Freed Kamaiya Society, Nepal

Kamaiya, a worst form of bonded labor system, was prevalent in five Tarai districts of the Mid and the Far Western developmental region of Nepal - namely Dang, Banke, Bardiya, Kailali and Kanchanpur - before July 17, 2000. The Tharu population, one of the indigenous peoples of Nepal, is densely settled in these areas. Kamaiya (bonded labor) was an age old practice of the Tharu people within their community.

All the Kamaiyas were slaves in Nepal till 2000. They could be bought or sold in order to payback the loan taken by them. There were nearly 30,000 households comprising 0.15 million population of Kamaiya in Nepal. Of them, 98% kamaiyas belong to the Tharu community. Initially, the term ‘Kamaiya’, was used for a hardworking family member. Later it turned into a kind of slave system.

In this practice, an agricultural laborer agrees with a landlord to live as a kamaiya in his house in return for getting some paddy (3-5 quintal) on yearly basis. He agrees to it due to the loan (sauki) that he has taken or is already over him. He lives in his Bukura (shed) built near the house of landlord. The kamaiya becomes bonded to work there throughout the year or more, unless he pays back the sauki. His family members also work for the landlord for free. The children of kamaiya work there as Gaibhar-bhaisabhar (cattle herder).

The Kamaiya often has to take additional loan from the landlord for the expenses of his family that adds on to the sauki. If he gets absent even for a day due to illness, then the amount equivalent to the wages of one day gets added to the sauki. In this way the sauki keeps increasing year by year and the kamaiya is not able to pay for it. Some families even stay as kamaiyas from generation to generation. They have to work for the sauki that their forefathers had taken from the landlord, which they have to pay for by living as kamaiyas in the landlord’s farm.

In the Maghi festival (a festival of the Tharu people which is celebrated from the second week of January to the second week of February), the kamaiya selling and buying takes place. During this month, a landlord can exchange or buy a kamaiya from another landlord by paying the loan taken by the kamaiya.

The Kamaiya system was finally abolished by the Government of Nepal on July 17, 2000 due to the movement of Kamaiyas, NGOs, Human Rights Organizations with the support of some political parties. More than 18,000 Kamaiya families were emancipated from the declaration in the first phase (2000-01), and 9,600 in the second phase (2003-04) under the Kamaiya Prohibition Act - 2058 (2001).

However, after declaration of their freedom, the movement leading the alliance became dysfunctional due to the competition of NGOs in taking credit and conflict on budget use/misuse during the movement. The conflict within the alliance and its dysfunction made the rehabilitation movement very weak. Suffering from the conflict among the NGOs, the freed Kamaiyas came to the decision of forming their own organization to continue the rehabilitation movement.

Freed Kamaiya Society (FKS) was established in Jan 22, 2002 by merging three Kamaiya organizations - Kamaiya Liberation Struggle Committee, Kamaiya Jagaran Committee and Progressive Kamaiya Society. FKS has been fighting for the rights and rehabilitation of the freed Kamaiyas. All the freed Kamaiyas have been organized within and around FKS. It tries to pressurize the state to follow and obey the international law against slavery. It also carries out advocacy for the participation of freed Kamaiyas in decision making through participating in various social and economic activities.

The fight of FKS is for effective and systematic rehabilitation of Kamaiyas to ensure their basic rights such as land, shelter, drinking water facility, employment, income generation for livelihood and education of their children as committed by the Government of Nepal.