| Username |
Post |
| ashu |
Posted
on 07-Sep-00 05:50 AM
Hi everyone,
Dilli Bahadur Chaudhary, a Tharu activist
from Dang, has been awarded a major
International Human Rights Award. This
award is in recognition for his tireless leadership to end the Kamaiya system in Nepal.
Dilli expects to be in the US, in New York City at the end of this month September to accept the award.
Since Dilli had visited Boston in late 1994 when he was there to accept the then
Reebok International Human Rights Award,
and had had an enjoyable time with the then
GBNC Council Members and Prahlad KC's family, he would like to visit Boston again for a day or two, and renew his acquaintances with the Boston-Nepalis.
Dilli is a person worth getting to know
well.
Against this backdrop, could the GBNC Council please take this as a request
to have some sort of a reception for Dilli when he is in Boston?
I'll keep you all informed as travel
details get confirmed.
For a somewhat dated bio of Dilli:
Reebok Human Rights information, including full biographies of Dilli Bahadur Chaudhary, can be accessed on the World Wide Web at www.reebok.com.
oohi
ashu
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| mabi |
Posted
on 09-Sep-00 11:16 AM
'Kamaiya liberation done in haste'
By a Post Reporter
BIRATNAGAR, Sept 8 - Nearly two months after the government liberated the country's nearly 200,000 Kamaiyas, Minister for Land Reforms and Management Siddha Raj Ojha today conceded that the government's decision to liberate Kamaiyas was taken in a haste.
"Going by the present scenario, the decision to liberate them (the Kamaiyas) was taken too early," Minister Ojha said, adding that the problem of rehabilitation the Kamaiyas the government is facing now indicates that it was a decision made in haste.
The government made a landmark decision to emancipate the Kamaiyas from the clutches of age-old bonded-labour system in western part of the Terai region on July 17. Although the government took a bold decision to liberate them from the pseudo-slavery system, the government is facing hard time for their rehabilitation, Minister Ojha said while speaking at a meet-the-press programme organised here today by Biratnagar-based Nepal Press Union.
Despite an announcement of the Amalekh--abolition of slavery system--made by then Prime Minster Chandra Shumsher Jung Bahadur Rana in 1925, several forms of slavery system were still in existence among the Tharu community of five districts of western Terai.
Minister Ojha, who made an announcement of the Kamaiya's liberation during the recently concluded 18th session of Parliament, said that the government is facing hardships in rehabilitating the Kamaiyas as the move came in rainy season.
He said a Kamaiya Rehabilitation Committee comprising the Chairman of District Development Committee, Chief District Officer and Local Development Officer as members has been formed in each district--Dang, Banke, Bardiya, Kailali and Kanchanpur-- in order to rehabilitate the recently liberated bonded Kamaiya labourers.
Replying to a query, Minister Ojha said the government was working seriously to get the minimum agricultural wage implemented in practice. The minimum wages for agriculture labour was fixed well before the announcement of Kamaiya-liberation.
The landlords' (of the former Kamaiyas') present policy of ostracizing them from hiring for agriculture labour will get abated gradually and there would be a harmonious relation between them in the future, Minister Ojha said.
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| mabi |
Posted
on 09-Sep-00 11:21 AM
Victory, not yet
By Ajit Baral
They were there, below a makeshift blue plastic tent in that triangle at the Bhadrakali crossroad. They looked haggard, emaciated and pathetic. Women among them had babies clinging on to their backs. Men were squatting uncomfortably on sukul. The air was heavy with gloom, uncertainty and despair. I was there more than once and had witnessed the gloom all around. But little did I know what these people were there for. This ignorance stemmed not from my not-knowing the Kamaiya system, but from my inability to empathize with them and their cause.
On the second of July, however, I was to know, ironically, in the crest of happiness these people were thrown into, following a declaration of Kamaiya Mukti, the depth of misery, exploitation, torture these people had to put up with. The happiness they exuded, with peals of laughter and smiles, with spontaneous songs and dances; the way they rallied around the main streets of Kathmandu, chanting slogans of freedom; a sense of victory they portrayed even locked up in a cell; and, the contentment suffused in the faces of my friends who was so much a part and parcel of the Kamaiya Mukti Andolan.
Since then, I am trying to follow the happenings post- Kamaiya Mukti.)
Kamaiyas have been freed from the bondage of Kamaiya system alright. We were also freed from the autocracy of Panchayati system. But the situation hasn't changed for good even in democracy that was ushered in after long arduous struggle and much bloodshedding. The same corruption, the same tendency of chakri and chaplusi, the same politicians and the same political wrangling reigns supreme. Thus, there is a possibility of Kamaiya mukti andolan going our democracy's way. So, it is not the right time to rest contented with the mukti alone.
The ex-Kamaiyas are being stripped of their possessions, and thrown out of their houses. Sans work and food, they are starving. And to compound the misery, encephalitis has been ailing these people. There is even danger of mass extermination or these people returning to their past masters in desperation. So, there is still much to be done, especially with the Kamaiya rehabilitation issue. But the rehabilitation program is nowhere in sight.
And who is to take note of this grave situation? Barring one or two NGOs, all the other NGOs are unresponsive to this situation. Moreover, those NGOs that prided in being involved in Kamaiya Mukti Andolan for over a decade have gone into hiding, selfishly, as soon as they found that the credit for Kamaiya Mukti had gone to another organization.
The government and the netas in particular, who clamoured to reap the credit when Kamaiya emancipation was nigh, are also not showing alacrity and urgency which the kamaiya's present situation demands. This indifference from different quarters has been flashing out some worrying signals.
Thus, those who feel for kamaiyas from the heart should understand that victory has not been achieved yet and more war has to be fought, lest this victory turns out to be the case of so near yet so far.
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| mabi |
Posted
on 09-Sep-00 11:35 AM
Free to suffer
Freedom has come with a price for kamaiyas and relief in not likely to come anytime soon
HEMLATA RAI
As the Dhangadi sky bursts open. Saraswati Chaudhari picks up her baby boy from the muddy ground and rushes into her hut with its blue plastic covering. She places him on the charpoy, and in a mechanical motion picks up her family’s ration sack and then the handful of kitchen utensils scattered all over the floor to pile them on the other end of the string bed. She hurriedly collects the firewood and that too goes on the bed. All her belongings now safe from the water soaking the floor rapidly, she herself perches on the bed with the baby on her lap.
Since she left her “owner” two weeks ago, the plastic-covered hut has been this former kamaiya family’s only protection against the raging monsoon. And when it pours heavily, the only dry place for her family is the bed.
But Saraswati is among the lucky ones. Angani Chaudhari has been living with his family of 11 inside the skeleton of a hut hoping the government will provide him with at least a plastic sheet to cover it with “someday soon”.
Angani is not alone. There are hundreds of other kamaiya families living under the open sky in the far-western district of Kailali and Kanchanpur, many of them evicted forcefully from their previous homes by the kisans (landowners).
The 17 July government announcement abolishing the virtual slavery system of kamaiya came as a surprise to everyone—the campaigning kamaiyas, NGOs and the government bodies—and caught them all totally unprepared. And it is this unpreparedness, coupled with a lack of interest in the central government and the rigidity of local government officials, that are slowing down the rehabilitation process. “It will take three or four months more just to begin the rehabilitation,” says Rishi Raj Lumsali, chairman of the Kanchanpur district development committee.
The government has so far completed the first phase of updating statistics on the kamaiyas in Dang, Banke, Bardiya, Kailali and Kanchanpur districts. But there is variance in the figures provided by the government and by the NGOs. Activists doubt the reliability of the new government updates, claiming that the government failed to reach the inner and difficult parts of the districts where kamaiyas are still being held illegally.
“The government teams never reached my family,” says Hira Devi Chaudhari in Kailali. Hira Devi belongs to the first batch of kamaiyas who filed a petition against their landlord, former Nepali Congress minister, Shiva Raj Pant, on 1 May 2000 that kicked off the movement to free kamaiyas. Now she is living her family in a relative’s cowshed along the Mahendra Highway, 10 km east of the district headquarters.
“Kamaiyas living near towns are now aware of the government ban. But many others are still ignorant of the ruling. They are still unorganised and do not know they have to register themselves with the government,” says Ashok Bikram Jairu, an NGO social worker involved in the movement to free kamaiyas in Kanchanpur. But he is equally cautious about the figures touted by trade unions and NGOs: “Many non-kamaiyas are out there to enlist themselves for free land the government might distribute to former kamaiyas. And others are being planted by political parties.”
Kailali’s land reforms officer, Maheshwor Niraula, also acknowledges the problem. “Thirty-three wage-earning labourers from a single ward at Tikapur were found to have registered as kamaiyas,” he says. Niraula estimates some 25 to 40 percent of the forms may have been filled by non-kamaiyas.
Activists say the local administration is chary about upsetting the kisans. They suspect it was because of the immense clout the kisan lobby has in national politics that the proposed Kamaiya Freedom Bill could not be passed. The bill was introduced in the parliament two days after the historic announcement freeing kamaiyas and would have outlawed the bonded labour system and ensured the welfare of freed kamaiyas.
Although nobody verbally opposes the official ban on bonded labour, the kisans are preparing to fight the government decision. The newly formed Forum for the Protection of Kisan’s Rights (Kisan Hakhit Sangrakshan Manch) filed a writ with the Supreme Court on 9 August, demanding the government compensate them the sauki, the debt money that tied the kamaiyas to them. Though many of the kamaiyas ‘owed’ their landlords less than Rs 5,000, the kisans claim the waiving of sauki might cause them economic burden.
“The government decision is against the Constitution. If sauki is illegal then let the courts settle it. Why should government outlaw sauki?” says an angry Dilli Raj Pant of the Forum. A nephew of Shiv Raj Pant’s and himself a member of the ruling Congress, Pant criticised the government for letting kamaiya system “look like” bondage labour whereas the system in fact is an “annually renewable contract”.
Kailali DDC Chairman Narayan Datta Mishra is sympathetic to the kisans’ demands. “The government should reconsider its ruling on sauki. Kisans have suffered because of it,” he says. Mishra believes the “untimely” government announcement to release the kamaiyas in the middle of the agricultural season is a result of “unjustifiable” pressure from the opposition and NGOs.
For the first two weeks after the government decision, kamaiyas camped inside the DDC premises to pressure the government to come up with emergency relief for displaced kamaiyas. But nothing has been forthcoming from the district administration. So far only two NGOs—Backward Society Education (BASE) and ADRA Nepal—have been supplying emergency food relief to the kamaiyas in Kailali. Meanwhile, the local administration has shifted the 165 squatting kamaiya families from the DDC compound to privately owned land from where they can be evicted anytime.
That kisans hold NGOs responsible for the liberation of kamaiyas is clear. “Our relationship with kamaiyas was perfectly harmonious. The trouble began when the NGOs started provoking them. In the long run, the kamaiyas themselves will be the losers, their places in the fields will be filled by Indian workers,” says Hem Prakash Regmi, president of the Forum.
Before the 17 July government announcement Regmi had four families of kamaiyas working for him who left his household three weeks back. Now he is determined not to let his ex-kamaiyas enter the huts built in his land: “What if the government decides to declare that the land too should belong to the kamaiyas.”
Kamaiya-kisan tension is also palpable. Young kamaiyas seem determined not to work for kisans though they have no skills outside agriculture, while kisans feel threatened by their aggressiveness.
“This is pain caused by transition. Everything will settle down in time,” says land reforms officer Niraula. That is the kind of optimism that is sorely needed on both sides of the divide now.
Kanchanpur showed the way
It has by now become well known that the campaign that ultimately led to the government decision to ban the kamaiya system took off on 1 May 2000, when 32 kamaiyas filed a petition with Geta VDC, Kailali district, against their landlord, Shiv Raj Pant. And it will probably go down in history as such. But it was kamaiyas in the adjoining district of Kanchanpur who had already started a silent revolution to end the debt bondage months earlier.
“The severity of exploitation and size of kisan landholdings are much smaller than in the other four districts. That is why the activities that preceded the 1 May petition did not catch anyone’s attention,” says Kanchanpur DDC Chairman Rish Raj Lumsali.
Using the authority granted by the Local Governance Act, the DDC fixed the minimum wage for agriculture labourers at Rs 80 on 14 January. Kamaiya Nepal Chaudhari immediately petitioned the Laxmipur VDC, demanding he be paid the minimum wage for all the years he had been working for his landlord. The landlord declined compensation but instead granted Nepal freedom and also waived off his debt as well.
Four days later, on 18 January, the DDC and the kisans reached an agreement according to which kisans could volunteer to release kamaiyas with saukis less than Rs 15,000. This led to the freeing of 22 kamaiya families.
It was in March that the kamaiyas themselves first began agitating for their freedom. Eighteen kamaiyas working for Kalyan K.C. of Shankarpur VDC, filed a petition against their landlord. Unfortunately, a Maoist attack soon after on K.C. two times in the same week drove him out of his village, leaving the case in limbo.
On 21 May, 48 kamaiyas from six VDCs filed separate petitions with their respective VDC offices demanding freedom. Two days later, Parasan VDC issued a freedom certificate to Bahadur Rana.
The Kanchanpur Declaration, which worked a formula to ultimately emancipate the kamaiyas in the district, was adopted on 8 July by a mass meeting of government officials, the DDC, VDCs, NGOs, kisans and kamaiyas. That was a week before the central government’s ban was announced on 17 July. (Upload date: September 6/00)
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| ashu |
Posted
on 10-Sep-00 08:26 AM
Mabi,
Thanks for posting Nepali Times' ko
reporter Hem Lata's and Martin Chautari's
Ajit's articles here.
Personally, I would have liked to read
your own take on this issue, but no
matter.
At the best, these articles and others like them should provide some background information to all in Boston who want to ask pertinent questions to Dilli when, if all goes well, he visits Boston to some time in near future.
As for Minister Ojha's statement that the Kamaiya liberation was done in haste, I can't help but think, using the same logic, what he would say to those -- Maoists in Rolpa, along with many other Nepalis, who, disappointed with Nepal's experiment with democracy for the last ten years -- who now say that perhaps democracy itself arrived in haste in Nepal!!
I mean: Think about this. To free Nepalis from slavery-like conditions. How early or late should any democratic government need to be?
Minister Ojha -- with whom Dilli and I debated for half-an-hour on a program on the Radio Sagarmatha (FM 102.4) in early July
-- is now cowardly hiding behind his Ministry's and, by extension, his government's gross inability/incapability/ to deal with the ramifications of this Kamaiya liberation issue.
For details, please await -- and I shal inform you of this -- the publication of Dilli's and my joint article in the Kantipur daily responding to Ojha's "haste" sometime next week.
oohi
ashu
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| ashu |
Posted
on 11-Sep-00 06:58 AM
Those who remain interested in this issue,
please read our friend Tim White's
excellent article on the Kamaiya Liberation in today's Kantipur Nepali-language daily.
Tim's article, edited by Pratyoush Onta, had first appeared two weeks ago in English in The Kathmandu Post Review of Books. It was translated to Nepali by Suman Parajuli.
Special thanks to Kantipur daily's editors Guna Raj Luitel and Sudaran Devkota for pushing the article to publication so
soon.
oohi
ashu
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| mabi |
Posted
on 12-Sep-00 01:32 PM
Jobless freed Kamaiyas might create problems
Kathmandu: The plight of Kamaiyas-the bonded laborers who had been freed from the clutches of the
landlords through a government decree only in July this year- is simply disturbing.
Though they have been declared free by the establishment, however, their justifiable rehabilitation by the
state remains yet unsettled.
The abrupt decision taken by the government in the favor of the bonded laborers though has been
appreciated by responsible quarters here and abroad, but yet the leniency exhibited by the government
with regard to their timely settlement is making the Kamaiyas restive, say sources close to the
Kamaiyas.
Presumably, the Kamaiyas neither possesses sophisticated skills nor they were comfortably educated
in the absence of which the freed bonded laborers are finding it very difficult to adjust to the completely
changed context in which they now suddenly find themselves.
Reports have it that the freed Kamaiyas were neither being supported by the government at the moment
nor do they receive any material support from their former masters.
" Such situation in which the Kamaiyas have been forced in at the moment might prompt a segment of
the job-less youths to join the band of the Maoists’ insurgents only to feed their bowls", commented a
social scientist to this newspaper Monday morning.
"When there is no job, no means to sustain one’s life, the unemployed one’s have little options left for
them other than to jump onto a mission that is dangerous", added the social scientist.
The best way is to manage the livelihood of the unemployed ones by the state by creating job
opportunities, concluded the same source.
To recall, the Maoists have in the recent weeks made an open call for young Nepalese youths to join
their camp. Coincidentally, the government too has invited applications from youths for recruitment in
the police force.
What a coincidence!
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| Biswo |
Posted
on 13-Sep-00 05:58 PM
Joblessness of Kamaiyaas:
Though novice in this constituency of
Kamaiyas,I want to express my congratulations
to everybody who are working for the
awareness on this issue.
Sadly,the joblessness of Kamaiyas was
inevitable outcome.The jamindaars who were
shackling the kamaiyas are also not very
person who could afford to pay daily wage
and employ them daily.They brought Kamaiyaas
to there home primarily because they thought
they were affordable laborers.With this
manumission,they were no longer.
I remember that we used to have some
workers in our home in Chitwan when I was
small.They were often hired on yearly basis.
I highest payment I remember was probably
3000 Rupees per year(about 15 years ago,if
I remember correctly.) Now we can't get
anybody who will work for that.Because as
soon as the laborers realized they could make
more than that if worked on daily basis,they
stopped working for us in that cheap price.
Now,you probably don't get any peons to
employ in home in yearly basis.
The chaos now generated was ineschewable from
the start.One thing we need to realize is
that whatever we say,howmuch we curse,our
government is not a rich government.Its
coffers are emptied/or never get sufficiently
repleted.We never got a good finance minister
who was really concerned about that,anyway.
So,government is constrained there:whether to
make a bridge in Chitwan,or make a road in
Jumla, or fight Maoists in Rolpa or manumit
Kamaiyas(it foolishly even tried to pay the
so called loan).Surely,Kamaiyas should
have featured prominently in its priority
list.
One thing: NGOs and INGOs have played
commendable roles in Kamaiyas issue,& I am
pretty much sure that they are more capable
of funding skill development projects for
kamaiyas than the government.
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| ashu |
Posted
on 16-Sep-00 11:16 PM
The whole point of the Kamaiya Mukti
Andolan, as led by Dilli Chaudhary is to
CONTINUOUSLY, RELENTLESSLY pressure the government to make decisions on the
Kamaiyas' behalf.
The Kamaiyas, as you all know by now, existed
in slavery-like conditions in the Far Western Nepal.
The first phase of the Andolan was/is: Mukti.
That is, freedom from debt bondage and slavery-like conditions. This goal has been achieved, though this is NOT all.
The second phase is, and this is going on,
to fight for: Daily relief in terms of food, medicines and shelter in the camps.
The World Food Program has already launched
Food for Work programs in Kailali and Kanchanpur, and a number of ex-kamaiyas
are already earning their daily daal-bhaat.
Besidea, INGOs such as ADRA-Nepal, Action Aid, Save the Children (US, MS-Nepal, and others have already started helping the ex-Kamaiyas or about to start their help.
The third phase is to fight with the government (i.e. do another Andolan)
for adequate land for each ex-Kamaiya family so that the family can till its own land
and get enough to eat per year.
I have just completed a tour of Kailali and Kanchanpur districts, where I met with many officials and and have come to the conclusion there is ENOUGH land for the government to give out to the Kamaiyas.
What is lacking on the government's part
is: Political commitment.
Since the government does "dheela-susti" to carry out the political commitment made to its own citizens, the fight is far from over, and the Andolan goes on!!
oohi
ashu
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| mabi |
Posted
on 17-Sep-00 10:27 AM
The plight of the Kamiyas after liberation
Narendra Kumar Chaudhary, Chairman, Tharu Welfare Society, Nepal
The Tharu community is the largest group by population in the Terai plains of Nepal. They are well spread over east to west in the foothills of the Churia hills and in the plains. The Kamaiya system-bonded labor system-is existing only in the Tharu community in the mid-western and far-western region of Nepal. And some traces are also found in the western region too. This tradition is in vogue since centuries. In this tradition, landlords pay some money to the tenants (read Kamaiya’s family) and the whole family members turn into Kamaiyas from the date he holds the money. The whole family has to work whole year. There is no age bar. All in the family have to work necessarily. There is contract of one year between the landlord and the Kamaiya. The Kamaiya can neither drop in the middle nor they can break the contract agreed upon between the two. This contract is made only during the month of Magh-December-January every year.
After His Majesty’s Government’s fresh decision abolishing the bonded labor system, the landlords expelled the poor Kamaiyas from their houses. Because the house shelter facilities were provided by the landlords. The decision was made in a hurry without doing any needed homework and without any preparation, though we have already welcomed the decision.
Unfortunately, the decision arrived at by the government in a hurry have created so many problems thereafter. Instead of becoming the Kamaiyas future bright, it is just the other way round. Had the HMG/N would have the done the homework looking deep into the matter, there wouldn’t have arose the problems relating to the Kamaiyas.
As the government abolished the bonded labor system, the landlords of those districts immediately reacted. They formed a group and issued a statement against the government. They have decided to go to the courts and took certain drastic steps against the Kamaiyas. The action includes expelling them from their houses, offering no works and discarded the entire lot socially. In addition to these, the landlords decided not to cooperate them in any of their future activities.
The relationships between the landlords and the Kamaiyas have become so bitter and cold that none of the landlords would wish to help them. Since the harvesting season was over at time of the government’s decision, the Kamaiyas had already served their former landlords. Sinnce then they have no work in the farms nor they possess any other skills other than the agricultural jobs. Because of this, the Kamaiyas are under tremendous stress and loss both. Today they have been forced to hand-to-mouth problem. The first ever worse situation the Kamaiyas are facing at the moment. There is no food, no house, no shelter and above all no job. They have been forcedly converted from former labor to the slums. The Durga puja and the Tihar festivals are at hand and they have nothing to celebrate these top Nepali festivities. The government decision has thrown them in to the hell.
There are so many NGOs and INGOs working in that sector for a decade or so for the welfare of the Kamaiya families and to make them aware of their rights as Nepali citizens and providing skill-trainings for diversification of jobs. These schemes include the upliftment of the Kamaiyas economically and giive education to them and their dependents. They have the data update of the Kamaiyas. The NGOs have done some good works at some places. The men associated with the NGOs have rehabilitated few families of the Kamaiyas. But in this case, the NGOs did not handle the matter in a manner as it should have been. Either they have not the idea on how to proceed, or they have not imagined that it could go beyond their reach. The situation is such that due to the improper handling of the Kamaiya case at the moment by the NGOs, the Kamaiyas have instead been feeling provoked and as a result the NGOs have agitated the surfs and brought them to the streets and even forced them to march to Kathmandu to pressurize the government. The NGOs should know that the Kamaiyas problem, is not a political issue. It is rather an socio-economic issue, which Kamaiyas are facing since years and years. Knowing all these things, the way the NGOs played the roles for the freedom of the Kamaiyas should not have been like that. Instead they should have taken other ways for example, rehabilitation programs and the likes.
The government did it in such a hurry that neither the government herself nor the NGOs working in this sector could analyze the pros and cons of the decision. Because of that the situation instead of going in favor of the Kamaiyas have gone otherwise. Instead of getting relief, the Kamaiyas now find themselves in more trouble than what they had been facing when they were in the jurisdiction of their former landlords. Not only that, if their case is not handled properly even today, they may migrate from one place to another inside the Nepalese territory and finally sneaking into neighboring India which would understandably be the worst result of the government’s immature decision.
To recall, during the time of the erstwhile regime when the system effected the land reform program in the Dang district, for example, thousands of people-Tharus- were forced to migrate to India in search of food, work and shelter. The history should not repeat. Wisdom must prevail upon the Nepalese leaders currently manning the system at the moment.
After the restoration of multi-party system, the Tharu Welfare Society-TWS- had been requesting the successive governments with great sorrow and grief that the bonded labor system be abolished and the issue related with the Kamaiyas be resolved through high-level Kamaiya rehabilitation commission.
The Tharu Welfare Society welcomes the government’s decision for legally abolishing the practice of bonded labor. Though this decision, rough estimates have it that some sixty plus thousand Kamaiya families have been made free. However, the question arises as to how these families will be settled down and lives a normal life befitting a human being. The government of course has declared a policy of resettling the freed Kamaiyas by providing land and skill training. But how effectively the government will bring into action its avowals remains to be watched.
At this stage the Kamaiyas are facing lot of problems. The TWS appeals all the NGOs, INGOs and the likes working in this sector to bring the normalcy and harmony between the former landlords and the newly freed Kamaiyas. They should also concentrate their efforts at time of the rehabilitation of the Kamaiyas.
The TWS also appeals the government in Kathmandu to immediately form the high level commission to resolve the present crisis being faced by the Kamaiyas.
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| mabi |
Posted
on 17-Sep-00 10:34 AM
Former Kamaiyas get Dashain relief
By a Post Reporter
DHANGADHI, Sept 16 - Nepal Red Cross Society Kailali Office on Thursday started distributing relief materials to the Kamaiyas (bonded labourers) who were liberated by the government but who have been facing hardship in life due to various reasons.
The office has decided to provide some assistance with a view to providing some relief to them in view of the fast approaching Dashain festival.
The office distributed Rs one thousand 18 worth of clothes, blankets and other materials to 125 former bonded labourers of the temporary camp at Thapapur VDC-1 in constituency No 2 of Kailali district at the rate of Rs one thousand 18 per family.
In view of the hardship being faced by the former bonded labourers, such assistance will be distributed by the District Red Cross to about 300 former bonded labourers all over the district as a relief assistance for Dashain festival, District President of the Society Hem Raj Ojha said.
Initiating the distribution of the relief assistance, Chief District Officer Mohan Prasad Acharya urged the former bonded labourers not to be selfish and provoked by anyone.
President Ojha has informed that the District Red Cross has already distributed relief assistance to families of former bonded labourers at their temporary camps located at Baliya in constituency No 1, Dododhara in constituency No 2 and Masuriya at constituency No 3
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| Biswo |
Posted
on 17-Sep-00 10:17 PM
>>The office distributed Rs one thousand 18 worth of clothes, blankets and other materials to 125
former bonded labourers of the temporary camp at Thapapur VDC-1 in constituency No 2 of Kailali
district at the rate of Rs one thousand 18 per family.
A pittance!!to 125 family.Surely,more is needed.
I have heard the actual number of kamaiyaas
is still dubious,that it is fewer than it was
thought to be.Is it true??
|
| mabi |
Posted
on 21-Sep-00 08:59 AM
Displaced Kamaiyas facing strained sex life
By Bhaskar Sharma
DHANGADI, Sept 20 A new addition to the numerous plights of Kamaiyas, who have been displaced in the name of liberation from their residences, is the severe impact on their sexual life.
Following the declaration of freedom to the bonded labourers on July 17, thousands of Kamaiyas flocked into Dhangadi bazaar. At present 237 families have been settled in temporary settlements in the old airport area, where members of a family are sardine-packed in cramped and unpartitioned huts.
They have been forced to enjoy their freedom in such a place for over two months now. As the time passes by the shy couples are becoming frustrated not being able to quench their natural urge for sex. Whereas the bold ones are corrupting their young children and other relatives.
A 17-years-old Chayawati (name changed) is just an example of the extent of the problem in sexual behaviours of the Kamaiyas. She has been living for over a month in a shabby hut, hardly 15 feet by 10 feet, with her parents, her brother and his spouse, and her uncle’s family, where there’s hardly a place for one to sit properly, let alone sleep.
The frequent exposure to the sexual acts of her own relatives has corrupted her mind to the extent that she is now involved in prostitution. A recently freed Kamaiya, this teenaged girl accepts money in exchange for sexual favours. And her experience with it is hardly one month.
With children here getting increasingly exposed to sex at an early age, elders are afraid that the problem would be compounded within a very short time. "We have repeatedly asked her to abstain from sex. We even asked her parents to check upon her, but in vain," says Rajkumar Danguara, one of the Kamaiyas here.
Had the government not overlooked the biological needs and arranged for a more systematic dwelling, perhaps no such cases would have surfaced. The decision to put Kamaiyas in clustered settlements seems to be taken in haste, says Gopal Dahal, Technical Administrative Officer with Lutheran World Federation (LWF).
Most organizations that are working for the cause of the Kamaiyas have all begun to feel the need to address the problem that has started brewing in the Kamaiya camps. Dahal even cited the case of the Bhutanese refugee camps, where such problem was encountered at later dates. "Prostitution is something which is seen at later stages. If proper measures are not immediately taken, it may flourish even within the Kamaiyas," Dahal added.
The lack of awareness regarding Sexually Transmitted Diseases (STDs) like AIDS and ignorance about safe sex among the Kamaiyas makes the problem even more alarming.
While some Kamaiyas claim that they have not indulged in sex ever since they came to live in the camp, some frankly acknowledge practicing sex.
However, Dal Bahadur Chaudhary, who lives with his two brothers and both sister in-laws, says, "One has to control inner desires during times like this. I cannot think of sex with all the family members sleeping inches apart."
Experts claim that both sexual restrains and early-exposure to sex is dangerous for the society and the people as such. Anthropologist Dr Ram Bahadur Chettri says the effect of strained sex life is negative upon a couple. "Strained sex life is the root of many social problems," he says.
It is imperative that organizations working for the cause of the Kamaiyas arrange for ensuring that their physiological needs are met, he says.
They must also impart sex education not only to the adults, but also to the teenagers to ensure that they engage in safe sex only. They should also provide separate huts for married couples to reduce the exposure of children to sex at an early age and to lessen the strain among the adults.
"If children get exposed to sex by themselves suddenly, the impact is disastrous. They should rather be given education on it," he says.
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| Biswo |
Posted
on 21-Sep-00 09:15 PM
"Before I came here I was confused about this
subject.Having listened to your lecture, I am
still confused,but on a higher level."
- Enrico Fermi
Not intended as barb to anybody,I am trying
to write this article to understand more the
subject of Kamaiyas and in the process,
affine it to one topic of celebrated article
"total Niskriyata & Nepali intellectuals" of
Kanak Dixit.
We delivered condign rebuke to one minister
when he foolishly observed:that Kamaiya
manumission was premature.A shame to mankind,
it was certainly an overdue issue.But the
resulting chaos,and inherent convoluted
politics around those people make us think
repeatedly::to what extent the NGOs and our
intellectuals were prepared for this giant
step?
We all lack a vision/a lookahead scheme in
our agitations/in our proposition.The people
in Kathmandu who so much act as a colonialist power of the whole nation try to vacuously
put forward their thoughts without any back-
up of empirical results, and impose upon us.
As a person from mofussil, I have always been
purveyed the intellectual hubris of KTMbasi
pundits from their monolithic newspapers that
intersperse all the national market stifling
the local periodicals and molding those non-
KTM people in their whimsical thoughts.KTM
worships foreign degrees,KTM looks for foreign educated people run NGOs,KTM consider
foreign pressure redoubtable.KTM doesn't have
any regard for what the people outside think,
what the people outside are doing.KTM
prospers in its pride that it is feeding
nation,and that it is ruling nation.
The nexus of these callous insensitive
objects has such an amorphous/yet omnipresent
influence in the national politics/arena
that our duncehead leaders get prodded in
their shouting.The current leadership has
already been such decadent that its basis
of government (popular mandate)doesn't
provide it any confidence.So,the government
can neither bridle the foreign forces,their
agents,nor can act in its own pace/in its own
decision.
The result is inevitably a chaos.Sexual
perversity,loot,larceny,epidemic,bickering,
they are characteristic of a relegated
society.Those Kamaiyas are there,used like
a condom to be thrown after use,by a lot of
people who are pretending they have the long
lasting solution.The only person who can
really understand their plight are surely
those person who are there,those who were
grown up there,those who sufferred alot
there,and those who sufferred being a dalit/
madhise/etc while they went to KTM.It is
not a very pert moment to say,but the
solution resides with them,their grit to
solve the problem.
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| mabi |
Posted
on 22-Sep-00 09:08 AM
The Kamaiya question
It is unfortunate that bonded labourers (Kamaiyas) who were liberated about three months ago from the exploitation of landlords should find themselves in so precarious a position. They have had to adopt various means for their survival. The main reason for this is that the government has done nothing about its pledge to resettle them. The Kamaiyas who are skilled only in agriculture have been left with no other choice but to take up low-paying menial jobs or to get into the sex trade. It is a fact that the plight of these liberated bonded labourers has gone from bad to worse. Such an estranged profession not only hurts their dignity but also raises questions regarding their future resettlement. Obviously, Kamaiya girls and women have been compelled to involve themselves in sex trade due to lack of employment opportunities as well as due to difficulties in coping with their liberated life in the absence of proper economic and rehabilitative packages for them.
Three months ago, the government and some social organisations liberated over eighty five thousand Kamaiyas in the country's five western districts. Ironically, the government claimed it was a revolutionary step to reform the existing social system. Since July, the government has neither been able to resettle them nor has it come up with substantial measures for their rehabilitation. This has not only affected their daily life but also forced them to wander without jobs and shelter. This apart, the I/NGOs which drove the government to pass the legislation against the practice of bonded labourers have also failed to resettle Kamaiyas due to absence of resources.
A week after their liberation, the government made an appeal to Kamaiyas to cooperate with their former landlords and urged them to return to work. The government did this because it realised its state
of "unpreparedness" for their rehabilitation. Had there been some arrangements to provide land or jobs to landless bonded labourers, such an appeal would not have come. This apart, the emancipation fund too did not draw any international attention due to lack of specific resettlement programmes. But there are a few questions. Does the government have any right to give such counselling? If not, then why did the government liberate them without having proper measures for their resettlement in place? The constitution of 1990 clearly prohibits any kind of slavery or serfdom. Under such provisions, the government does not have any right to send Kamaiyas back to their former landlords.
The government, opposition parties and I/NGOs must realize that they have turned the life of Kamaiyas from bad to worse. For example, their involvement in sex trade will generate more social problems than can be solved with government or I/NGO intervention. Therefore, the government must treat the Kamaiya question as a matter deserving great urgency.
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| MABI |
Posted
on 28-Sep-00 11:46 AM
Kamaiyas : After the declaration of freedom
By Bal Chandra Sapkota
Would you give me some money? I have not fed my baby for 3 days", carrying a six month baby a
middle aged woman asked when I was getting off the bus in Dhangadhi. She further asked, "Would you
offer me a job and shelter? I have been looking for some work but, She explained she was not a
professional beggar, but a Kamaiya who had been freed by the decision of His Majesty's Government.
There are so many Kamaiyas who have been made beggars. I hate begging but what can I do when I
don't get any job?" asked Dhana Chaudhari who had spent her whole life working as a bonded labour.
Now she roams Dhangadhi after the government outlawed the Kamaiya practice.
When the government took the decision on the 17th of July, jubilant Kamaiyas danced, sang and
marched through the streets of the capital. It seemed that it was the happiest ceremony they ever had.
Most Kamaiyas had not owned their house and land. They had to depend on the landlords for shelter
and job. The happiest moment was lost. The landlords were furious and drove them away. Some
landlords threw their goods away while others shut their doors. The Kamaiyas could not get their rags
and pots. Not only that, some landlords even attacked the Kamaiyas and accused them of stealing
their goods and got them arrested.
As the landlords pushed them away, some crowed the compound at the DDC and VDC while others
scattered hither and thither searching for jobs. Many of them moved to India and some again returned
to their landlord.
The government's decision to outlaw the practice of bonded labour was no doubt a praiseworthy step.
Taking a great risk, the government outlawed the Kamaiya practice and freed two lakh Kamaiyas. But
this was a rushed decision taken without any homework.
Now the Kamaiyas have little by way of shelter, job, food and clothes. When the government outlawed
the Kamaiyas and declared punishment of 10 years imprisonment for those who kept them, all landlords
forced them to leave their houses. How many families have been affected by this decision is not known.,
Government and NGO data differ. According to the Ministry of Labour, there are 25762 Kamaiya families
but INSEC, BASE and some other NGOs report more than 40 thousand Kamaiya families. One family
has 6 members in average according to INSEC, which means nearly two lakhs Kamaiyas are affected.
The INSEC survey of 2052 shows 96 percent Kamaiyas as illiterate, 93 percent Kamaiyas belong to the
Tharu community, 76 percent are below the age of 40, around 98 percent do not have their own house
and 18 percent are suffering from life long sickness. Nearly 28 percent Kamaiyas were bonded labour
from their forefathers. The government has no clear plan and data on how much land is needed for their
settlement and no alternative jobs for them. It hurriedly decided without making arrangements for their
proper settlement. The government has allocated three crore and 129 lakhs (which is too low) for the
management of about 40 thousand families covering two lakh people.
The government should have taken the data about their possible job and houses, but the government
feels that it has completed its duty by declaring freedom for Kamaiyas. After the declaration, it formed
the committee at district and central levels. But their work can hardly be called a solution. There are no
other arrangement expect the voice raised by government officials and ministers for political purposes.
Newspapers published that in Kailali and Kanchanpur many landlords gave Indian workers farm work like
paddy planting and watering. The government's call for living and working together in the time of planting
crops season could not attract landlords. They did not only refuse the government's appeal but even
reached the court against the government decision. The government could neither take action against
farmers who boycotted Kamaiyas by offering job to Indian labourers, nor did it work for Kamaiyas. Now
the Kamaiyas are not only jobless but their traditional farm job is being captured by Indian labourers.
Nearly all the Kamaiyas are primarily the farm workers. Now they need technical training for jobs but the
exact number of Kamaiyas is still not known. The government has plans to collect, but when? Two
moths have passed after the Kamaiyas were made homeless, and jobless. They are in a dilemma
whether they should again go to the landlord to be bonded labour or become beggars or leave the
country for India or get involved in crime for survival. Things can improve if they are taken seriously. The
Kamaiyas hope for shelter, food and work. But if the government delays, the situation may be out of
control. The Kamaiyas are demanding just a piece of land to make a small hut. They are not demanding
a high scale job but just a job.
The government has many problems but this is a key problem to address too. This should be solved
promptly. It should not ignore the fact that about two lakh people are sleeping on an open land, under
the tree and in the street. The flood, encephalitis and numerous other problems have made their life
difficult. Those who used their arms to grow to feed others are becoming beggars. Some are again
forced to be bonded and some are moving out. The government should be serious about solving this
problem as soon as possible.
Just providing land only may not be a complete solution, the Kamaiyas should be provided with
technical training. There are some NGOs and INGOs ready to help the Kamaiyas.
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| Biswo |
Posted
on 28-Sep-00 12:14 PM
Mabi(and others)::
This is rather a technical thing: why not you
guys put the source of the article also in
the posting?For example, this article
by Mr Sapkota, where was this published
before? It makes a lot of sense, and is also
an ethical matter.
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