The second-day meeting between the government officials and the representatives of freed Kamaiyas today ended inconclusive, as no agreement could be reached on some of the demands of freed Kamaiyas.
?To solve the Kamaiyas problem, the government must call us for table talks. They must fulfill our demands as soon as possible. If they don?t listen to us, we will continue our protest no matter how long we need to stay in the capital.? Raj Kumar Chaudhari, 25, Kamaiya, Kailali.
Pashupati Choudhary, chairman of Freed Kamaiya Society, said the meeting held at the Ministry of Labour and Land Reforms was postponed until tomorrow as few issues including the demand to involve freed Kamaiya representatives in the government’s Resettlement Committee could not be agreed upon.
The government and the Society started negotiations on Monday as part of ending the ongoing protest of former Kamaiyas in Kathmandu, demanding proper resettlement and support for their livelihood.
To pressure the government, hundreds of Kamiayas from Banke, Bardiya, Kailali, Kanchanpur and Dang arrived in Kathmandu on Saturday and set up camps on a public land at Teenkune. They have said they would not leave the area unless the government comes up with a plan to resettle all the freed Kamaiyas.
There are over 35,000 freed Kamaiyas and majority of them are yet to get the land promised by the government.
The then Sher Bahadur Deuba government had abolished the Kamaiya system (bonded labourer) in 2002, promising them proper resettlement along with land plots for farming.