RUKUM, July 3: Lal Bahadur Badi of Koldanda, Sisne Rural Municipality of eastern Rukum had been living in caves for many years now.

Though it was very tough for him to manage in a cave with his big family, he had no choice. Badis did not have land registered in their names and as such, making a home was always a challenge for the Badi families, including that of Lal Bahadur. The landlessness is not going to bother him anymore anyway. For the first time in his family’s history, Lal Bahadur has now a piece of land registered in his name.

“We had to move from one place to another, sometimes spend days in the jungle and sometimes in a cave due to the lack of registered land, where we could make a hut for ourselves,” said Lal Bahadur. 
Kali Badi has also faced many hassles in life. Her family had also been hoping for getting a piece of land from the government for a long time now. “We had been requesting the government to register a piece of land in our name for many years now. They have listened to our pleas finally. We won’t have to live in caves anymore,” an elated Kali said.

Those two and other two families that of Chamsing Badi and Mewalal Badi have been provided registered land by Sisne Rural Municipality. Though Koldanda is an old settlement of Badis, only those four families were left of late as other families migrated elsewhere over the years. 

“Our problem of not having a piece of land has now ended. The rural municipality finally heard us,” said Mewalal. 

According to Kumari Baral, chairperson of Sisne Rural Municipality – 6, each of the families were provided with a 292.2 square meters land plot. 

“We first purchased the land and then gave it to them. They have received land ownership certificate of their plots,” Baral said. She added that the land is worth Rs 1.1 million in total. 

Baral further stated that Badi families would also be able to access other essential facilities. “Road, drinking water, electricity, school, hospital, they will have access to all facilities. We had taken care of those things while selecting the land for them,” she said.

 
• Badis
 
• cave
 
• land
 
• registered