KATHMANDU, July 17: Former kamalari(female indentured worker) Shanta Chaudhary has called on the concerned stakeholders to formulate and implement concrete development program aimed at depriving former kamaiyas(slaves who were forced to work under bonded labor system known as kamaiya system).
She has emphasized that if poverty is not alleviated, kamaiya system(bonded labor system) will continue to exist in an undeclared form.
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Chaudhari is also a former member of the Legislature-Parliament.
“Those kamaiyas who were declared to have been emancipated from bonded labor system have not understood what emancipation means. Poverty alleviation is the foundation for the emancipation of Kamaiyas. It was poverty that forced former Kamaiyas to serve as a Kamaiya. How can former Kamaiyas be said to be free from Kamaiya system if they still live in abject poverty?”, said Chaudhari.
Chaudhari has remembered the day when Kamaiyas were emancipated from bonded labor system by posting a status along with two pictures (one taken when she was an indentured worker and the other taken when she was emancipated from bonded labor system) on her facebook profile.
Kamaiya system was abolished on July 17, 2000 as the result of Kamaiya movement.
