Gadhawa Rural Municipality | 28 September 2026

Since 1976, landless Dalits, landless Sukumbasi, and informal settler families have lived on unregistered public land in Danda Tole, Ward No. 2 of Gadhawa Rural Municipality. On approximately 11.18 hectares of dry, upland terrain, these families established homes and cultivated land despite the absence of irrigation facilities. The settlement included seven landless Dalit families, ten landless Sukumbasi families and 275 informal settler families, occupying plots ranging from 170 to 4060 square meters. Two of the Sukumbasi families, who occupied larger plots, were subsequently registered as informal settlers.

For decades, these families pursued landownership certificates through repeated applications to successive government land commissions, enduring changing administrations and unfulfilled hopes. Their perseverance finally bore fruit with sustained technical support from the L4ACT project. Following extensive surveying, mapping, and completion of the required administrative processes, nine families, including three landless Dalit families and six landless Sukumbasi families, received land ownership certificates on 7 August 2025. For these families, it was the first time in their lives they held legal title to land, making historic milestone in their journey towards security, dignity and recognistion.

The moment was one of immense joy and relief. “Now no one can threaten to evict us. Our confidence has grown, and we finally feel secure. We now have land of our own,” they said. Yet their celebration was tempered by skepticism from some villagers, who questioned the ethnicity of the certificates and pointed out to earlier land commissions whose documents had never been formally recorded in official land and tax registers.

On 13 May 2026, the land ownership records based on the certificates were officially entered into the Land Administration Office records, completing the legal recognition and tax registration process.

Bicchu Kami expressed the community’s sense of relief: “Now we are completely relieved. No one can call our certificates fake anymore. The legal ownership of our land has now been formally established. For this, we would like to express our heartfelt thanks to CSRC and UN-Habitat.” What began as decades of insecure occupancy on public land has culminated in legally recognized ownership. For the nine families of Danda Tole, the issuance of land ownership certificates and their official registration mark the end of long period of uncertainty and vulnerability and the beginning of a future grounded in security, dignity and legal protection.