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 Although the liberation has relieved ex-kamaiyas to some extent, it
has adversely affected the life of youths. In fact, youth is the
group facing the most difficult situation because the major problem
lies in unemployment. They are living a life of frustration with
uncertain future. Luckier ones get jobs in the nearby village, but
the unlucky ones have to travel a long distance even some 50km to
find work as laborer. Be it the Dhadhwar and Machhaghar legal camps
or illegal ones like Langhawa and Bangain in Bardia districts, they
are very far from the district headquarter Nepalgunj, where ex-kamaiya
youths are more likely to find jobs.
Guleriya is the nearest place, where ex-kamaiya youth from many
legal and illegal camps like Dhadhawar, Gujrana, Langhawa and
Bangain come to find work as daily wage earning laborers. But, it is
a small town and not all turn out lucky at the end of the day.
Krishna Chudhari, 21 an ex Kamiya youth says it takes him more than
an hour to reach Guleriya, where he usually comes to seek labor
work. "Of course it is a pretty long distance for me to travel
everyday, but there is no choice. The government has distributed
land to ex-kamaiyas in areas which do not have access to big towns
like Nepalgunj," says Krishna.
Krishna does not mind traveling a long distance and even to work
harder but he gets frustrated whenever he has to return empty handed
even after going through the whole arduous ordeal. "We need work to
make our ends meet, but it is very difficult to find labor work
everyday," says Krishna. One can see extreme depression in the eyes
of ex-kamaiya youth, yet they are hopeful of reaching the place
where 'the rainbow will end for them' to find prospects of a better
future. All they ask for is skill development training along with
job guarantee.
 Camps like Bangain and Machhaghar are situated at a distance of some
45 km from Nepalgunj in the north-west, from where Bali Ram goes to
places like Bhurigaun, Guleria and Nepalgunj to find a job almost
everyday. Sometimes he works at nearby villages too. "At present it
is rice plantation time and we can find jobs here as well, but
prospects are not as bright throughout the year," said he.
Most ex-kamaiya youths are either illiterate or have dropped out of
school due to financial crisis when they had to settle in different
camps after their liberation. Moreover, their camps are settled in
such places, from where it takes more than an hour to reach
government high schools. "While it is very difficult to find jobs
here, it is impossible to go to school, as it is very far. It takes
a pretty long time and we will not be able to earn our daily bread,"
says Basanta Tharu, who dropped out of school after completing grade
VI.
Although the youths here are frustrated, most of them know the
importance of education. They know that education is the only way
towards their true liberation. "I dream of educating my children. We
remained kamaiyas because we did not receive education and if the
children are educated, they will not be facing problem like us,"
says Ram Bahadur Chaudhari, an ex-kamaiya youth.
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