If emancipation from bonded labour can be termed as an increase in living standards, then the Haliyas in the Far-West can certainly lay claim to have improved their lives. True, they do not have to toil any more on someone else’s land paying back loans charged with exorbitant interest rates, but is that all it In takes to improve the condition of life?

In September 2008, the UCPN (Maoist) government “declared” the Haliyas free, and announced that it would take action against those who continue to enforce the tradition. However, a visit to the hills of this remote region is all that one needs to learn that emancipation may certainly not raise living standards and provide them with necessary skills, but it does raise awareness about their rights and conditions.

‘Won’t be cheated now’

Ashigram in Dadeldhura district is perhaps more known for being the birth place of former Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba. But a new literacy campaign initiated by a non-government organisation has now enabled Haliya women in the village to read and write.

Thirty-one-year-old Basanti Devi Sarki, a former Haliya from Ashigram, learnt how to read and write during the literacy campaign. She is now confident enough to say she will not be cheated by others. “I feel very confident after being literate,” she says. “Literacy helps when we go for shopping too.”

Though the national literacy levels for the Haliya community as a whole reveal inequities between males and females (24 percent against 19 percent), here, in the Far-West, it’s the opposite. Women are more literate than men--according to a survey by Lutheran World Federation--if only by a small margin (28.57 percent against 28.26 percent). Yet, these statistics are misleading in a way, if we compare the figures to national literacy rates of above 50 percent.

Despite these glaring differences, literacy is still a welcome step. As with other bonded labourers, the community never got the opportunity to learn or to write. Now, they are being taught by Indra B.K., whose father was a Haliya himself.

“I feel proud that I can teach other women from my community,” the grade 10 graduate says. B.K. studied at the nearby Ashigram School.

A contrast and an irony

In Bagarkot, Dadeldhura, the social landscape is contrasting when compared with Ashigram. The Haliya families living here don’t have any literacy programme for them, and they continue to live on land granted by their former landlords. The thatched roofs of their small, decrepit houses have almost decayed, battered by the constant rains last monsoon.

“We don’t have money to repair the roofs,” says Raj Devi Palle, a former Haliya. “We have to manage the money we earn for food as well as for our children’s education.” The government gives them Rs. 250 per month as an incentive to encourage their children to go to school; an amount which they say is inadequate.

Most Haliyas here own land that was granted by their former landlords; there are a few, though, who don’t own any. But even those do barely subsist from the harvests. “My only property is the house,” says Radha Devi Palle.

Most villagers, therefore, end up becoming wageworkers. They complain that despite the newly-granted legal freedom, the government has not offered them anything else.

It is ironical to note that though the Haliyas are legally not slaves any more, lack of any rehabilitation measures means that former Haliyas continue to toil on their former ‘master’s’ lands. In Dandabhoda, Baitadi, 62-year-old Laxya Ram Mahar has been working for Mahadev Pant, his former master, who in turn gives him a kilo of rice or wheat every day. “It is necessary to work in the fields of our maalik for a living,” Laxya says.

Laxya’s past three generations had toiled the same fields until the legal declaration in 2008--the loan amount, interestingly, did not decrease despite this. However, Mahadev Pant defends Laxya’s employment, saying he hasn’t forced him to work now. “He is working willingly,” Pant says, “We have even given his family two to three ropanis of land.”

Daliram Mahar is in a similar position as Laxya’s. His grandfather had taken a loan of Rs. 3,500 from the father of Khagendra Raj Pant; his father then took a loan of Rs. 2,000; finally, Daliram took out another loan of Rs. 24,000. He continues to work at his Khagendra’s lands without any wages. “But maalik’s family gives us food if we don’t have food to eat,” adds his wife Lho Mahar.

Freedom from self?

Within the same village, contrasts can be seen in the lives of Haliyas. Some of the families have enrolled their children in schools; Dhani Ram Mahar is paying Rs. 300 every month for his grandson’s education in a boarding school. Both Dhani Ram and his son Devi Ram work as masons. “If you have skills, you are relatively better off,” Dhani Ram says.

Then there is Ganesh Ram, who went to Malaysia seeking employment about nine months ago. Now back, his house has electricity that is delivered through the transmission line from India. In fact, the family even watches Indian cable channels on their television.

Dhani Ram and Ganesh Ram are examples of how life skills can help former Haliyas assert themselves, and improve their lives. But in the lack of a proper vocational and training programme, many families don’t find themselves free of the enslavement of their former lives. Bishnu Nepal, joint secretary at the Ministry of Peace and Reconstruction, admits there hasn’t been any initiative from the government to this effect. Instead, he blames it on the yet-incomplete census of the Haliyas. “The government’s concern is that the there should not open ended rehabilitation programme and census helps for the objective.”

The Haliyas, like many other former bonded labourers, are one of the most disadvantaged communities in Nepal. Unfortunately, legal freedom hasn’t really ensured them the freedom to choose, and in the lack of a proper rehabilitation package, most are turning back to the lives that the state has proffered to set them free from.

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