Land conflict has emerged as a serious social concern in Bangladesh as one in every five households had or has dispute in one of their land parcels, according to a study revealed Monday.
Economists, experts and public officials concerned suggested immediate measures to go for doing reform in the land recording system and in the judiciary to overcome the situation.
The study, jointly conducted by Policy Research Institute (PRI) and Human Rights and Legal Aid Services (HRLS), during the period of June and July last indicated that there might be 2.0 million land-related litigations in the formal judiciary -- over 70 per cent of all litigations in the judicial system.
Upholding much higher socio-economic cost of property disputes, the report, based on 1,050 households that own 2,122 land parcels, says the average of total cost is equal to 45 per cent of a household's annual income.
While presenting the study titled 'Socio-economic Cost of Property Disputes: An Empirical Examination from Bangladesh', PRI senior economist Dr Ashikur Rahman said their estimation showed that out of the 186 households that have or had land disputes, 13.4 per cent reported their business was stopped.
In addition, the average time cost (the number of days the business was stopped) is approximately three months and the average loss is reported to be Tk 76,400, he said.
"Moreover, 25.3 per cent households with current or previous land conflict report that they could not go to work for an average of 38 days, which resulted in a financial loss of about Tk 8,400," he said while making the report public at Brac Centre Inn in the capital.
Mr Rahman said the study pinpointed that almost half of all land parcels in the sample are maintained through unregistered documents, especially for inherited land parcels and the evidence also suggested that households with registered land parcels experience lower pending disputes and fear of future disputes.
"This is indicative that inadequate documentation might be an important source of land conflict across households," he added. Director General (DG) of Directorate of Land Record and Survey Abdul Mannan said land-related affairs are currently handled by three ministries of the government.
"So, lack of inter-ministerial coordination is one of the key barriers," he said adding that four groups like Hindus, ethnic, female and poor communities are the worst suffers by the situation. He said they have started the process to have digital survey in the country and once it is completed, the problems would decrease by a large margin.
He said the land-related disputes come as a welcome blessing for communities like lawyers and a section of officials as the study found that a one-year increase in time since land dispute is associated with an increase in cumulative lawyer fee by approximately 22 per cent.
PRI Executive Director Dr Ahsan H Mansur said the existing registration process, which is very much complicated compared to other countries, has led to the situation.
"The British archive system was good during that period but is not functioning at the present time. It should be updated although a vested quarter is there against the modernisation of the land registration process," he said.
"We don't need bundles of land-related papers. Why should we? Please make life simple and easier," he said mentioning that land recording and registration process in the United States takes only 13 minutes.
Senior Secretary of the Ministry of Land Mohammad Shafiul Alam said the capacity of the civil court needs to be immediately intensified for settling the cases as there are many cases which haven't been settled even after 60 years.
Terming corruption another obstacle behind the scenario, he said the study revealed that more than 18 per cent households with pending or resolved land disputes paid Tk 22,270 on an average as bribe to police while average bribe to saliskar is about Tk 5,483.
"The situation will improve significantly within the next four and a half years when the process of digital map will be completed," he added.
Speaking as the chief guest, Economic Affairs Adviser to the Prime Minister Dr Mashiur Rahman shared the history of the changes in the land ownership and management in the subcontinent.
"I feel that no one of us wants to make life complicated. There has to be research on the nature of the cases pending with the judiciary. These are basically civil cases. There are also criminal cases. Roots may be something else but land-related issues may be involved," he said. Secondly, the country needs to carry out research on the changes in land ownership and management in the region to know the exact reason behind it, he added.
Economist and former adviser to a caretaker government Hossain Zillur Rahman and Executive Director of Brac Dr Mahabub Hossain also spoke on the occasion.
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