Photo courtesy of Jamhoor
Land is an important component of any Sri Lankan household. A considerable proportion of the rural population continues to be dependent on arable land as a source of livelihood and income; in Sri Lanka 26.1% of people are engaged in agriculture[1]). The importance of land is manifold, from economic salience to social wellbeing and a sense of rootedness. The ancestral land of a household is particularly important to a family as it symbolises the continuation of kinship ties and citizenship. While landlessness, encroachment and the politicisation of land are ongoing issues in the country, I discuss a different problem in this article. The communities that I focus on own land, sometimes ancestral land, but lack land tenure security – they do not hold legal documents such as deeds or permits. Owning land that is not legally recognised brings its own share of uncertainty and problems to communities.
There are communities from three villages in Vavuniya and Trincomalee who continue to struggle with obtaining legal ownership of their lands. One of the main issues that I came across during my PhD fieldwork was the lack of land tenure security. I met communities in Thekkawatta in the Vavuniya District and Kappalthurai and Sardhapura in the Trincomalee District. The majority of respondents from these three villages said that their families and neighbours do not have legal ownership of the lands they have lived on for years, sometimes generations. They pointed out that this situation needs urgent attention and action from the state authorities.
While tenure security is globally recognised as a prerequisite for socioeconomic development and poverty reduction, granting tenure security in post-war contexts is a complex process. In the war affected districts, several issues complicate this process, including the militarisation of land, difficulties in identifying original land plots, multiple occupants claiming the same plots and the recent trend of Buddhist constructions on native Tamil lands.
What is unfortunate in this particular situation is that families and communities own lands, mostly ancestral land, that they have lived in for generations. It is not a case of landlessness per se. People also have access to their lands and can utilise lands unlike in the case of militarisation or illegal appropriation of private land where communities lose access to land completely. This case reflects insecure land tenure where communities constantly live in fear that they will have to leave their homes if the state suddenly decides to claim the lands back. The uncertainty and ambiguity of ownership are causing many problems including economic, social and psychological. The villagers struggle to develop their livelihoods as they cannot secure loans or other services without proving ownership of the land. The ambiguity of ownership undermines their sense of investment in the land. There are also challenges in transferring land to their children and claiming ancestral land as a means of establishing roots within the village and community.
In Thekkawatta, the families that have settled along the railway track do not have legal ownership of these lands because they legally belong to the Railway Authority. The number of households without land ownership is quite significant. They have registered their lands with the district secretariat and have received a signed token from the Grama Niladhari that the application has been received, along with the name of the applicant and serial number. In the Northern province, it is common for residents to rely on alternative documentation such as occupancy permits, receipts of sale, tax receipts or other service receipts, as well as verbal claims.
Rani, a village leader in Thekkawatta said, “I got this land from a Sinhala family when they sold it [in 1998]. In Vavuniya, people sell land with a lawyer’s agreement called a ‘sales agreement’… Those people [previous owners] didn’t have a deed or permit because they also had cleared these lands and settled. It didn’t belong to anybody individually. In Vavuniya, mostly people have encroached on lands. They don’t have deeds or permits… In this village also people don’t have legal ownership, because they cleared the forests and settled on the lands.”
When I asked whether there was any threat of them losing the lands, Rani said, “If the Railway Authority wants to build a double railway track, these people have to move… The Railway Authority came to check the lands 6 months back, and they cleared only 15 households. For the other households, they cut the fences and pulled down the walls because the lands are under the double track line.”
Another Thekkawatta resident, Amali, whose home is away from the railway track also didn’t have land titling but she talked about it as a common situation in the area. “We just got these lands. Nobody has a permit or deed in this village. A politician gave the permit to about 10-15 families here. People have grabbed land wherever they wanted and settled there. Most of the land in Thekkawatta is encroached. There are only 50 lands that are legally allocated; the remaining 600 lands are encroached,” she said.
Rani and Amali’s accounts point to the failure of land institutions and other state bodies in dealing with the tenure problem and to the unmistakable political influence that one finds in any situation in Sri Lanka. There is no proper procedure or knowledge on both parties, the government officers and villagers, as to how to mitigate the situation. Thekkawatta is a densely populated area with many families having built houses and settled in these railway lands but their situation is ambiguous. On the one hand, the villagers have settled on railway lands to which they have no legal ownership. On the other hand, they are required to register their lands in the district secretariat which gives them a (false?) hope of future legal ownership.
A similar situation was seen in Kappalthurai and Sardhapura where the community lands belong to either the Ports Authority or the Department of Forests. In Kappalthurai, the oldest family that I met has been living in their lands since 1972, still deeply disappointed that their lands legally belong to the Ports Authority. According to K. Vigneswaran an extent of 9,000 acres in the Trincomalee District that was vested as Ports Authority land has been reduced by 50% by excluding Kappalthurai village from the Vesting Order. Despite such a move, the residents have not received any titles declaring their ownership of land. Although there don’t seem to be any programs to uproot these families, the uncertainty and ambiguity continue to loom.
Saraswati, originally from Pussellawa, has lived in Kappalthurai since 1977. She is a community activist who is vocal about the land issue in the village and has been fighting to secure land tenure for years. She said, “A family that settled after me also has a deed. But when we try to tell the government officers that we have been living in this village since 1977, they ask us to prove it. But we don’t have anything to prove. When we inquire about this now, the officers say that the lands belong to the Ports Authority, and that there isn’t anything they could do until the lands are released.”
Recent research shows that there is limited institutional capacity for demarcating state and private land claims. State lands are often not demarcated or registered and therefore land institutions cannot be sure whether plots of land belong to the state or individuals in order to provide land titles. There are also cases where land has been demarcated as state land based on GIS land use mapping although people have lived in the area for decades. Similarly, disputes related to state land are particularly challenging because of the range of agencies and legal procedures involved. Subnational level institutions also do not have the capacity or the power to deal with such complex land disputes and claims. Often the government officers as well as the communities lack legal knowledge and guidance to resolve such land issues. These factors further aggravate and accumulate grievances.
National land titling projects such as Bim Saviya are useful in many cases but of little help to communities in post-war contexts as they have the burden of proof required to receive land ownership titles among other issues like living in state lands. The communities in Thekkawatta, Kappalthurai and Sardhapura were displaced at least once but mostly multiple times during the war. Although they have resettled in more or less the same lands, it is understandable that they may not have ample proof to show ownership of lands.
While these structural issues need to be addressed and corrected, corruption in politics and state services was emphasised as the main obstacle to securing land tenure. Lakshmini, another resident from Kappalthurai, said that the government officers are purposely withholding their land titles due to the corruption and politicisation of the administrative systems. “I came here in 1972 but I don’t have a permit… people who came in 1988, 2002, 2005 have permits or deeds. They have obtained them by giving bribes to the government. It’s the government’s fault. The AGA office has our permits, but they are not giving them to us… I have only a photocopy of the permit… I saw with my own eyes the permit in the AGA office. One officer came to my home and said, ‘Give me 2,000 rupees and I will give you the permit.’ But I said, ‘I don’t need to give a bribe to get the deed to my own land’. Because of that, I didn’t get the permit. Had I given money at that time, I also would have received the permit,” she pointed out.
Other villagers from Sardhapura village shared their frustration with the polity and government systems. While the structural and institutional limitations need to be addressed for a more cohesive and smoother land titling process, the unnecessary and intentional negligence of the government officers is unfortunate.
Gamini, who has been living in Sardhapura since 1971 said, “Although people have lands, they don’t have the titles. During election times, the government keeps saying that they will provide titles but it has not happened yet. Although people stay, they don’t have a legal right. No deed. They just stay for the sake of it. Although politicians, ministers or the president visit here, they don’t talk about this issue. They are all just lying. In this area, only I have a title, none of the others have it.”
However, although the political elite seem to be negligent, the Grama Niladhari of the village is understanding of the situation. Despite the weaknesses in the political and administrative systems of the state, the village leaders know the importance of land and the need for people to put down roots.
The villagers’ desperation, uncertainty and frustration with the state authorities and their own circumstances are apparent. The issue is common across different ethnic communities but it could be another stepping stone for further animosity between ethnic groups, especially in war affected areas. The Sinhala and Tami villagers in Thekkawatta and Sinhala, Tamil and Muslim villagers in the Kappalthurai-Sardhaprura area are facing this issue irrespective of their ethnic background. The increasing nature of land controversies is a dangerous step towards further conflict and therefore needs to be mitigated urgently.
Land is a sensitive issue. Undermining generational relationships to land and deep connections among communities that result from sharing land is dangerous. The new government needs to be efficient and transparent as well as considerate when dealing with matters related to land. People’s historical, socioeconomic and emotional situations need to be taken into consideration in addition to physical boundaries. Where long term permanent solutions take time, intermediary measures such as legal documents recognised by the state and private institutions can be provided to owners. Resident lands claimed to be state lands can be measured and assessed in consultation with the communities and the process of granting tenure can be initiated without further delay. These measures can be fast tracked with more independence and legal knowledge provided to local authorities. As a recent CPA report recommends, powers over lands need to be devolved to Provincial Councils to better address land conflicts. Having secure land tenure is critical for these communities to rebuild lives in a stable post-war environment and lay claim to a land that has endured so much yet continues to keep them rooted in the communities. The government needs to act quickly to resolve this issue lest the older generations pass away still worrying they will lose their beloved lands one day.
[1] DCS [Department of Census and Statistics]. “Sri Lanka Labour Force Survey: Annual Bulletin 2023.” Sri Lanka: Department of Census and Statistics, 2023.