They shed their blood on the land, some even embraced martyrdom, and hundreds of them suffered oppression but, undaunted, they led their struggle to success. The day has been observed since then, instilling inspiration in millions of the deprived, struggling poor.

June 10 is the most significant day, specially to the landless poor of the country. History tells us how the landless farmers, fishermen/women, adibashis, and marginal communities of the country always struggled for establishing their rights. The marginal communities' struggles and movements in different areas of the country during te British and the Pakistan period enriched our history of struggle for rights of the deprived.

During the decade of the eighties the deprived and oppressed landless poor of the society initiated the fight against the land-grabbers in Ghugudaha Beel area. The land-grabbers and terrorists occupied the khas land of Ghugudaha Beel, and exploited that only for their own benefit for years together.

The deprived landless around the Beel forged unity among themselves and cried havoc against the illegal possessors, and they were victorious after a long struggle. In establishing their rights to the khas land of Ghugudaha Beel, landless Entaz, Lokman, Lalmohan, and Haider sacrificed their lives. Hundreds of others fell victim to the land-grabber's tyranny.

Oppressed Dulal Khan's twisted fingers still speak of that; the piercingly painful memory of abortion is still green in Aasia. There are so many victims of the day to tell their stories. But, through all this, they achieved an unprecedented victory.

Apart from the violence, they were trapped in so many false and baseless litigations. But morally, and to an extent materially, backed by civil society and NGO volunteers they fought and came out successful here too. Now the landless cultivate the khas lands of Ghugudaha. Optimum utilisation of land acts as a booster to national economy. A social change is visible around Ghugudaha caused by the economic emancipation of a section of society.

Following the Ghugudaha success story, the marginal population including the landless farmers, fishermen/women, adibasis have become, or are becoming, active towards establishing their rights on khas land, water bodies, forest and char land in Beel Kumari of Rajshahi, Andharmanik of Gazipur, Beel Pakuria of Rajbari, Char Carnation-Kashimpur of Faridpur, Bera-Sujanagar, Chatmohar of Pabna, Hijla-Bakerganj of Barisal, Modhupur of Tangail, Sreemangal of Moulvibazar, Roumari-Rajibpur of Kurigram, Dashmina of Patuakhali, Chakoria of Cox's Bazar, Avoyanagar of Jessore, Shibganj of Chapainawabganj, Bajitpur-Nikli of Kishoreganj, Kaliganj-Debhata of Satkhira, Batiaghata of Khulna, Bhaluka-Phulpur of Mymensingh, Durgapur of Netrakona, Begumganj of Noakhali, Shahjadpur of Sirajganj, and many other places.

We had observed in the past that the parties in power made so many promises in this regard, but never implemented even a few of them. Thus, this continuous dillydallying in recovery, settlement, distribution and management of khas land. Officially it is declared that there are 50 lakh acres of khas land in Bangladesh now.

But no government in the past could clearly disclose where, and in what condition, these khas lands remained. Rather, a section of land-dacoits and land-grabbers occupied these resources under patronage of political parties and exploited them to their selfish interest, while the actual claimants to these khas lands and khas water bodies are none other than the genuine landless.

After the present caretaker government took over, it was found that many leaders of political parties, including BNP and Jamaat, had kept such khas land in their possession.

Today, a relentless struggle is on to alleviate poverty in the poor countries of the world. We are not lagging behind in the struggle, either. Many people have put forward many suggestions for poverty alleviation. But we have been saying for two decades that there is no alternative to land, agriculture, and water-bodies reform for poverty alleviation. We need an integrated land reform plan for the purpose. And, for this, we put up the following demands once again on this day:

• Immediately distribute all khas lands among the landless poor.
• Cancel the 1994 amendment to Allivion-Diluvion Act.
• Give settlement of water-bodies to bonafide professional fishermen/women.
• Stop anti-farmer and environment-destructive shrimp cultivation.
• Amend and implement the existing Inheritance Act on the basis of equal rights and recognition of women of all religions.
• Constitute Separate Land Commissions for the plains and adibashis, and make the Hill Tracts Land Commission effective.
• Recognise adibashis' traditional right to land.
• Stop adibashi eviction and persecution.
• Ensure fair price of sugarcane for the cultivators, and stop unfair means in weighment.
• Implement Share Cropping Act, and refix and implement farm labour wage as per market price.
• Give the marginal communities, including Dalits and Badyas, right to land for permanent domicile.
• Stop eviction of slum dwellers and the rural landless from khas land, and rehabilitate them quickly as promised.
• Strictly contain occupation and filling of khas land and khas water-bodies in the name of real estate business.
• Further increase cooperation and support of respective ministries in the khas land recovery and distribution activities of different development organisations.

It is believed that if such matters as stated above are brought into active consideration, then poverty alleviation in the country shall not be a far cry.

Md Abdul Kader is member-secretary of National Council for Observance of Land Rights Day.