Nepal, April 30 -- Two years ago, while conducting fieldwork for a PhD in the riparian settlements of the Kathmandu Valley, I met families who had been living along the riverbanks for decades. Some had spent more than 50 years there; others, more than two decades. What struck me most was not just the duration of their stay, but the endurance that defined their lives. These were not transient populations drifting in and out of informal spaces, but multi-generational, deeply rooted communities who were waiting for the state to recognise their plight.

The story of these settlements stretches back further than many of the political events we often cite to explain them. While the Maoist insurgency is frequently invoked as the primary driver o...