KATHMANDU, JAN 12 - A group of students from Denmark and members of Backwards Society Education (BASE) will submit thumbprints of 10,000 Danish students to Prime Minister Surya Bahadur Thapa tomorrow in a bid to pressurise the government regarding the issue of ex-Kamaiyas.
This was revealed at a press meet on the thumbprint campaign and problems of ex-Kamaiyas, organised by the BASE, an NGO working for ex-Kamaiyas, here in the capital today.
A press statement from the Danish students issued on the occasion with the title "We still remember, even if you forget!" states that after their visits to different places of Kamaiyas in 2001, the high school students of Denmark had met with then Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala.
The statement further said that the freed Kamaiyas were promised identity cards, education, housing and enough land to make a living when the Danish students called on the then PM Koirala.
However, a large number of former bonded labourers are still living in makeshift camps having inhuman conditions, states the statement.
Asturi Tharu, who also spoke at the press meet, is one among thousands of Kamaiyas living in the makeshift camp. Currently, she is living in the Gujrana camp at Guleria Municipality.
According to Asturi, her joint family of 21 is currently scattered at different temporary camps.
Pointing out the lack of financial resource as a major problem of her family, she said, "Only few ex-Kamaiyas are given land and other facilities by the government. But, the government has not been ignoring most of ex-Kamaiyas like us. We have not yet been given the identity cards."
She gets two kilograms of chilly for her hard day’s work "Most of the time I have nothing more than porridge to feed my family," she bemoaned.According to Dilli Bahadur Chaudhary, Central President of BASE, more than 11,000 ex-Kamaiyas are yet to receive identity card while the number of those who are yet to receive land is even more.Posted on: 2004-01-13 03:54

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