100 In defense of land rights: A monitoring report on land conflicts in six Asian countries ANALYSIS OF LAND CONFLICTS Drivers of land conflict Land distribution in Nepal is still very uneven. Over half the country’s population (53 percent) is comprised of smallholder farmers owning less than 0.5 hectare of land, which is not enough to support a family. Around 26.1 percent of agricultural households are ethnic minorities, indigenous people, and Dalits, that do not have land to farm on. These families are sharecroppers, tilling other people’s land and paying very high rent, which ensures that they remain in poverty. Dalits own just one percent of Nepal’s arable land, while only three percent of Dalits own more than a hectare of land. Households from ‘low castes’ are also landless: nearly 79 percent of the Musahar3 and 41 percent of Muslims are landless. Terai Dalits have the highest proportion (28 percent) of households solely dependent on rented-in land for agriculture. There are very few landless households in the hills, but size and quality of land varies significantly among caste and ethnic groups. Food self-sufficiency is much lower among the Dalit and Janajati4 groups. At the heart of the problem is a government controlled by elites, and policymakers who do not understand the profound relationship that people have with their land. Pressure from changing social, technological, and economic contexts (e.g., urbanization) is also a factor. Historical roots of land conflict ANGOC Land has historically been a source of conflict in Nepal. Exclusion from land, and the denial of other socio-economic rights of large segments of society contributed to the escalation of conflict, beginning in the 1940s. Neither the Nepali Congress Party’s short-lived victory and calls for land reform in 1959, nor the changes declared by the 1964 Land Reform Act did much to alleviate these pressures. As a result, peasant movements in the twentieth century focused on unfair rent policies and exploitation, sometimes leading to violent clashes with the government. The People’s Movement (Jana Andolan) in 1990 and the installation of a multi-party constitutional democracy ushered in new hope for land reform, but this soon faded when it became clear that the promises would not be implemented. 3 4 Dalit is a Hindu scheduled caste found in the Terai region. Janajati is an ethnic group living in the Kathmandu Valley.