve the entire community and even these fail to work sometimes.”
Things are equally dire for a Badi community of close to 87 families that has been living in the nearby Balchaur Highway area for nearly three years. These families were led here by the Badi Rights Task Force, which had promised to provide up to three bighas of land to each Badi family, but ultimately did nothing. “We hope the Task Force will come back to help us,” says Arjun Badi, one of the residents.
Conclusion
Groups such as the sukumbasis and freed kamaiyas (bonded labourers) have long served as ‘vote-banks’ for political leaders. Come election time, these groups—much like commodities—are given a number of valiant promises, until eventually, when the fanfare of the campaigns settle down, they are forgotten by the parties. This fair-weathered approach is apparent when considering the Dudejhari situation, where entire families have been thrown back and forth with no improvement to their lives or prospects, denied their rights and reduced to pawns in political games.
Posted on: 2011-07-09 08:17
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