Safe shelter needed for marginalized community, stakeholders argue

Kathmandu, June 22: Stakeholders have stressed that access to safe shelter should be ensured to the members of the marginalized community, which they said is a constitutionally guaranteed right.

At a national-level consultation workshop on community-led housing organized by Lumanti Support Group for Shelter and the Ministry of Urban Development, the speakers asked all the line agencies to accelerate their roles in the implementation of the right to safe shelter. The program, organized with the motive to foster meaningful discussions, witnessed the participation of policymakers, practitioners and development partners working in the area of community-led housing models.

During the program, Secretary at the Ministry of Urban Development Gopal Prasad Sigdel said that the constitution has included the right to shelter as a fundamental right, and the government was giving emphasis to shelter development in line with the urban development policy. He shared that drafting of the Urban Development Bill is in process and said that the government was also planning to survey housing.

Secretary Sigdel said that the government was working to amend the laws on integrated settlement. Mayor of Kalika Municipality Binod Regmi said that the marginalized communities need employment and income generation opportunities along with housing facilities. He also stated that residences were not properly used in some of the contexts and asked us to consider this aspect.

Director General of Urban Development Machakaji Maharjan Executive Director of Lumanti Lajana Manandhar and others also spoke at the event.