17 July 2000: the day the Kamaiya were freed

In the far-western districts of Dang, Banke, Bardiya, Kailali and Kanchanpur, a Kamaiya was a labourer — almost always a Tharu man — bound to a landlord by an annual contract and a loan. The loan, called saunki, grew each year with interest and new advances. Because it could never be repaid, it passed from father to son, and whole families worked for the same landlord for generations.

How it began

When malaria was controlled and settlers moved into the western Tarai in the mid-20th century, many Tharu lost land they had farmed without formal title. Landless and in debt, they took work under the Kamaiya arrangement. Daughters were often sent to landlords' homes, sometimes in distant cities, as Kamlari domestic workers.

The campaign

In the 1990s Kamaiya began to organise with the help of local groups and national and international organisations. In 2000, a group of Kamaiya in Kailali filed petitions demanding freedom, and protests spread. On 17 July 2000 (2 Shrawan 2057), the government declared the Kamaiya system abolished and all their debts void. The Kamaiya Labour (Prohibition) Act followed in 2002.

After freedom

Freedom came suddenly. Tens of thousands of people left landlords' homes with little but their belongings, and many lived for years in makeshift camps waiting for the land and support they had been promised. Rehabilitation has been slow and uneven, and some freed families still struggle with landlessness and poverty. The campaign against the Kamlari system continued until the government declared it abolished in 2013.

Today

Many former Kamaiya families now run small farms and businesses, send their children to school and host visitors in community homestays around Bardiya and Kailali. When you stay with them, you are part of a story that is still being written.