An independent land commission is necessary to ensure improved services to the citizens, especially women and minorities, experts said at a programme in the capital yesterday.
The event, a policy dialogue titled “Institutional and social barriers for women and marginalised communities to access land and property rights,” was held at Brac Centre auditorium. Brac Executive Director Dr Muhammad Musa moderated the event.
Leading researchers, land rights and women’s rights activists, academicians and representatives from NGOs and CSOs, including international development partners, attended the event.
“An umbrella land services authority needs to be established in every upazila with a view to offering one-stop service,” said Md Abdul Mannan, additional secretary and former director general of Land Records, making the recommendation to overcome the obstacles to realising the property rights of women and marginalised people.
State Minister for Land Saifuzzaman Chowdhury, who attended the event as special guest, called upon all stakeholders to come up with a proposal to address the land rights issue.
Brac hosted the policy dialogue as part of its property rights initiative (PRI) project.
The PRI project aims to develop links between laws and rights by helping poor communities in identifying their entitlement to property rights and supporting them in accessing their claims.
Barrister Sara Hossain, honourary executive director of Bangladesh Legal Aid and Services Trust (BLAST), advised on exercising the intervening opportunities present in the country’s existing laws instead of solely aiming to form a new law.
“For example, there is a scope of gifting property to women in Muslim law. This can be used to deal with property rights issues.”
The state minister said the government had short-, mid- and long-term projects to reform property laws. “The situation will be changed by educating people.”
Ferdous Jahan, professor at the public administration department of Dhaka University, said religion-based personal law is followed in Bangladesh, and different religious communities have different laws. “The key issue here is how to balance between religion, culture and rights.”
Academic curriculum in high school may include rights of citizens, including rights to property, in easy language to help people, especially women, avoid legal jargon and understand their rights. Community leaders, especially imams, priests and elected representatives should be encouraged to discuss women’s property rights in public gatherings including weekly prayers, Ferdous said.
