SRC-022 · Partial metadata
Breaking bonded labour and gender roles in Nepal
International Labour Organization · 2018
Record details
- Study population
- Freed Kamaiya bonded labourers particularly women , in far-western Nepal
- Geography
- Not specified
- Sample size
- Not reported
- Method
- Unspecified: Not specified
- Labour system
- Kamaiya
- Themes
- Rehabilitation, Land & livelihoods, Forced labour & debt, Gender & social exclusion
Recorded findings
- The Kamaiya system was informal bonded agricultural labour involving payment-in-kind and debt bondage that could persist across generations. It was abolished in 2002, with freed families given small plots of land (2–5 kattha), insufficient for subsistence farming. Rehabilitation remains incomplete due to limited rural employment. The ILO's Bridge project (funded by the US Department of Labor) provides skills training and job placement to former bonded labourers, showing notably high female participation in non-traditional trades like carpentry and masonry.
Repository note
The ILO article dates the abolition of the Kamaiya system to 2002, the year of the Bonded Labour (Prohibition) Act. The government declared the system illegal on 17 July 2000 (see the timeline).
Citation
International Labour Organization. (2018, March 20). Breaking bonded labour and gender roles in Nepal.