Women Land Rights gaining Strength among Hill Tribes...It was a balmy afternoon in B Taudaijang, a sleepy Rongmei Naga village in Tamenglong district in Manipur hills, cradled on a hilltop, flanking the beautiful khopum valley. In the village meeting inside the make-shift Church, men and women, about hundred in number, quite excitedly were raising their hands to endorse the proposal of joint-titling their land-certificates.Village community was surprisingly open to this new idea of women land rights, which was unheard of in…

I have an identity of my own...Fate has not been kind to Gomati Harijan, a 40 year old childless widow. Along with poverty, she has partial blindness that restricts her physical movement. As if that is not enough, she has also been suffering from a chronic skin disease.With her adverse physical condition, she has no option but to fend for herself. Loneliness and insecurity compelled her to adopt her eight year old nephew. “If I work, I get to eat. If…

Patta has given me the courage to fight all odds...Kali’s life is an untold story of misery and deprivation. Undeterred by the challenges, Kali continues to fend for her seven member family.Her husband, Ashram Harijan, is thirty five; but cannot walk properly or lift even moderate weights. He limps due to deformity in his right limb caused by lack of medical attention which, in turn, was the result of his poverty. His handicap ruled him out of working as a wage labourer,…

Can the technological revolution prompt a land rights revolution: Mozambican land rights defenders are ready to find out In Mozambique, like in so many other parts of the world, a quiet land rights revolution is brewing, ready as ever to emerge.  The end of a brutal civil war, which lasted sixteen years and ended in 1992, brought about a period of national reconstruction, with progressive reforms taking place to protect land rights and encourage rural investment. By the late 1990s, the…

Community builds together.. Gopalpur is a small beach town on the southern border of Odisha in the Ganjam district. In this small town, about 500 metres away from sea, is a slum called Sai Baba Sahi. About 400 families live in this slum which is spread over 2.4 hectares. Out of these 400 families, about 340 families have received land titles (meaning an ownership of their own land). Along with the land titles, these families are also linked to the Awas…

A shared vision for a better neighborhood... Near Chandrabhaga beach in Konark, a small town in eastern part of Odisha is a slum called ‘Nolia Sahi’. About 1100 fishermen families have resided in the slum for more than 40 years. These people live in temporary structures without basic facilities and their major source of livelihood is catching and selling fish. It is one of the first slums in which the implementation of the Odisha Land Rights to Slum Dwellers Act, 2017…

With land, now I am able to provide two full meals to my children...Nestled in the small undulating hills of Nandagaon block is Khatalaput, a little community of 30 odd households. Khatalaput is home to Tula Khemundu, her husband and her five children – four daughters and a son. Her husband’s family – like most other families in the village – has lived here for more than three generations, but did not have a patta to the land till recently. Basic…

Not having access to the land is nothing but another form of violence against women... Yolanda is an Afro-Colombian, Activist, Community Leader, and Founder of Aso Manos Negra who has dedicated her life to preserving the culture and environment of the Guapi region of Colombia on the Pacific coast. As an internationally recognized activist and community leader, Yolanda has founded and lead a number of advocacy organizations including Aso Manos Negra, a feminist association that works to promote environmental sustainability and women’s…

Bhoodan & Landesa transforming Dalit livelihoods in Bihar... In the Kohbari village at Vinobapuri Tola, located in Barachatty block of Gaya district, there are 35 beneficiaries including 33 women and 2 men who received their Praman Patra from the Bhoodan Yagna Committee on 12th May, 2018. These Musahar community people were settled on the land a very long time ago, but have been unable to receive their land titles. Landesa facilitated the distribution of land titles to these families by conducting meetings…

A journey of a woman farm: From the farm to agripreneurship... Veenaben Bhoya is a 40 years old woman farmer from the village of Pipalkhed. She has two children, a girl and one boy, both of whom are studying. She is a very strong woman farmer and since last 4 years, in the district level CBO of “Ujas Mahila Khedut Sangh”. She is currently the President of the Women Farmer’s Federation promoted by Cohesion. She has completed her studies until the…