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Local NGOs in ex-Kamaiyas’ rehabilitation
Modern Nepali NGOs have a crucial role to play in development especially in uplifting the country's backward society. Their partnership in development is a very new phenomenon and is often misunderstood and misinterpreted--mostly deliberately. NGOs can be taken as a force for development and a direct result of the recent global change in favor of decentralized and democratic development process that demands greater participation of the primary stakeholders--the common people.
Unfortunately, NGOs working in Bardiya have not been able to focus on ex-Kamaiya-rehabilitation program. Some five NGOs work here. Their work ranges from drinking water supply to health/sanitation and education to poor children. Rural Reconstruction Network (RRN), Geruwa Gramin Jagaran Samiti and Tharu Women Upliftment Centre are among the few NGOs working here. RRN has launched Out School Program in Bagnaha and Dhodhari opening three centers, but the programs are not meant for ex-Kamaiyas' children. They have launched it for the poor Tharu children living here. However, they have included some ex-Kamaiyas' children too. "We have been able to include just 120 children between 10 to 15 years old because of limited resources," says Chegu Raj Chaudhari, Community Development Worker.
The Out School Program is a non-formal nine-month class. But, 45 children between 6 and 9 years of age have been sent to different schools for formal classes. The officials at RRN say that it was difficult for them to figure out core areas for launching any program on education, as when they initiated their program the government had not allotted land to ex-Kamaiyas. On the one hand the programs given by NGOs are not enough, while on the other these programs are not sustainable. "Ex-Kamaiya children need sustainable programmes, which we don’t have. The programs we have launched are particularly meant for short period of time and are limited to raising awareness among people," said Chaudhari.
Chaudhari says that the government should launch income-generating programs for the parents so that they can send their children to the nearby government school. He has been working since eight years in RRN and stresses that ex-Kamaiya children need more sustainable programs. "Children of school going age must have access to schools but as they need to earn for living, they need more flexible schools. Flexible schools can impart education even in odd hours like morning and evening so that they can go for work in the daytime," said he.
Geruwa Gramin Jagaran Samiti has distributed shallow tube-well and toilets but the ex-Kamaiyas in some camps like Machhagar and Dhadhwar are still dying for lack of water. Here, some 60 families have to depend on one shallow tube well. Nepal Water for Health, (NEWAH), another NGO, is also working to supply drinking water to the rural people at Bardiya. NEWAH officials also claim that they found it difficult to distribute enough shallow tube wells because the government has not yet distributed land to all ex-Kamaiyas. "We will of course help them, but we should know the demand and core areas," said NEWAH officials.
Similarly, Tharu Women Upliftment Centre, with support of Asia Foundation, has been providing the facility of mobile paramedics to reach out to the grassroots level for five years. According to the officials at the Centre, they have launched programs in nine VDCs. Permanent health service is given from VDCs like Mohadjpur, Kalika, Mainapokhari, Sorahawa and Jamain. But mobile paramedics are recruited to travel in VDCs like Jainpur and Lamki for providing health facilities. Girls Access to Education is a nine-month-long program, which aims at raising awareness on health, trafficking and sexual abuse of Tharu women. "Only few ex-Kamaiya girls have participated in this program," said Prijma, Chairman of the Centre.
Certainly local NGOs can play a key role in development at the grassroots level and raise the status of backward societies like ex-Kamaiyas. Such institutions are basically formed to facilitate people at the grassroots. They also play a vital role in facilitating International NGOs to help the needy people. However, activating them is the most essential part.
Backward Society of Nepal (BASE), which has remained popular in Kailali, the district from where the free-Kamaiya movement started, is now in Bardiya district. It has not been long since BASE started working here. "We have started identifying the affected areas or the core camps to launch education programs for ex-Kamaiya children in the near future," said Tanuja Basnet, program manager at BASE, Bardiya.
According to her, BASE has been working as a partner organization of MS Nepal. BASE is planning to establish schools and launch education programs for ex-Kamaiya children in the near future under the partnership of MS. Nepal. Be it BASE, NEWAH, or any other organization, it is essential for them to study the real situation to identify the core problems before they launch any program. Moreover, the government support is equally important for them to reach out to ex-Kamaiyas.
One's rehabilitation threatens another's existence
Government is resettling Kamaiyas in the area reserved for the black buck.
Environmentalists have raised objection to the step of the government officials to settle the freed Kamiayas at Khairapur of Bardia, because it is the only place reserved for black bucks, which are listed as endangered species.
Though the government has declared 708 bighas in Khairapur Pataha of Gularia municipality as a reserve for the black buck, 14 Kamaiya families have put up their houses within this very reserve and they have also been cultivating the land there as the Land Reforms Office of Bardia has given them perfectly legal land ownership certificates. They are now using about three bighas of land.
Black buck is listed in schedule 3 of Convention on the International Trade on Endangered Species (CITES) and schedule 1 of the National Park and Wildlife Conservation Act, 2029 of Nepal. And this is the only place reserved in Nepal for the black bucks. These animals like to live in the open grasslands of Terai and they are very much friendly to human beings.
Aboutnine years ago, His Majesty’s Government had decided to develop 709 bighas of Tharu Turantpur and Khairapur as Black Buck Conservation Area. In this connection, the government has already acquired 260 bighas of land and spent Rs. 18 million. Then how were the ex-Kamaiyas allotted land in the Black Buck Conservation Area and what were the agencies concerned doing when the land was this being distributed? The decision to settle the Kamaiyas in that area was taken by the committee for ex-Kamaiya Rehabilitation and Monitoring. The committee comprises the Land Reforms Officer, the Forest Officer, the Chief District Officer and the Mayor of the local municipality. Land Reforms Officer Mukti Bahadur Swanr admits that the decision was made hastily and he said another decision is going to be made soon to transfer the ex-Kamaiyas from the reserve area.
How authoritative is Swanr’s statement will be tested in the near future, but one may ask: what will be the impact on the future of the children of the freed Kamaiya now being transferred from a place where they were already settled? How humane will it be to shift the people from a place where they had already adjusted themselves?
