Identity Denied: Examining Socio-economic Exclusion and Marginalization of Landless Communities in Urban Nepal

The marginalization of landless people living in informal settlements in urban areas around the world seems to be a systemic issue of citizenship denial and socio-economic exclusion.This study examines how landlessness and the lack of legal identity are intertwined, focusing on marginalized groups such as the Janajati, Dalit, and women in the Kathmandu Valley of Nepal.For this purpose, I collected data by interviewing 30 respondents, selected through purposive sampling, to represent diverse ethnic, gender, and socio-economic backgrounds from the selected urban settlements.In this study, I revealed that landless people face extreme exclusion because they are unable to obtain citizenship certificates, which require landownership and other documents they do not have.In addition, it is further uncovered that those without citizenship are intentionally excluded from access to education, health, work, property, and political rights.Furthermore, women, on the other hand, have to face further challenges due to patriarchal norms that link their access to citizenship with male family members.So, this combination of landlessness and citizenship denial creates a kind of dual nature of marginalization that deepens socio-economic insecurity.Therefore, this study proposes a dual marginalization framework, combining global insights from citizenship literature with Nepal's specific challenges, such as caste discrimination and restrictive land tenure systems.Finally, to solve these issues, this study suggests legal reforms and formal recognition of informal settlements to ascertain equal opportunities for marginalized communities to participate fully in citizenship and socio-economic dynamics.