I would like to thank Anti-Slavery International for supporting our fight to free the kamaiya and I am honoured to have the opportunity to come here to receive the Anti-Slavery Award on behalf of BASE.

Although I am now in London my heart is in Nepal with the kamaiya who continue to fight for their rights to land and a better life. Despite being declared free by the government, today over 4,000 kamaiya families have yet to be recognised. And many of those who have been officially identified have still not received land for their rehabilitation. Their children continue to die from hunger.

The recognition given by Anti-Slavery International with this award will provide us with the strength and the capability to continue our fight for kamaiya rights.

Who are the kamaiya ?

The kamaiya are Tharu agricultural workers -- most have been bonded labourers. The Tharu are an ethnic group indigenous to the terai -- the plains -- of southern Nepal. Seventy per cent are concentrated in the five far western districts of Dang, Banke, Bardiya, Kailali and Kanchanpur. Their culture and language are distinct from each other and from the country's majority.

Until the 1960s, the Tharu were relatively isolated from the rest of the population. But with the success of malaria elimination programmes the area was opened to new settlers. Hill people moved into the terai and took over the valley's rich agricultural land, including land cultivated by the Tharus. In some cases the settlers used violence to force Tharus off their land. In others they took advantage of Tharu illiteracy by falsifying loan documents that used land as collateral. My own grandfather was one of the many who had his land taken from him in this way.

As a result the vast majority of Tharu lost their land. Many were forced to work as tenant farmers or bonded labourers for higher caste landlords.

As bonded labourers the kamaiya were required to exchange their labour for a loan, working long hours -- as much as 18 to 20 hours per day for little or no money.

Landlords deliberately kept the wages as low as possible, forcing them to take more loans and fall deeper into debt. Some loans had been handed down for seven generations. Every year thousands of Tharus were bought and sold in this way. Over 100,000 men, women and children were in kamaiya bonded labour across the Western District.

The kamaiya 's lack of power and the extent of exploitation by this deep-rooted system drove many to suicide. Witnessing this unrelenting exploitation, I and a group of young Tharus decided to establish a development organisation to empower the Tharu. In January 1985, we founded Dumrigaon Club -- the precursor to BASE. It was dedicated to educating the kamaiya and helping them rise up against this exploitation.

The group began with 34 members. Within a month we had established literacy classes for local uneducated Tharu villagers.

Our activities threatened the landlords' control and, as a result, we were harassed by local high caste landlords. Many attempted to force Tharus to stop going to the classes. They threatened to refuse loans for such basic necessities as food and medicines if the Tharu did not obey.

We were also persecuted by local government officials who refused to prosecute landlords who had attacked our members. Officials falsely accused the organisation of planning terrorist activities against the Government, and we were refused an official charter on the pretext that the organisation was too political. This deprived us of vital foreign funding and legal protection.

Pressure continued both against the organisation, and against me personally, I was arrested many times for my activities.

Far from keeping us silent, Tharu membership rose steadily. Within three years we had grown from 34 members to 350 members. By 1989 the organisation ran 80 literacy classes involving 40 villages. At the same time we expanded the organisation's objective to include working for the kamaiya's freedom.

Finally, in February 1991, we succeeded in having the organisation formally registered under the new democratic regime. We changed our name to Backward Society Education -- BASE.

With the struggle to register the organisation over, we were able to devote ourselves wholly to working for kamaiya rights.

Focussing on Dang, where BASE has its headquarters, in 1990 we began a movement demanding minimum wages for kamaiya in five villages. For two months they refused to work unless they received 50 rupees per day. But when food ran out, they were forced to return to their landlords and to slavery.

To avoid failure again, we expanded BASE's activities to cover all five districts inhabited by the Tharus and the kamaiya . We taught the kamaiya about their legal and human rights, provided development training and involved them in various income generating programmes.

We also increased political awareness of kamaiya's suffering by inviting ministers and representatives of various political parties to BASE functions. One was Ganesh Man Singh, the father of Nepal's democracy. He raised the issues of the kamaiya injustice in the General Assembly stating it was up to all parties to co-operate in ending this system.

But, despite increased official and international attention, the kamaiya remained enslaved. Over eight years -- from 1991 to 1998 -- we had only liberated 600 kamaiya -- 36,000 families still needed to be freed. There wasn't time for a gradual wearing down of the system. Kamaiya bonded labour needed to be ended once and for all.

On the 1st of May 2000 -- International Labour Day -- we launched the first of a series of demonstrations. Later that month, 20,000 people, including the 1999 Anti-Slavery Award winner Vivek Pandit from India, took to the streets, demanding minimum pay for kamaiya and their freedom secured by law. We took this protest all the way to the country's capital. More than 250 kamaiya demonstrated with supporters in front of the parliament in Kathmandu demanding their freedom. On 17 July, the council of ministers announced it would abolish the Kamaiya system with immediate effect and declared that using kamaiya bonded labour would be illegal.

But the sense of victory was short lived. Instead of the government's announcement leading to liberation, it resulted in destitution.

Landlords threw thousands of kamaiya off the land and out of their homes. They had nowhere to go but the street. They had no work and no food. Many kamaiya children died from hunger and disease. Their conditions were desperate.

But the government did nothing.

BASE in co-operation with other local groups organised makeshift camps and provided the relief that the government had failed to.

But we were not completely forgotten. Thanks to support from prominent international bodies such as Anti-Slavery International, the Carter Center and FOREFRONT pressure for our cause was carried to the highest levels.

The kamaiya were living on the minimum support provided by some donor agencies like Save the Children US, Action Aid, Care Nepal and Anti-Slavery International. Their condition was very serious. Frustrated, they became violent against us. They needed land and security.

In the mounting climate of desperation we distributed land the kamaiya seized in Kailali and Kanchanpur districts. Each family was given a 10 katha plot, which would be enough to support them through the year.

Until this year, the Government remained deaf to the kamaiya's plight. The burning of kamaiya huts by local officials went unpunished.

But, in February, the passing of a law prohibiting kamaiya bonded labour at last granted their freedom in law and provided assistance that is vital to their survival.

In spite of this, thousands of kamaiya continue to be enslaved as bonded labour. The landlords who keep them must be punished as required by law. BASE is now preparing cases against these landlords and will take them to court in near future.

BASE is still struggling to get ID cards for over 4,000 families so they can receive the benefits promised by the new law. We are going to fight for their liberation in all fronts.

Our immediate concern is for safety and education of kamaiya children, and dignified rehabilitation of all. Despite Freedom, kamaiya are still the most vulnerable section of society in Nepal. They are still the easiest targets of any one powerful. Kamaiya women have been raped and assaulted. We need your support in all our work to resist and fight such atrocities. After all we are fighting for justice.

I am grateful for the support you have extended during our journey. This Award that I have been given today reflects your commitment to the crusade as much as mine. It is a recognition of yours and our common belief that human beings are born free, they die free and they should have the right to live FREE.

I very humbly acknowledge that I am receiving this award on behalf of all of you who have supported the BASE and its 85,000 members. And I also take it as the guarantee of your continued support in our journey ahead.

I thank you all.