Voice 1
Hello and welcome to Spotlight. I'm Marina Santee.
Voice 2
And I'm Ruby Jones. Spotlight uses a special English method of broadcasting. It is easier for people to understand, no matter where in the world they live.
Voice 3
‘The rich man claimed that my father had sold him forty-eight pieces of land. But I told him I only knew about twelve. I asked to see my father's finger print on the original agreement paper. But the man got very angry. He started threatening me with death.'
Voice 1
This story is one of many about land disagreements in Bangladesh. This man tells that his father had sold some land to pay for health treatment. Sadly, the treatment did not work and he died. After his death, the land buyer claimed he had bought more land. But this was not true. And so the son was left fighting for his father's remaining land. But the buyer was a rich and powerful man. And the son was not. So the son was unable to take the case to court. He feared for his life. Finally, he lost the land.
Voice 2
In today's Spotlight we share some of the experiences of people who have suffered from land struggles. And we hear about a new government idea that hopes to completely change the country.
Voice 1
Bangladesh is home to over 150 million people. All these people have to share less than 140,000 square kilometres. This is not very much. And the population is continuing to increase. Land where people live and farm is decreasing because of rising sea levels and worse floods. One local scientist said:
Voice 3
‘You have a society that is under extreme environmental pressure. And there is no new farming land. The land is passed from one generation to another. It gets divided into smaller and smaller parts. And as a result, people become poorer.'
Voice 2
Fights over land ownership are very common. A local aid group said that eighty percent of legal battles in Bangladesh are about land.
Voice 1
Dipty Roy lives in Bangladesh's capital city, Dhaka. She bought a piece of land in a village on the east side of Dhaka. She hoped to build a house there. However, she says that business men produced false papers claiming they owned the land. They put pressure on her to sell her land for less than its value. Dipty said she had no hope of winning any court case. And so she sold her land for a lower price.
Voice 2
Taser Mandal is in his seventies. He lives in the northwestern area of Rajshahi. His father died in the early 1960s. His father had been involved with a land dispute with some rich relations. And when he died, Taser had to continue his fight. The fight lasted almost twenty years! But his richer relations won the battle. Taser and his brothers were left with nothing. Taser said sadly, ‘people can buy justice.'
Voice 1
Land ownership is complex in Bangladesh. The current system has its roots in history. Today's land laws are based on laws the British set up in the eighteenth century. However, many changes have been made since then. Rich and powerful people know how to use - and abuse - the laws. The result is that many of the country's poor people are left without land. Past governments have failed to enforce limits on the amount of land individuals can own. As well as this, there is much crime involved with land. Rich people pay officials to do illegal deals. They illegally claim ‘khas land' - public land that the government owns. Rich people pay for false papers to state that they own the land. In some parts of Dhaka, one small piece of land can have as many as forty listed owners! Small farmers are one of the groups that suffer under such a system. They are left without land. Many move to the cities, often to poor, slum, areas.
Voice 2
The current government has said it has plans to bring big changes to Bangladesh. Its project, ‘Vision 21' aims to turn Bangladesh into a ‘developed' country by the year 2021. It hopes to improve the economy, decrease crime and bring in justice for the landless poor. How does it plan to do all this? Largely, by going digital!
Voice 1
Going digital means using computer technology to bring changes. Vision 21 includes plans to train 10,000 computer programmers a year. The government hopes to use different forms of computer technology to expand its economy and reduce poverty.
Voice 2
A key part of reducing poverty is changing the land ownership system. Vision 21 plans to make land ownership records digital. A computer program will store all the information about who owns the land. People will be able to take a paper print of the document. Also under the proposed system, only one authority will control the land ownership documents. There are also plans to give pieces of khas land to poor people.
Voice 1
Shamsul Huda is director of the Association for Land Reform and Development. He is hopeful about the governments plans to ‘go digital'. He hopes to see local power structures change completely and empower the poor.
Voice 3
‘The poor will be able to get their voices heard.'
Voice 2
It will not be easy to bring so many changes by 2021. Some people have concerns about how the plans will really work. They fear that Vision 21 was simply part of the political party's method to win votes in the elections. They have seen other governments' plans come and go without much change. Only time will show if the new program succeeds in improving the lives of poor people, and creating a fair land system. However the people of Bangladesh are not ready to give up yet. Their fighting spirit caught the interest of an American television organisation - PBS. In a recent broadcast they said:
Voice 4
‘Bangladesh has never been about half measures. It has always been about extremes. And for the people living in a country of extremes there are no simple answers and no easy solutions. But the people of Bangladesh are hard working. They share a strong desire to improve the quality of their lives. They have remained devoted to their land for centuries.'
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