The International Labour Organisation (ILO) pledged US$3.5 million
on 21 November, to rehabilitate freed bonded labourers in Nepal
following the Government's 17 July 2000 announcement ending bonded
labour.
The project, Sustainable Elimination of Bonded Labour in Nepal,
funded by the United States Department of Labour, will provide
freed bonded labourers with skills necessary for building their
lives. Programmes include training, education, micro-finance and
credit schemes, legal aid and support for former bonded labourers.
"This project represents a milestone in efforts to find an
end to an archaic, feudal practice that has enslaved thousands
of agricultural workers over decades, and will provide decent
work to men, women and children who could only dream of being
free from perpetual poverty and debt before", the ILO's Roger
Bohning said.
Following a declaration by the Nepalese Government on 17 July
that all bonded labourers' debt would be cancelled, thousands
of agricultural bonded labourers were forced from their homes
by their landlords, depriving them of access to land and work,
leaving them to starve.
The absence of any government support meant many were forced
to live in the fields with no means of livelihood. Medicines,
food and shelter for the freed slaves were in short supply. Infectious
diseases, such as encephalitis, struck areas where bonded labourers
sought refuge. Local NGOs struggled to provide tents, rice, medicines
and other related relief work.
The ILO's contribution means a significant step forward for former
bonded labourers in Nepal. According to the Organisation, the
project will directly benefit around 14,000 formerly bonded families,
8,000 of whom currently have no home or land.
Bonded labourers' protests, which spread from Kailali District
in the west to the country's capital Kathmandu this summer, provoked
the 17 July declaration. Following the proclamation, bonded labourers
continued to demonstrate for a minimum wage and back pay for all
of their unpaid labour, ownership of the land on which they lived
for generations, and protection from their landlord.
