Speed Up Rehab
IT looks like after an interminable wait the
landless ex-Kamaiyas may finally have some plots of land allotted to them. The Central
Coordination and Rehabilitation Committee for Identification and Rehabilitation of the
ex-Kamaiyas seems to be swinging into action. According to a news report, the Committee
has issued directives to the district Kamaiya settlement committees in Dang, Bardiya and
Kanchanpur districts to make necessary arrangements for the settlement of the liberated
Kamaiya on the land already distributed for the purpose and issue land ownership
certificates in the name of the ex-Kamaiya families within seven days. The district
committees are to report back to the Ministry of Land Reforms and Management once it is
done. Though the landless ex-Kamaiya families in the three districts were already provided
with two kattha of land purchased by the government, the process of giving them land
ownership certificates had not been set in motion. With these instructions going out from
the high-level committee, with a clear deadline, hopes have risen that the ex-Kamaiyas,
living in uncertainty and misery for too long since their liberation was announced months
ago, will have a piece of land each to rebuild their lives. In an indication that this
time round the moves may be serious, there were a couple of other announcements too: each
ex-Kamaiya family will get Rs. 5000 to build a house and the Ministry of Local Development
was to launch a food for work programme for developing necessary infrastructure as part of
a housing and settlement plan.
Ever since the Kamaiyas received their
freedom from bonded labour through a government announcement, they have been leading a
life of extreme deprivation in make-shift camps in and around headquarters of these
districts. Out of the frying pan of the homes of their previous masters they had landed in
the fire of wretched existence in open spaces. They have been living on insufficient
dole-outs handed by some international and national non-governmental organisations. Pleas
to speed up Kamaiya rehabilitation had not been responded with the alacrity the issue
deserved. These new directives to the district committees to speed up the work within a
clearly specified time-frame may have come out with the realisation that the ex-Kamaiyas
had suffered enough. After this initial work of distributing land is over, however, the
ex-Kamaiyas should not be forgotten. The promised follow-up work should continue for it
will take some efforts before the ex-Kamaiyas could be leading a fairly dignified life and
can be called truly liberated.
Other Story
|
