Building a People's Movement of Land Recovery

by Francis Raajan, Praja Abhilasha Coordinator

Many people have been affected by land issues in Sri Lanka. Though land is a necessity for the livelihood of the people, many are marginalized and unable to acquire land to build up a living, due to the exploitation of land and development activities carried out by multinational companies in Sri Lanka.

Issues At Stake

Praja Abhilasha has identified a complex mix of land issues deriving from tsunami induced displacement, development activities, and war.

Tsunami aftermath

After the tsunami, the impacts of globalization in Sri Lanka have increased. Many multinational companies infiltrated and bought agricultural and other lands at a higher price. This has increased the land price, making it difficult for poor communities to even buy a small plot of land. Through these activities, the agricultural sector has been affected and is becoming less productive.

It was also found that many tsunami funds were used for highway construction and other development activities. The affected communities were not given compensation for their losses or other alternatives to solve the problem of their land loss. For these communities, living in refugee camps is the only option, forced upon them. Those families, who have received compensation, are still suffering, though, as the amount is not sufficient to buy land or begin to build a house.

Plantation estates

The plantation estate workers in the hill country of Sri Lanka also face a land rights problem. Although they have lived and worked in this area of Sri Lanka for more than 170 years, they still struggle for ownership of this land. Living together in small houses, many of the families have only a few members working on the estate while the others stay at home. As these families are still waiting for land titles or deeds to be granted to them by the authorities, this situation has instigated the estate management and companies to try to remove these non-working ‘squatters’ from the estate houses.

Also, multinational companies have come into the plantations and introduced new trends of cultivation systems, which will cause many estate workers to lose their housing rights and retirement funds.

Urban slums

In the capital, Colombo, more than 700,000 people are living in slums due to development activities. These communities continue to struggle to obtain land titles and deeds, but the government has still not taken any action in this regard. Recently some of the slums caught fire, burning many of the temporary tents. But the government remains quiet, while the people continue to face increasing difficulties and are forced to live in refugee camps without proper facilities.

Ethnic tensions

Sri Lanka’s ethnic tensions are another major problem that involve land issues. Millions of people have been displaced internally and externally by the war between the Sri Lankan Government and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), who have been fighting for a separate Tamil state over the past three decades. Having fled the civil strife, many Sri Lankans live in Internally Displaced Peoples camps spread over different areas of the country.

Network Research

To take action against this complex situation, our first step involves research and gathering data about the different issues. The objective of the research is to answer the following questions:

• What are the land issues caused by tsunami, war, natural disaster and development activities?
• How have people’s lives, livelihoods social norms and cultural norms been affected through these issues?
• How have the government policies affected the land rights of these people?

Colombo Land Rights Researcher Training - Trainer explaining the purpose of research
Group work to practice researching strategies

We have been carrying out the research in eighteen of the twenty-five districts within Sri Lanka.

The research started on May 15th, and we hope to complete it by June 18th. We have selected thirty-seven students to carry out the research in each of the areas. As enumerators they will gather the information, hold community meetings, and find case studies in their respective districts. Each district has chosen one land issue as a focus for their research, such as tsunami, development displacement, natural disaster, agriculture, plantation, or war displacement.We decided to give a special place for tsunami, apart from the natural disasters category.

Building a People's Movement for Land Recovery

The outcome of this in-depth research will help Praja Abhilasha form a People's Movement for Land Recovery and put forward a sustainable solution. We will form team building groups within each of the communities to encourage their participation and gather more information. A report will be prepared and presented to the higher officers of Sri Lanka. If they do not take any action, the network will gather the support of the international community. Then, we will carry out the legal action and advocacy work, creating a campaign against the issues mentioned above.

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