Fourteen Haliya and kamaiya bonded child labourers in Nepal
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Birendra Raj Giri
Abstract
In Nepal, there are between 300,000 and two million bonded labourers under the so-called haliya and kamaiya systems. A bonded-labour system has existed for hundreds of years in Nepal, where children are used by parents to pay off debts incurred to landlords by offering their own children’s labour to the landlords. While away from their home, children – particularly girls – are open to a variety of forms of physical, sexual, and psychological abuse, and struggle to maintain their work responsibilities alongside their desire to stay in education and improve their lot. Again, laws exist in Nepal to ban this system of kamaiya, yet the forms of child abuse are so extensive that they fall within the International Labour Organisation’s definition of the worst forms of child labour. What had been an adult form of debt bondage has shifted, as a result of pressures of poverty, into a system based now as much on children as adults, with the political system turning a blind eye to the practice.
Abstract
In Nepal, there are between 300,000 and two million bonded labourers under the so-called haliya and kamaiya systems. A bonded-labour system has existed for hundreds of years in Nepal, where children are used by parents to pay off debts incurred to landlords by offering their own children’s labour to the landlords. While away from their home, children – particularly girls – are open to a variety of forms of physical, sexual, and psychological abuse, and struggle to maintain their work responsibilities alongside their desire to stay in education and improve their lot. Again, laws exist in Nepal to ban this system of kamaiya, yet the forms of child abuse are so extensive that they fall within the International Labour Organisation’s definition of the worst forms of child labour. What had been an adult form of debt bondage has shifted, as a result of pressures of poverty, into a system based now as much on children as adults, with the political system turning a blind eye to the practice.
Chapters in this book
- Front Matter i
- Contents v
- Acknowledgements and dedication vii
- Notes on contributors viii
- List of abbreviations xiii
- List of boxes, figures, tables and photos xv
- Introduction: Child slavery worldwide 1
-
Strategic overviews
- Child slavery today 21
- Constructing the international legal framework 43
- Just out of reach: the challenges of ending the worst forms of child labour 61
- Child domestic labour: a global concern 81
- Child trafficking: a modern form of slavery 99
- Clarity and consistency in understanding child exploitation: a UK perspective 117
- A human rights approach to preventing child sex trafficking 133
- Child rights, culture and exploitation: UK experiences of child trafficking 145
-
Themes, issues and case studies
- Preventing child trafficking in India: the role of education 163
- Birth registration: a tool for prevention, protection and prosecution 175
- ‘Bienvenue chez les grands!’: young migrant cigarette vendors in Marseille 189
- Child domestic labour: fostering in transition? 203
- Extreme forms of child labour in Turkey 215
- Haliya and kamaiya bonded child labourers in Nepal 227
- Sex trafficking in Nepal 243
- The role of the arts in resisting recruitment as child soldiers and ‘wives’: experience from Uganda and Nepal 257
- International adoption and child trafficking in Ecuador 271
- Child slavery in South and South East Asia 285
- Routes to child slavery in Central America 297
- Resources 307
- The end of child slavery? 317
- Index 327
Chapters in this book
- Front Matter i
- Contents v
- Acknowledgements and dedication vii
- Notes on contributors viii
- List of abbreviations xiii
- List of boxes, figures, tables and photos xv
- Introduction: Child slavery worldwide 1
-
Strategic overviews
- Child slavery today 21
- Constructing the international legal framework 43
- Just out of reach: the challenges of ending the worst forms of child labour 61
- Child domestic labour: a global concern 81
- Child trafficking: a modern form of slavery 99
- Clarity and consistency in understanding child exploitation: a UK perspective 117
- A human rights approach to preventing child sex trafficking 133
- Child rights, culture and exploitation: UK experiences of child trafficking 145
-
Themes, issues and case studies
- Preventing child trafficking in India: the role of education 163
- Birth registration: a tool for prevention, protection and prosecution 175
- ‘Bienvenue chez les grands!’: young migrant cigarette vendors in Marseille 189
- Child domestic labour: fostering in transition? 203
- Extreme forms of child labour in Turkey 215
- Haliya and kamaiya bonded child labourers in Nepal 227
- Sex trafficking in Nepal 243
- The role of the arts in resisting recruitment as child soldiers and ‘wives’: experience from Uganda and Nepal 257
- International adoption and child trafficking in Ecuador 271
- Child slavery in South and South East Asia 285
- Routes to child slavery in Central America 297
- Resources 307
- The end of child slavery? 317
- Index 327
