Only 12,000 families have got some facilities in six years of freedom

Kathmandu, July 16 :

Freed Kamaiyas, who gathered here today in a seminar to highlight their plight, asked the government to meet its pledges of providing five katthas of land,

35 cubic meters of timber and Rs 10,000 for building home and provide health and education facilities.

The government on July 17, 2000, had introduced a law banning the practice of bonded labour system prevalent in Dang, Banke, Bardiya, Kailali and Kanchanpur districts in

the mid and far-western Terai regions and announced that it would support bonded labourers for their rehabilitation.

It is estimated that there are about 30,000 freed Kamiayas in the five districts and the government has provided minimum facilities to only 12,000 Kamaiya families.

Presenting a paper on their plight, Pashupati Chaudhary, central president of the Mukta Kamiaya Samaj, said they had captured the government land and forests after they could not

receive appropriate land for inhibition.

He said that 8,577 freed Kamaiya families have captured a total of 1,875 bighas of government land and forest in 55 places of the districts after they did not receive anything.

“Even the land given by the government to us are uninhabitable; they are on the East-West Highway, community forests, banks of the rivers and swampy lands where human settlement is impossible,” said Chaudhary.

President of Kailali district president of the Mukta Kamaiya Samaj, Nathuram Kathariya, blamed the local authorities of not providing any support despite the government’s decision.

He said a total of 2,847 freed Kamaiya families in Kailali have been deprived of land though they were given land ownership certificates by local authorities.

Ghansi Rana Tharu, a participant who came all the way from Kanchanpur district, demanded that the government provide their children free education up to high school-level and free health facilities in local hospital and health posts. He also demanded their representation in the upcoming election to a constituent assembly so that their voices could also heard.

Land Reforms and Management minister Prabhu Narayan Chaudhary, who had consented to be the chief guest of the interaction, did not turn up.

Mohan Prasad Wagle, joint secretary and spokesperson at the Ministry of Forest and Soil Conservation, claimed that the forest lands allocated to the freed Kamaiyas were all “fertile”.