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by Birgitte Lind Petersen, Information and Documentation Advisor, BASE Bardiya

3 years after their freedom was announced, most ex-kamaiyas still live in severe poverty. A vast part of them are without identity cards, without any land, without proper housing and opportunities of going to school. All those ex-kamaiyas who are not yet formally acknowledged as previous bonded labourers are left in a vacuum between legal and reel freedom – they do not receive any help. The government disclaim the responsibility as long as the paper procedures are not settled and thus give the NGOs a hard time, as they do not dare to support people who, the State argues, reside illegally. Official requirements notwithstanding, there are no ethically valid arguments for not acting urgently. It has been three years now, without sufficient reaction taken by the government. The price of these current inconsistent policies is paid everyday by the most poor and deprived people.

The ex-kamaiyas live devoid of surplus resources to draw on. Lacking identity cards they cannot get land or any form of support. They cannot sustain themselves with food without land, and it is very hard to get jobs, especially for all those living in camps far away from roads. Furthermore, the harsh Terai climate claims lives as the monsoon floods and wipes out houses, many get sick and have no money for medicine wherefore even normal diseases as diarrhoea, pneumonia and encephalitis become fatal. Furthermore, the children get no proper education and thus no awareness and knowledge that can strengthen them to counter oppression and exploitation.

Awarding freedom by law was an appreciated but also gratuitous effort, ensuring that the hard work of rehabilitation is carried out in order to ensure real freedom is much more unappealing and complicated. There are some major dilemmas hindering the process and now three year after the ex-kamaiyas became free it is about high time that these are solved.

Predicaments of freedom

The second of Saaun 2057 (18^th of July) the bonded labour system was abandoned and the freed kamaiyas were promised a better future supported by the government. However, the process of being recognised as a former kamaiya and thus entitled to receive support is lengthy and arduous. Inconsistent policies are hindering the process of rehabilitation, especially for those ex-kamaiyas who are not yet registered or waiting to be approved.

First of all, the process of getting identity cards is a delicate one. The landlords have to identify their former Kamaiyas and authorise the application letters in order for it to be approved by the Land Reform Office. This procedure creates immense obstacles for many ex-kamaiyas who literally fled when their freedom was announced. Also all those (which is the majority) who had appalling relations with their landlords cannot expect to get any help now. Finally, all those who were thrown out when the landlords had to pay a daily minimum of 80 rupees have difficulty coming back for documentation. It seem therefore that those who lived under the most suppressive and strenuous conditions are most likely those who get most difficulties getting the landlords signature.

Besides, these difficulties, being approved as former Kamaiyas is mentally stressful to many ex-kamaiyas. It is a struggle they thought they had escaped, and it risks reproducing a feeling of inferiority, when having to prove that one comes from a life in slavery and oppression, completely without property.

After ex-kamaiyas give in registration to continue the process, the Land Reform Office verifies the legitimacy of the applicants. This is not completely unreasonable although it seem absurd to many ex-kamaiyas. Sometimes people who were not former kamaiyas, who actually have some land and property are taking advantage of the system. Out of those 7359 people who registered last year in Bardiya, the Land Reform Office estimates that a good number may not be real ex-kamaiyas. Also BASE, an MS partner working with ex-kamaiyas in the western Nepal, is concerned that some people seem to mislead the authorities, thereby harming all ex-kamaiyas.

It turns out that in one village some certified ex-kamaiyas currently provide cash loans to other ex-kamaiyas (the ‘real ones’) in exchange for identity cards and half of their newly acquired land. In this way the ex-kamaiyas are back in a well known conditions: in debt they can never repay, without enough land and without food. These moneylenders cannot be ex-kamaiyas, no one who grew up solely as the ‘property’ of his landowner has enough money to provide loans for others.

Unfortunately it is not difficult to cheat but the District Rehabilitation Committee, is supposed to investigate and verify those people registering. However, identifying the ex-kamaiyas, and especially uncover cheat is complicated. People can possess land in different locations but neither they nor their neighbours tell the officials, as a result, all people now get suspected, especially those who have no land at all. As in all legal systems, there is a danger of judging the innocent and blessing the guilty, albeit, here the innocent are also those most poor and vulnerable.

Another problem with this investigation process is the official categorisations of people into four groupings determining what support they are entitled to. The criteria guiding the classification are not clear and at the Land Reform Office they do not even have a copy of the requirements they are supposed to follow when deciding the faith of people!

In Bardiya, almost 7000 ex-Kamaiyas have until now received identity cards and thereby a certified right to land and rehabilitation. According to the land reform office these ex-kamaiyas automatically get land, training, economic support for house building and instalment as well as supplies of firewood. Nevertheless, several ex-kamaiyas have not received their land, or only very little.

Besides the dilemmas of registration and entitlement, another really serious dilemma exists for all those ex-kamaiyas who are still waiting for identity cards. These people have been left completely unsupported for three years. Outreach and flexible schooling programmes designed for children living under difficult conditions, health posts, water pumps and other amenities are only available for certified ex-kamaiyas. However, for those more than 7000 people in Bardiya who only got registered last year, several years may yet pass before they know whether they get authorised as real ex-kamaiyas and thus can expect to get land and schooling for their children. In the meantime thousands of children grow up without proper education and many children die from deficient health treatments in the devastating monsoon climate. This generation pays a high price for governmental lack of responsibility.

There are clearly vast predicaments in the approach to support ex-kamaiyas. The government only support those who have been through the strenuous process of acquiring identity cards and the NGOs do not dare to support those ex-kamaiyas living in illegal camps as they risk colliding with the government. There is an urgent need for strong coordination and cooperation internally between government agencies such as land reform office, district development committee and district education officer but also between these agencies and the NGOs.

Land Reform Office, other official agencies and NGOs will voice that they have supported, nonetheless, demands of basic rehabilitation and basic support are repeated by the ex-kamaiyas three years after their freedom. It is really vital that those major stakeholders join forces, also with all those ex-kamaiyas who are not yet acknowledged as such, and develop a transitional strategy for all those caught in the impasse between legal and real freedom. As an ex-kamaiya friend asserts: ‘without land and education we will never be truly free’. The current inconsistent policies are unacceptable and devastating for the people concerned.

The article was brought in The Himalayan, August 2003