BAITADI: Performing arduous task that demands physical labour at the tender age of 13 is a bit implausible. However, such an assumption is completely falsified when it comes to Jayaram Koli, a Dalit child in Dasarath Chanda Municipality-6, Baitadi, who has been working dawn to dusk at his master’s field for long. “There is no second alternative than to obey whatever my master says,’’ he says.

Jayaram’s father had owed Rs 5,000 to a Panta family after the cash was required for his treatment. But he could not earn enough to pay back the debt as he had spent all his life as a Haliya -- an agriculture labourer.

As destiny would have it, Jayaram also landed in the master’s house after the loaned amount could neither save his father nor the Kolis were able to return it. Ever since the death of his father, Jayaram, along with his mother, has been working at Pant’s house to return the debt.

Nevertheless, Jayaram is not that unfortunate in his ilk. After finishing the assigned household chores and other works in the field, he has been allowed to go to the local Nirpal Primary School, where he is now studying in class five.

“Besides doing hard labour in the farm, I also have to go to Indian market Jhulaghat to fetch goods for my master for which I have to spend the entire day,” he laments.

Story of Dambar Mahar, 20, of Bhedagaun is not that different though.

Haliya is the ancestral identity of Dambar’s family too. He is toiling hard in the masters’ field to pay back the loan of Rs 4,000 that his father had taken. And to make the matters worse, he was also compelled to take another 8,000 rupees for his wedding last year.

“My master has warned me to immediately leave the village after returning the debt,’’ he says, hoping that one fine day he would set out for India to earn a good deal of money to uplift his family’s status. But, he is unknown how many years he has to work to clear the debt.

Chakra BK, coordinator, Federation of Haliya Liberation Society, informed that though the government had liberated the Haliyas, some of them are being exploited by their masters in one or another pretexts as yet. “Emancipation in a real sense is still eluding the new generation as well.’’