Alerting Freed Kamaiyas on Human Rights

Shreeram Chaudhari Alerting Freed Kamaiyas on Human Rights Prologue The word Kamaiya comes from Tharu Language and entire Kamaiyas are from Tharu Communities. Tharus in the Terai of Nepal are known to have been a community dependant on agriculture for making a living. Tharu are known to mostly involve in agriculture as primary economic activity. This is an irony in a face of the fact that majority of Tharus have also been landless in recent years. Given this, a question that has drawn the attention of researchers have  been whether Tharus as agriculturist did farmlands in the past or that they have always been working for the landlords.  Some studies have attempted to examine this question. The historical facts and many studies corroborate the common story that Tharus re gradually alienated from their land by Pahadi and other elite with in the past hundred years. As a corollary they turned into Kamaiyas. The decade passed away of the period of freed Kamaiya declaration but the plight of the freed Kamaiyas have going to be more chronic. In the pas there were mushrooming the issues raised of the Kamaiyas by I /NGOs and government of Nepal. At the present, most of the agencies have tired and very little interventions are alive in the Kamaiyas sectors. Such a rarely effort, I would like to dish up the snake-way of the project "Economic Empowerment & Sustainable Livelihood Program" which has been running through partnership between SPACE and AWO Germany International. This article is focused on the stories of freed Kamaiyas entertaining on human rights through economic activities. Economic rights Vs. Human Rights        The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) is a resolution of the General Assembly of the United Nations, which creates a high expectation that it will be taken seriously. However, a declaration does not create obligations that are technically binding in law. Nevertheless, since the Universal Declaration is so widely used as the primary statement of what are considered human rights today, it is often regarded as having legal significance and considered “customary” international law and as the authentic interpretation of the references in the UN Charter. The specific rights in the UDHR have been codified into the International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights (ICESCR) and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR). A covenant is a treaty which, under the rules of international law, creates legal obligations on all states that ratify it. Similarly, the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) and Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) also are treaties that are binding on the states that ratify them. Therefore, citizens worldwide should put pressure on their governments to ratify these treaties and to abide by the obligations they set forth. The ICESCR states that each state party to the covenant should “undertake steps, individually and through international assistance and cooperation, especially economic and technical, to the maximum of its available resources, with a view to achieving progressively the full realization of the rights recognized in the Covenant, by all appropriate means, including particularly the adoption of legislative measures.” It also states that state parties must guarantee these rights without discrimination with respect to race, color, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, and social status.         The ICESCR aims to ensure the protection of economic, social and cultural rights including: the right to self-determination of all peoples (article 1); the right to non-discrimination based on race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status (article2); the equal right of men and women to enjoy the rights in the ICESCR (article 3); the right to work (articles 6–7); the right to form and join trade unions (article 8); the right to social security (article 9); protection and assistance to the family (article 10); the right to an adequate standard of living (article 11); the right to health (article 12); the right to education (articles 13–14); and the right to cultural freedoms (article 15).         Following article 4, States parties may, in certain circumstances, limit some rights enshrined in the Covenant; however, such limitations must be determined by law, compatible with the nature of the rights included in the Convention and imposed to promote the general welfare in a democratic society. Moreover, in keeping with article 2(1), States parties are obliged to undertake steps, in accordance with the maximum of their available resources, to progressively achieve the full realization of the rights contained in the ICESCR. Even the adoption of the Universal Declaration on Human Rights (a non-legally binding document) in 1948, broad agreement existed that the rights which were to be enshrined in the Declaration were to be transformed into legally binding obligations through the negotiation of one or more treaties. In 1966, two separate treaties, covering almost entirely all the rights enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights were adopted after approximately 20 years of negotiations: one for civil and political rights, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), and one for economic, social and cultural rights, the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR). The ICESCR was adopted by the United Nations General Assembly on 16 December 1966 and entered into force on 3rd January 1976. Nepal Interim Constitution 2007, systemized the human rights in its part 3(Three) under fundamental rights from article 12 to article 32 , in which the following articles guarantee the economic, social and cultural rights. Article 17( Education and Cultural Right) refers that;  (1) Each community shall have the right to get basic education in their mother tongue as provided for in the law. (2) Every citizen shall have the right to free education from the State up to secondary level as provided for in the law. (3) Each community residing in Nepal shall have the right to preserve and promote its language, script, culture, cultural civility andheritage. Aritcle18( Right regarding Employment and Social Security ) refers;  (1) Every citizen shall have the right to employment as provided for in the law. (2) Women, labourers, the aged, disabled as well as incapacitated and helpless citizens shall have the right to social security as provided for in the law. (3) Every citizen shall have the right to food sovereignty as provided for in the law. Article19( Right to Property) refers;  (1) Every citizen shall, subject to the laws in force, have the right to acquire, own, sell and otherwise dispose of the property.(2) The State shall not, except in the public interest, requisition, acquire, or create any encumbrance on the property of any person. Provided that this clause shall not be applicable on property acquired through illegal means. (3) Compensation shall be provided for any property requisitioned, acquired or encumbered by the State in implementing scientific land reform program or in public interest in accordance with law. The compensation and basis thereof and operation procedure shall be as prescribed by law. The Kamaiya Labors prohibition Act 2001also assembled and have been implementing but there is not any effective implication in Kamaiya field. It looks like formality of government and ceremonialism of activists. The Kamaiya people exactly are not entertaining throughout Act. Fragile Situation of Kamaiyas Bardiya is a district with a unique historical, economic, political, social and cultural identity. It is a fertile land and a major habitat of Tharus.  In 1964, when the new land management system came into operation, only Tharus were settled in Bardiya, but after the eradication of malaria they started migrating from the other district and even india. At this time Tharus owned 90 per cent of all land in the district. Later, non-Tharus started migrating to the district and the government, and powerful local leaders captured land and enslaved Tharus: this is a major cause of the historical dispassion of Tharus in Bardiya. To reacquire their lands the Tharus struggled hard for years and initiated efforts at a land revolution. Gumara Tharu, leader of the farmers’ movement but not success and gradually they became landlord share cropper and wage labors, and kamaiyas as well. After change of 1990, Kamayas were a little bit aware about their rights and fought for their freedom from bounded-Slavery system.  At last Nepalese government declared freed Kamaiya on 17th July 2000. After declaration, the government placed the Kamaiyas in four categories: (1) Kamaiyas who have no land got red ID cards, (2) Kamaiyas who have no land certificate and live on public land, or eilani land, got blue ID cards, (3) Kamaiyas who have less than 677 square meters of land were categorized in a third class and (4) the last category consisted of Kamaiyas who have more than 677 square meters of land. The Kamaiyas from five districts identified in the first and second categories, i.e., with red or blue ID cards, numbered 27,570 people. The government began to distribute land to Kamaiyas with the distribution varying depending upon where the Kamaiya lived, from 339 square meters for those in urban areas to 1,693 square meters for those in rural areas. At the same time, each family was supported with 10,000 rupees (US$138) and 35 square feet of timber to build a house. The mass medias used to broadcasted that the Kamaiyas were resettled through a systematic process, but activists and the Kamaiyas were not satisfied. The Kamaiya activists and others from non-governmental organizations (NGOs) organized different activities to respond to the government’s interventions. The information was quite confusing, which made it difficult to offer a clear explanation about the Kamaiyas’ situation for those outside of the community who had no direct encounter with the Kamaiyas. SPACE found that the government in some cases had distributed land to Kamaiyas on riversides where there were no irrigation facilities. Their situation was quite vulnerable as there were fears of floods in the rainy season and scarcity of clean drinking water and a lack of irrigation in the summer season. The Kamaiyas had been working as wage laborers on the landlord’s fields or in their factories. Sometimes they used to work as daily labors and some as seasonal laborers. Although government policies and programs have implemented in the areas but those are no effective. The budget for freed Kamaiyas, for instance, was so inadequate that they used to freeze during the winter every year due to ineffective implementation. Consequently, there were not effective and functional mechanisms to implement the government’s policies and programs. There are 4,652 Kamaiyas not resettled yet, according to latest official data.Civil society activists are claiming that those figures should be multiplied several times. Moreover, the settled Kamaiyas were also not free from problems. They had been victimized by illiteracy and a general lack of education, few job alternatives, little access to government programs and insufficient local resources. In addition, they were perceived as an enemy by the people throughout the old settlements who had been occupying the lands or jungle before the Kamaiyas arrived. They did not permit the Kamaiyas to use the jungle or have access to drinking water and other local resources. The Key aim of economic, social, and cultural rights is to guarantee people their rights as whole people. These rights are founded on a belief that we can enjoy our rights, our freedoms, and economic justice all at the same time. The emphasis the UN places on these rights. When the  condition of Kamaiyas SPACE stumbled on were; There were still some  Kamaiyas who used to hungry every night Most of the freed Kamaiyas lacks access to even a basic necessity like food, clothes, home etc. The one-forth numbers freed Kamaiyas suffered from extreme poverty such as; homelessness, hunger/malnutrition, and chronic ill-health There were Kamaiya settlements where were not resource of clean water to drink, or basic sanitation facilities More than fifty percent of the Kamaiyas adults couldn't read or write It is challenging for freed Kamaiyas, to send their children to school and continuity their education even a primary level. Most of the youths of Kamaiya settlements were unemployed Addressing the Issues Although poverties are a common thing faced by many people in the world. It may caused by different kinds of issue. The poverties do not reflected in term of economic requirement or shortage of money. The word poverties implied the justice; how the people enjoy the life or the quality of their life. Any human fundamental need that is not adequately satisfied reveals human poverties. It includes the need of subsistence (food, shelter, water. Etc) ,protection ,affection ,understanding ,participation ,leisure ,creation ,Identity and freedom . SPACE found much poverty in Kamaiya settlements such as shortage food, homeless, landless, no water, lack of education, lack of health facility, different wages etc. Other wise, the cause of it were elite, different classes, caste discrimination, government policies. These are influenced by political system, economic system, social system and ideological system.  Sometimes, these system are influenced each other. Such as the differentiation of caste influence the social system and political system used to judge the economic system. The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights seeks to achieve and protect the most basic human rights for all people. SPACE tried to establish for Kamaiyas were the right to information the right to work, the right to form and join trade unions, the right to just and favorable working conditions, the right to an adequate standard of living, the right to the best standards of physical and mental health, the right to education, the right of self-determination, equal rights for men and women, the right to take part in cultural life      Addressing the above-mentioned issues, SPACE and Arbeiterwohlfarht International (AWO), or Workers Welfare Institution, in Germany started the community empowerment and sustainable development program in October 2009 in five village development committees (VDCs)—Motipur, Soharahwa, Deudhakala, Kalika and Dhadhawar—in Bardiya District of Nepal. The key objective of the program is that the freed Kamaiyas in these five VDCs in the district are empowered and that their sustainable livelihood is promoted. The other specific objectives are to mobilize and organize the freed Kamaiyas, squatters and Dalit communities into formal and informal community-based organizations, to enhance the employment potential of and diversify employment opportunities for these three social communities, to initiate community processes to improve their health and education and to build their capacities and information base so they can avail themselves of their entitlements and rights that are assured these marginalized people through government policies for them. By getting vocational training in several areas, such as installing hand pumps, repairing mobile phones and motorcycles, poultry farming and business planning cum entrepreneurship, hundreds of Kamaiyas have become self-employed. There are currently 1,682 Kamaiyas directly organized in 81 groups. Their total savings is 1,387,000 rupees (US$19,202), and they have been mobilizing an additional 1,250,000 rupees (US$17,306) in their own groups with low interest. They have formed a network in five VDCs, and they have been advocating for their rights. Alerting for far future The most important thing is that each Kamaiyas have hope for bright future. They are awaking to make deep understanding, how did they suffer by Kamaiya system? How they did lost their right over land? What are their fundamental rights? How they have been discriminating by elite or state? How they are being politically victimize? What are the roots causes of the poverty? How to get socio-cultural and economic justice? Those are basic question for their future visioning. Now they are more united than before. They are united not only group, they are organized in cooperatives and local NGOs as well. They have started to advocate to access for local resources and were success to mobilize some local resources. They have been engaging in local issues to national and international campaigning such as education for all(EFA), 8th March, Open defecate  Free(ODF) & Equal wage for equal labors. They are learning and   feeling poise. They are going smart to articulate their issue. They are hard working, active in listening and having transformed their attitude gradually. All those things give sign of their awareness about their future.