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Latest
update (12 Sept. 2000)
Government to Rehabilitate Ex-Kamaiyas in the Winter
(compiled
from various reports)
The
government is planning to distribute land to homeless former
kamaiyas(bonded laborers) and start a rehabilitation project for them
beginning the winter season this year, State Minister of Land Reforms and
Management Gopal Rai has said.
Talking
to reporters on Saturday in Kailali district, Rai said rehabilitating
kamaiyas was a serious problem. The government will start a pilot project
to rehabilitate them, and also provide land for settling them from this
winter, he said.
Secretary
at the Ministry of Land Reforms and Management Yoddha Shah said out of
nearly 20,000 kamaiya families in Banke, Bardiya, Kailali, Kanchanpur and
Dang districts, 5683 were landless. "Thus the most pressing concern
for the government right now is to provide land to those who don't have
it," he said.
He
further said the government is not going to ask donor communities to
provide funds for the rehabilitation but will accomplish the work itself.
The ex-kamaiyas were liberated by a government decree in July this year.
LATEST
UPDATE ON KAMAIYA SITUATION FROM THE FIELD (Sept. 12)
From
the frying pan into the fire. This is what the present situation of the
freed Kamaiyas looks like. Now they are free from bondage. Their debt has
been waived but their euphoria has been a short-lived one. Even two meals
a day has been almost impossible for them. Many of them are surviving on
only one meal a day. The outbreak of Japanese incephalitis in the area has
posed a serious threat to the former Kamaiyas as they are the most
vulnerable ones who are likely to fall a victim to the epidemic.
Former
kamaiya masters are agitating to get the loans, they claim the kamaiyas
owe them, back. Even while leaking their wounds, they are all out to get
their loans back. They are trying to frame up the former kamaiyas. With
the help of some police personnel who are in their favour, the former
kamaiya masters are getting some of the former kamaiyas arrested on framed
up charges. And it seems that with police connivance, the landlords are
intimidating the former kamaiyas into returning back to their landlords
and continuing to work for them. They have even threatened the reluctant
former kamaiyas with severe police action.
Former
kamaiya master Man Bahadur Deuba got Ram Kisan Rana, a former kamaiys of
Baise Bichuwa VDC-5, Kanchanpur arrested and tortured by police. Landlord
Deuba claims that Ram kisan Rana woes him 20,000 Nepalese rupees.
According
to Ram Kisan Rana, a heavily boozed Karna Bahadur Deuba, the son of
landlord Deuba, forced himself into his house on the evening of Sept. 4,
manhandled him and demanded the money he had taken in loan back and
threatened him with severe consequences, if he failed to comply. When the
landlord's son was about to beat Rana, the latter's neighbours intervened
and saved him. The drunk junior Deuba returned home. But late in the
evening, the head of the nearby police post turned up at Rana's house and
arrested him and his brother Bal Kisan Rana on the charges of beating the
landlord's son, who had a wound on his forehead. But actually he was
wounded when he fell down with his legs giving way under the influence of
alcohol while returning home. The police detained the two Rana brothers in
the police post and beat them thoroughly the whole night.
This
being the situation it has been highly imperative for the government to
take immediate measures for the rehabilitation, employment and protection
of the former kamaiyas.
Many
NGOs are making whatever contributions they can from their respective
places. Meanwhile, International Labour Organization (ILO) has signed an
agreement with District Development Committee (DDC), Kanchanpur on Sept.
11 to provide assistance for the education and light day meal of the
children of former kamaiyas. The ILO representative handed over NRs.
350,000 to Kanchanpur DDC Chairman Rishiraj Lumsali that day.
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