Freed bonded labourers are marching on Nepal's parliament in the capital Kathmandu on Sunday 2 February. The large demonstration, organised by local organisation BASE (Backward Society Education), is made up of bonded labourers from the country's Far Western District in the capital to draw attention to their plight.

Thousands of former bonded labourers have been left without sufficient housing or land and as a result, to date 46 kamaiya* -- children and elderly -- have died from the cold and malnutrition, BASE said.

In February 2002, after years of pressure from UK-based Anti-Slavery International, the world's oldest international human rights organisation, and other international and local organisations, including BASE, the Government finally outlawed the use of kamaiya bonded labour. Under the law the Government is responsible for managing housing, employment and income-generating activities.

"The Government must implement the law if bonded labourers' freedom is to have any meaning. They are exposed to cold and disease, it is the Government's responsibility to ensure the kamaiya's rights are protected,"
Anti-Slavery International Director Mary Cunneen said.

Registration and being issued with ID cards are crucial to the former bonded labourers being able to benefit from the law -- most, according to BASE, have not received this.

The demonstrators are making seven demands on the Nepal Government, BASE's founder and director Dilli Chaudhary said. The Government is being given 15 days to provide all freed kamaiya bonded labourers with the following:

• ID cards
• 10 katha (0.04 hectares) of land
• Wood for building houses
• Equal access to government services
• Minimum wage
• An end to government harassment
• Protection and security

If the Government fails to fulfil the demands, BASE said, the kamaiya will seize government-owned land in the Far Western District, which is currently not being used.

Since mid-January, thousands of bonded labourers have been demonstrating throughout the Western District of Nepal demanding government action.

BASE, which was awarded with the 2002 Anti-Slavery Award for its work against bonded labour, estimates 60 per cent of kamaiya remain unregistered, without land and support and face malnutrition and death [an estimated 70,000 to 100,000 people were in bonded labour].

*Agricultural labourers from the Tharu ethnic community

• For background on bonded labour in Nepal and BASE see: http://www.antislavery.org/homepage/antislavery/award.htm#link2