KATHMANDU, July 18: Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba has directed the ministry concerned to identify the problems facing the freed Kamaiyas and seek ways of addressing them.
Addressing a program organized today on the occasion of the 22nd year of the declaration of abolishment of the Kamaiya (bonded labor) 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 labor practices, works of increasing their income by creating employment opportunities for the freed Harawa Charawa and Kamaiyas and their families was equally necessary.
Gang extorting from freed Kamaiyas held
"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 honor by making them economically self-dependent," he asserted.
The Prime Minister directed all the bodies concerned to also run special targeted programmes on a priority basis for increasing entrepreneurship among the families of such freed bonded laborers to make them self-reliant and for developing their skills and capacity for their long-term socio-economic progress.
PM Deuba said that unequal labor relations and exploitative practices 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)
