Non-government support organizations

Opting for the assistance instead for marginalization and expulsion of the people living in informal settlements, the Lumanti Support Group aims to improve their living conditions. Lumanti Support Group for Shelter is a non-profit organization aiming to improve the shelter conditions in informal settlements and marginalized communities in the cities of Nepal. They have focused on slum upgrading, relocation housing, saving and credits, and water and sanitation interventions.

While the work of the support organizations is embraced most of the time, some cases are met with suspicion. When one of the employees of Lumanti Support Group was interviewed about the collaboration efforts with the squatter settlements in 2018, she mentioned that it was difficult to make interventions in many of the settlements that are politically influenced and do not want to collaborate with Lumanti, rather demanding land rights from the government. She mentioned that it is difficult to conduct any research work on such settlements since they are skeptical about every information they pass to any foreign intruders (researchers, government officials, or organization) in the settlement.

Fig: Relocation housing at Kirtipur (Source: Lumanti) Fig: Squatter settlement at Balkhu (Source: Authors)

Fig: UN Park (Source: Gotsch, 2022)

Fig: Pashupatinath temple (Source: Times of India (Jain, 2016))