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As a former bonded laborer herself, Basanti Chaudhary has maximized her proximity to the cause and community to bring their issues into the public domain and pressure authorities to act, becoming one of the most prominent voices in the movement for Kamaiya/Kamlari rights.
Basanti Chaudhary feels that her entry into social activism was an inevitable outcome of the kind of life she had led. Born to a family of Kamaiyas and Kamlaris—or bonded laborers—in Kailali, she was sent to work for a landlord’s family at the tender age of six. And for the next six years, young Basanti’s days were given over entirely to the demands and whims of her erstwhile employers—it was only when all the household chores were complete that she would steal away a little time for herself to study.
In this way, Basanti managed to complete the fifth grade while still a Kamlari. But by then, her parents had become involved in the campaign for the rights of bonded laborers in Nepal, and inspired, she too fled from her landlord’s house and returned home. The movement comprised separate groups for men and women, and as no other member of the women’s group could read and write, Basanti was tasked with all documentation when it came to their campaigns. This would be her initiation into a life of activism.
These efforts appeared to pay off when, in July 2000, the government announced the official liberation of Kamaiyas, with the added pledge to provide them land and money to aid their rehabilitation. But this proved easier said than done. The 37,000 freed Kamaiyas who had once embraced the news so enthusiastically were either made to wait an extremely long time to receive their packages, or were outright deprived of the support despite being eligible. To counter this, and to persuade the government to live up to the commitments made to former Kamaiyas, the Kamaiya Partha Unmulan Samaj (KPUS) was established.
With over 3,000 members, the KPUS has been a veritable cornerstone in the fight for the rights of freed slaves in the country, bringing their concerns and issues into the public domain and creating pressure on the authorities to take action. Basanti—who had already been leading campaigns at the community and district levels related to human rights, including domestic violence and discrimination suffered by Kamlaris, as head of the Kailali chapter of the National Alliance of Women Human Rights Defenders (NAWHRD)—was eventually drawn to KPUS herself, and has now been chairing the organization for five years.
“While the major focus of the campaigns we undertook was certainly to call for justice for former bonded laborers, they’ve also included a strong element of advocacy for women’s rights and gender equality,” Basanti says. “These are all interlinked issues; you can’t push for one without the other.”
Today, 18 years since the Kamaiyas were liberated, the majority of those who have been provided the pledged packages in Kailali have made good use of the support, taking up work as farmers, auto-rickshaw owners or micro-entrepreneurs, and sending their children to school, according to Basanti. However, she says 926 out of the 8,910 freed slaves in the district are yet to receive any assistance from the government and are struggling to get by. “They have been forced to live in makeshift shelters on river banks or barren public land, and have very few means of making a living,” she says.
Through KPUS, Basanti and her fellow activists are trying to raise the prospects of the community. Besides advocacy, the organization is currently offering a number of trainings in entrepreneurship and income-generating activities such as vegetable farming, tailoring, fisheries and hair-cutting, among others, which have already helped many freed Kamaiyas find alternative livelihoods.
Another aspect of her work with both the NAWHRD and KPUS is to maintain social cohesion among the different communities living in a region where communal tensions have lately been heightened in the lead-up to the federal restructuring of the country, based largely on differences of opinion over provincial boundaries. To restore harmony, Basanti has helped set up committees that bring together members of clashing communities to settle on a peaceful way forward—mechanisms that have proved very effective in mitigating conflict.
In recognition of her work and achievements, Basanti was among nine women from around Asia who were honored at the 2016 N-Peace Awards—a UNDP flagship initiative launched in 2010 to commemorate peace champions in the region and celebrate their contributions to women, peace and security in their communities. “Not only was it a fitting tribute to our work for the rights and empowerment of our people, it also helped to internationalize the agenda we had been raising,” Basanti says. “It gave us the encouragement and motivation to fight even harder going forth.”
For the next few years, Basanti plans to continue working as a local campaigner, but eventually hopes to enter politics. “That kind of direct influence at the policy level would provide more opportunity to bring about social transformation,” she says. “Having worked with our people for so long and at such proximity, I feel I am best placed to represent their needs and priorities.”
