Involuntary Displacement and Resettlement — Policy and ... - CEPA

Sunil earns a living collecting and re-selling old bottles and paper. He earnsless than Rs. 500 (US$ 5.00) per day. During the interview he mentioned thathe somewhat regrets purchasing this piece of land, as there is no water, noelectricity and the school is also very far (he has two children under the ageof five). But he felt pressure to buy something, ’The DS told us to buy the landquickly because otherwise he could not give us money to build a house’. OccasionallySunil wishes he had rejected the compensation. His perception is thatfamilies who are receiving ready-built houses from the Red Cross are havingan easier time. However, it is unclear how one’s name ended up on a list forself-settlement or on a list for a donor-driven scheme.Negotiating a DealIt is not easy to find a piece of land given double digit inflation in thepost-tsunami economy as well as land speculation in a sellers’ market. Whilemany families cannot find a piece of land, in other cases landowners takeadvantage of these families that are desperate to move out of shelter sites.The potential buyer must have a copy of the deed to the land that they aregoing to buy, for official purposes, which sellers are reluctant to hand over.As Amenthi said, “People won’t give a copy of the deed. They are scared to give it to us,so we gave up searching for land” (Field notes, 24 October 2007).Many sellers provide a copy of the deed only if a deposit is made. If the dealdoes not go through, many landowners refuse to return the deposit. Thevulnerability of dealing with landowners is highlighted by Pushpa’s case.Pushpa, a young mother with a disabled husband, is trying to get a depositback from a landowner:I received Rs.250,000 for land and gave that as a deposit. To get fullownership, I need to give another Rs.98,000. I cannot. I asked the landlordto give me back the money so I can buy another piece of land. But he onlywants to give some, not all… I cannot get the money. My husband is sickand he can’t work. I work as a maid in a house {earns Rs.150 per day} ….because I need to pick up the children from school (I cannot work a full day)(Field notes, 25 October 2007).In a seller’s market with prices going up, landowners do not wish to wait forpayment and will not give prospective buyers copies or deeds or surveyplans without a deposit as was in Pushpa’s case above. When Pushpadecided that she could not afford this piece of land, she had no bargaining195