Nepal
Forced to Plough:
Bonded Labour in Nepal's Agricultural Economy
In June 1997 Anti Slavery International (ASI) and Informal Sector Service Centre (INSEC) published a book entitled Forced to Plough: Bonded Labour in Nepal's Agricultural Economy. Following is a reprint of the article on the book by from the ASI magazine Reporter and case stories from the book contributed by INSEC.
Based on research carried out in 1995 and 1996 by Adam Robertson (ASI) and Shisham Mishra (INSEC), (the book) describes in detail the plight of the 'untouchable' (or dalit, meaning 'the oppressed') in rural Nepal, and provides the first detailed account of how and why hundreds of thousands of agricultural workers and their families are enslaved under the systems of bonded labour.
Until recently, bonded labour and servitude in Nepal were said to be confined to the Tharu community in the Far-Western region - where the Kamaiya system operates, Forced to Plough provides ample evidence that bonded labour and servitude are widespread across the country. Haliya is the Nepali term given to agricultural labourers, many of whom are bound by debt to work for landlords. The authors stress that the problem is not simply a matter of poverty and indebtedness; it is deeply rooted in the complex caste system which discriminates against groups identified as 'untouchable' by higher castes. The majority of haliya are 'untouchable' and the caste system locks them into a servile status in relation to high-caste Nepali land owners.
The stories of haliya and kamaiya (the term for those people enslaved under this system), make stark reading:
"The hardest months are Jestha and Ashar (May, June and July). Sometimes I have to work from dawn until it's very dark. If necessary I start work at midnight and continue through... Usually I get two meals a day and at harvest time I get a sack of grain." For many this is the only form of payment, whereas the need for cash to pay for medicine, and other basic necessities, forces workers to return to the landlord to ask for a further loan. In many cases the original debt may have been quite small, but ultimately its size becomes irrelevant since it is beyond the means of the worker to pay it off. In such cases, the whole family is likely to end up enslaved.
Under the kamaiya system, women are doubly enslaved, since they must work in their landlord's house and in his fields for no payment apart from a daily meal. From time to time they might receive some old clothes or a length of cloth.
Tara Ram Lohar is 13 years old and has started to help out his brother Madan Ram Lohar as a "haliya" in the landlord's fields.
"I started working a year ago I still go to school but it's getting more and more difficult. I work digging the corners when my brother is ploughing and I help out at harvest time. When I work I get a meal.
It is estimated that there are upto 100,000 Tharu people working as kamaiya. What separates this system from all other forms of bonded labour in Nepal is that landlords retain the right to sell their kamaiya to another landlord. Although it is claimed that it is merely the debt which is sold to another landlord, in effect it is a mechanism for buying and selling kamaiya workers. The authors have no hesitation in identifying this as a form of slave trade.
Asharam Chaudhary, aged 12, is a Kamaiya in Shreepur Majhgoan. His father died, his elder brother ran away and the responsibility for his mother (aged 55) and two younger brothers (aged 10 and 8) rests with him and his adult sister (aged 20). He does not even know about the Nrs. 14,000 (US$ 252.00) debt he has taken on. He is obliged to work for food alone, without receiving any sort of payment. His mother and sister work in the landlord's home while Asharam grazes cows with his brothers. He is subjected to beatings by his landlord and says that his sister is being sexually exploited.
Bonded labour is a problem in many parts of South Asia. In looking for possible solutions for its eradication in Nepal, the book summarises the experience of non-governmental organisations (NGOs) in India and Pakistan in campaigning against bonded labour. In spite of the existence in both countries of laws banning the practice, the problem has not been resolved. A combination of lack of resources to ensure compliance at local level, and the combined power of vested interests and officials to flout laws and threaten reprisals on bonded workers has frustrated the efforts of activist to end slavery. In spite of this, progress has been achieved by courageous and determined campaigners, and their experience is very relevant to the situation in Nepal.
Although Nepal has ratified the UN's Slavery Convention and Supplementary Convention on Slavery, it has failed to introduce legislation implementing the contentions. It has not ratified the ILO Convention No. 29 on the Abolition of Forced Labour. Up until two years ago the Government of Nepal denied that any form of bonded labour existed in the country. Following the presentation by Nepali NGOs of overwhelming evidence of the existence of bonded labour, the Government now acknowledges the existence of bonded labour only among the Tharu communities in five districts in western Nepal, affecting just a few thousand people. Clearly, the Government of Nepal has an obligation to take action to abolish all forms of bonded labour, and legislation is an essential first step. However, as the experience of India and Pakistan shows, government action is not always adequate. Nepali NGOs also have a vital role to play, and the book draws attention to their successful efforts to publicise the problem, and to implement literacy and awareness-raising programmes among the affected groups.
The final chapter makes recommendations addressed to the Nepali government and NGOs alike, and to international organisation. During the coming months ASI and INSEC will be doing all they can, at local and international levels, to ensure that slavery in Nepal becomes history in the shortest possible time.
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Ram Dev Paswan
Ram Dev Paswan doesn't know his exact age, but he is in his early twenties. He comes from a small village of low caste and landless people called Chanli Gaun, in Kailali VDC, Saptari District.
I have been a haliya nokar (servant) for 19 years. My father is one too. We work for the same landlord, Raja Babu, who owns this village. My father is at the house now feeding the cattle.
I do agricultural work and I do domestic work too. I come back to the village to eat my food but the rest of the time I stay at the big house. I get up at 4 am every morning and work until about mid day. Then I come back here to the village to eat; it only takes 15 minutes to work. I have an hour or so for lunch depending on what needs to be done. Then I go back to the house or carry out the other duties in the fields, I can be working up to 8 pm looking after the irrigation pumps in the evening. Then I get another meal.
I get 50 kilogrammes of rice (un-husked) a month ( worth Nrs. 200 or US$ 3.60) and I get two sets of old clothes each year. I don't get any other food. We sell some of the rice to buy dal (lentils) and glean some other vegetable from the fields. It's not enough to survive on.
My father took on a loan originally. That is why we are working like this. I had to take a loan as well. I have borrowed two mon (80 kilogrammes) rice (worth NRs.320 or US$6.00) and NRs.4,000 (US$7.00) in cash. I have to pay 20 kilogrammes of rice in interest each year and NRs. 400 (US$ 7.00) interest on the loan. The interest is taken out of my wages but usually I can't pay it and I have to borrow more and the interest is added to the debt. I have to keep working because of the debt. This is no life living under someone else. If I get sick I have to pay for the days I miss but people with proper jobs don't have to do that, do they? They get sick leave. How will I every pay this debt off? I'll always have it. My children will have it too.
INSEC at a glance
Informal Sector Service Center (INSEC) is a human rights organisation working for the protection and promotion of human right in Nepal for the last 10 years. Human rights education for grassroots information and awareness and monitoring of human rights situation have been a part and parcel of INSEC. We have been publishing Human Rights Year Book every year, beginning 1992, as the only document of human rights situation in Nepal. Now, INSEC campaigns through education, training, advocacy etc. and covers 41 (of 75) administrative districts in the country.
For further information contact
:Informal Sector Service Center
P.O. Box 2726, KATHMANDU
Nepal
Phone: 977 1 270770 / 278 770
Fax: 977 1 270 551
or
Anti Slavery International (ASI)
Thomas Clarkson House
Stableyard, Broomgrove Road
London SW9 9TL
UK