Four hundred former bonded labourers in Nepal's far western Kailali District seized land at the end of December after the Government failed to provide crucial relief.

The former bonded labourers, frustrated by the authorities' inaction on land reform said, 'it is better to die from a bullet than from hunger,' according to a report by Bharat M Devkota, Save the Children US.

Even though the Government on 6 December promised between one katha (3,645 square feet) and five katha of land for each displaced family, none has received any. Apart from this amount being insufficient to support a family, no system is in place to facilitate redistribution, and it is unclear where it would come from.

Demonstrating their plight in a separate protest, on 28 December, 4,000 freed Kamaiya (agricultural bonded labourers) occupied the main highway - the Mahendra Raj Marga - linking Nepal's west and east, demanding ten katha of land. According to Dilli Chaudhari, chair of the local organisation, Backward Society Education, this move 'jolted the local administrations into taking the ex-Kamaiyas' demands seriously.' Several activists were briefly arrested.

The bonded labourers began their demonstrations in May last year, and in July moved their protest to the country's capital, Kathmandu. On 17 July the Government declared bonded labour illegal (see 2000 news releases in 'Archive'). In response, landlords threw thousands of freed bonded labourers off the land, leaving them without homes, food or means of support. Without any system of resettlement in place, thousands of bonded labourers have been forced to live out in the open or in crowded camps set up by local and international non-governmental organisations.

Camps already stretched to capacity in Kailali and Kanchanpur Districts are expecting a large influx of former bonded labourers following the festival of Maghi (14-15 January), at which contracts between landlords and bonded labourers are traditionally 'agreed'.