PM Deuba orders to seek ways of addressing problems facing freed Kamaiyas

Kathmandu, July 18: Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba has directed the government's ministry concerned to identify the problems facing the freed Kamaiyas and seek ways of addressing them.     

Addressing a programme organised today on the occasion of the 22nd year of the declaration of the abolishment of the Kamaiya (bonded labour) practice, he instructed the Ministry of Land Management, Cooperatives and Poverty Alleviation for carrying out the necessary action for fully rooting out this evil practice.     

PM Deuba on the occasion said that along with the emancipation of the Kamaiya and the Harawa Charawa indentured labour practices, works of increasing their income by creating employment opportunities for the freed Harawa Charawa and Kamaiyas and their families were equally necessary.     

"It is necessary for the three tiers of the government and the bodies concerned to be committed to boosting up the freed Kamaiyas' self-respect, independence and honour by making them economically self-reliant," he asserted.     

The Prime Minister directed all the bodies concerned to also run specially targeted programmes on a priority basis for increasing entrepreneurship among the families of such freed bonded labourers to make them self-reliant and for developing their skills and capacity for their long-term socio-economic progress.     

PM Deuba informed that unequal labour relations and exploitative practices such as Harawa Charawa and Kamaiya, among others, have been abolished and the indentured families under such practices have been freed of their debts through the Abolition of the Kamaiya Practice Act, 2058 BS.     

Reiterating that the consistent efforts of all were needed in building a Nepal free from all types of exploitations, inequalities and injustices, he expressed his best wishes for happiness and decent living to all the freed Kamaiyas on the occasion.  (RSS)