NATIONAL8 (Spotlight Weekly]

The Freedom And After

Two months after being declared `free,' kamaiya families are still looking for a coordinated relief works

By BHAGIRATH YOGI

Budhiram Chaudary, 45, heard about the freedom given to `kamaiyas' (bonded laborers) while ploughing the fields at Chaumala village in far-western district of Kailali. Along with other newly freed kamaiyas, he headed toward district headquarter of Dhangadhi, looking for a safe and rewarding life. Even after two months his dream remains to be fulfilled.

A Kamaiya family : Nothing to rejoic at

Hundreds of kamaiya families, including that of Budhiram, faced this year's monsoon under makeshift camps constructed with the help of local NGOs, government and international agencies. Most of them did not have utensils to cook food, enough clothes to put on and even a charpoy to accommodate their family members. There were no toilet and sanitation facilities. Most of them have fallen victims to different epidemics, including encephalitis.

When the Nepali Congress government declared nearly 16,000 kamaiya families, concentrated in five western districts of the country, free on July 17 this year amidst intense pressure from the opposition parties and activists, it was not prepared for the future action."In fact, we seem to have made the decision in hurry," admits Siddha Raj Ojha, Minister for Land Reforms and Management."In any case, the government is committed to provide relief to the newly freed kamaiyas and rehabilitate them as soon as possible with the help of the local non-governmental and international agencies."

The government set up a high-level coordination committee under the convenorship of Deputy Prime Minister Ram Chandra Poudel comprising concerned ministers and senior bureaucrats. Five committees have been set up in Dang, Banke, Bardia, Kailali and Kanchanpur districts under the convenorship of the chairman of the concerned district development committee (DDCs), the popularly elected local bodies.

"We have allocated Rs 200,000 ( approx. US$ 3000) each to all five districts to carry out initial relief works," said Krishna Raj Adhikari, spokesman at the Ministry of Land Reforms and Management (MLRM)." We are also planning to provide at least one `kattha' of land to each family of former kamaiya in which they could construct their houses and grow vegetables."

Aid workers, however, warn that resettling marginal people into the marginal land won't help solve the problem. "By providing one or two `katthas' of land to kamaiyas in reclaimed land will not help break the vicious cycle of poverty in which the kamaiyas are living," said Bharat Devkota of Save the Children/US."It should provide up to ten katthas of land, not in the area prone to flood, as it has promised to landless squatters."

A number of aid agencies joined their hands to provide relief to the former kamaiyas as soon as they were declared free. In fact, some of them were already supporting the freedom of kamaiya movement launched by some NGOs at the grassroots level. According to available information available, the Action Aid Nepal has provided a relief materials worth Rs 400,000. The SC/US has also provided materials worth Rs 450,000. ADRA/Nepal has provided relief materials worth US$ 10,000.00. to more than 1100 families. Nepal office of Lutheran World Service (LWS) said kamaiyas were one of the target groups of its programs in Kailali district."We feel strong moral obligation to mobilize assistance to the kamaiyas," said Allen Armstrong of LWS. The LWS has already made an appeal to its donors to provide 25,000 dollars to be used in the relief works for kamaiyas. Nepal Red Cross Society (NRCS) has provided relief materials worth Rs 120,000 to former kamaiyas in Kanchanpur district.

The International Labor Organization (ILO)'s International Program on the Elimination of Child Labor (IPEC) said it would provide Rs 350,000 each to District Development Committees of Kailali and Kanchanpur to provide education facilities for school going children.

A high-level government committee, in its meeting last week, has decided to launch an emergency food assistance program for the former ëkamaiyas' (bonded laborers) in Kailali and Kanchanpur districts and assign officials to distribute the relief materials in a planned and transparent manner.

A total of 37 camps have been set up for in Kailai and Kanchanpur districts for former kamaiyas. Out of nearly 2400 families evicted from their previous huts and land in these two districts, nearly 1200 are living in these camps. The rest are living with their relatives or friends.

The food for work program launched by the local DDCs too re impractical, reports said. The project in Kanchanpur is focused around certain areas within the town whereas in Kailali, 18 projects have been identified for this purpose, local officials said. While the road construction sties in the forest area were too far from the camps, the quality of such works was also low.

There is need for relief work in the camps until the government announces its rehabilitation plan. The freed kamaiyas need to be organized continuously and alliance of NGOs working locally needs to strengthen their relief operation mechanism. There is a need to constantly update information of freed kamaiyas who are in camps and with relatives and friends, the aid workers said.

Besides identifying genuine kamaiyas from the fake ones, the government needs to have a long-term program to rehabilitate kamaiyas on a permanent way. The MLRM, in its proposal distributed to different aid agencies, urged the interested donors to consider supporting one or other activities related to rescue and rehabilitation of the former kamaiyas. Some of the key activities identified by the government for rehabilitation (as middle term action) include support for development of low cost housing, support for education and health care of emancipated kamaiyas and their children, implement development work where unskilled kamaiyas could be employed, and micro credit schemes for kamaiyas, among others.

"The donors would be interested to support the rescue and rehabilitation program only if the government exhibited adequate commitment for the rehabilitation of the kamaiyas," said an office-bearer with an international aid agency. Whether the government exhibits the same remains to be seen.