12 years since liberation, freed Haliyas in Kanchanpur await resettlement

Out of 21,069 freed Haliya families in 12 districts of Nepal, only 16,000 have been listed in government data.

Lakshmi Damai from Baitadi had migrated to Kanchanpur at the age of 10. He worked as a Haliya (bonded labourer) in Mahendranagar and Bhimdatta until the government in 2008 declared the emancipation of Haliyas . Lakshmi, now 81, lives with his wife in a hut that he built on the banks of Gahatadi stream in Bhimdatta Municipality Ward No. 9.