Land is Life
National Land Rights Forum (NLRF) and Community Self Reliance Centre (CSRC)
Nepal
Shantarami Chaudhary, 37, lives in Gadhawa Rural Municipality, Dang district, Nepal. Like many Tharu families in Nepal, her family traditionally lived in a joint household, sharing land, livestock, and resources passed down through generations. Her family, with 25 members from five siblings, lived together on just 0.047 hectares of land. It wasn’t enough to support everyone, so while three brothers stayed on the land, the other two had to find smaller plots nearby. The small landholding made it difficult to meet their needs.
Shantarami’s passion for raising goats and pigs was hampered by the lack of land. While growing crops is one part of farming, raising livestock requires space for grazing and shelter. She shared, “You can’t just have a passion for animals without land. It provides grazing space and natural fertilizers for crops. Leasing land without space to build barns or shelters is pointless.”
Limited to farming, Shantarami and her husband, Jallu Chaudhary, struggled. With confined living conditions and constant food insecurity, Shantarami became a bonded laborer, earning just NPR 2,000 and a single set of clothes per year. Her husband worked as a wage laborer on other farms, but together, their earnings barely fed their family of four. They could hardly put enough food on the table to feed their two young children and themselves. Even if Jallu bought the cheapest rice available, it was still scarce.
Shantarami explained with a heavy heart, “Most families adjust meal portions based on age, but for us, it was always the same small amount, regardless of hunger. Mealtimes were filled with sorrow and struggle.” As a bonded laborer, she often ate stale rice, a harsh reality for a woman descended from farmers, yet landless. Their only option was to work on others’ land to survive.
Today, Shantarami’s life has transformed. Her once-empty grain storage containers are now filled with paddy rice, wheat, and corn. The hands that once worked on a landlord’s fields now dry her own harvest. “I used to dream of having a full Bhakari (storage container) and a bountiful harvest. Now, that dream has come true. Our crops are flourishing, and we sell the surplus after storing enough for our family,” she says with pride.
Beyond the filled containers, Shantarami’s joy overflows. Her kitchen now bursts with rice, corn, wheat, and vegetables from her vibrant garden. She sells the extra vegetables at Lamahi Bazaar and nearby villages. She’s also fulfilling her dream of raising goats and pigs. “I used to worry about how I’d raise my children without a single grain of rice. Owning livestock seemed impossible. But now, thanks to this 0.5 hectares of riverbed land, everything has changed. Our hard work has paid off, and raising livestock is finally possible.”
The riverbed land became a lifeline for Shantarami’s family, providing not just food security but new opportunities. With the income from selling grains, livestock, and poultry, her children are now receiving a quality education. “We never dared dream of sending them to school,” she reflects. “Now, not only can we afford their education, but we can also manage some of our health expenses. Without this land, what would our future have been?”
Shantarami’s journey is part of a larger story. In 2018, she joined 26 other farmers to transform neglected river terrace land along the Rapti River. After years of hard work and regular plowing, they turned the barren sand into fertile soil. It took six years, but their perseverance paid off. Today, the land they revived sustains their livelihoods and offers them a brighter future.
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