The Nepal Government has agreed to demonstrators' demands for freed bonded labourers to receive vital support, ending seven days of protests on 23 July.

The Government said it will provide former bonded labourers with land and identity cards, which are required under the law. It also announced it will form a monitoring commission within one month.

Activists and former kamaiya bonded labourers held protests across the mid and far western regions of the country as well as in the capital Kathmandu. Around 100 protesters who were arrested, including Dilli Chaudhary, Director of 2002 Anti-Slavery Award winner Backward Society Education, have been released.

Protests began on 17 July, Kamaiya Liberation Day, which commemorates the Government's declaration in 2000 that bonded labour was illegal; though a law against this form of slavery was not passed until 2002.

The Kamaiya Labour (Prohibition) Act (2002), prohibits a system of agricultural bonded labour called kamaiya. It requires the Government to provide housing, employment and income-generating activities to certain groups of kamaiya. But four years on, thousands remain without these vital means of support.

It is crucial the Government fulfils its responsibilities to these kamaiya and amends the 2002 Act to provide rehabilitation provisions to all former kamaiya as well as introduces new legislation that defines and prohibits all forms of bonded labour throughout Nepal.

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