A field level action research study report has revealed that eliminating poverty and preventing migration from rural to urban areas would be impossible without major reformation of land administration and management related laws and systems. The study was done by the Society for People’s Education, Empowerment and Development trust in association with The Asia Foundation being funded by the USAID under their Promoting Democratic Institutions and Practices project of Barisal.
The research report was presented as a 17-point consolidated suggestion, prepared by the district and upazila Public Policy Forum at the SPEED Trust conference room in the Barisal city on Monday.
The participants in the survey agreed about reforming the family laws to promote indiscriminate inheritance in order to secure land rights for women and empowering them.
Loopholes in the land related laws were the main reasons behind maximum land disputes caused around eighty per cent of the country’s criminal and civil cases, the survey participants mentioned in their discussion.
The number could be cut down by implementing the related laws reformation initiative by the lawmakers, the participants said.
Praising the government’s step of launching the digitised land-ownership records and digital land survey, the participants suggested that reforming the land related laws including it to the secondary level educational curriculum for creating consciousness would be a more effective step for achieving their goal of reducing poverty.
The programme was presided over by district Public Policy Forum convener Professor Moazzem Hossain and conducted by PRODIP manager S M Sirajul Islam and progrmme officer Israt Jahan.
Upazila PPF convener Rashida Akhter Shirin, freedom fighter SM Iqbal, SPEED trust mission head AHM Shamsul Islam Dipu, and NGO organiser Anowar Zahid, among others, participated in the discussion.
-With New Age input
