The Siradhani Mukt Kamaiya settlement located in Bhajani Municipality-7 of Kailali is surrounded by the Kandra River to the east and the Mohana River to the south. Every year, with the onset of monsoon, this settlement is plagued by floods and terror.

This settlement is in danger of flooding throughout the rainy season. Along with the fear of flooding, the other pain that the freed Kamaiya families of Siradhani have been experiencing is equally profound. They have not yet been able to obtain the identity cards of freed Kamaiyas.

Even though there are three kathas of land in the freed Kamaiya camp, they have not been able to become its legal owners due to the lack of identity cards. The freed Kamaiya family complains that they have to live with a paperless future due to the lack of land ownership documents. ‘Many years have passed since the struggle for identity cards began, but there is no hearing,’ said local Rekha Devi Chaudhary.

There are currently 217 families living in the freed Kamaiya camp of Siradhani. After the government declared Kamaiya free, landless Tharu and Raji families of the former Lalbozhi VDC have started living here. Of these, 86 families have not yet been able to become owners of their own land. ‘There was no question of having land when we were Kamaiyas, even after we were freed, we could not become owners of land,’ said Vinayak Chaudhary.

The government had declared those who had been working as bonded laborers in landlords' houses for generations as 'Kamaiya Mukt' on 2057 Shrawan. But that declaration has not yet been able to give them real freedom including land. 'We have not been able to get identity cards yet,' said Sapna Chaudhary, who is also the secretary of the Joti Tol Bikas Sanstha formed by the municipality. 'We have been repeatedly asking for help, but no one listens.'

She said that she has a family of nine and informed that her husband has gone to India to work as a laborer. She said that she is making ends meet by sewing and cutting clothes at home and that the family is in trouble every monsoon when the settlement is flooded.   

Vinayak Chaudhary says that the life spent as a slave in the landlord's house is still fresh in the memory of some freed Kamaiyas. Even after liberation, Chulluram Dagoura, another freed Kamaiya, says that most of the men in the family are forced to work as laborers in India due to lack of means of livelihood. He complains that he is unable to conduct financial transactions due to lack of identity cards.

According to Pashupati Chaudhary, president of Mukt Kamaiya Samaj, the local government has prepared a procedure to issue identity cards to families who are exempted from obtaining identity cards. However, the local government does not have the authority to distribute land. “Land is the jurisdiction of the federal government, but the federal government has not done any concrete homework yet,” he said.

According to him, the number of families who have not received land ownership certificates despite receiving identity cards is 953 in Kailali alone. 175 families in Shivnagar of Tikapur and 60 families in Lamki are without documents. A similar problem has been seen in the Geta area of ​​Dhangadhi. On the other hand, like the family in Siradhani, freed Kamaiya who have not received identity cards are in even bigger trouble.

The problem of freed Kamaiya is not limited to Siradhani. According to Mukt Kamaiya Samaj, 1,082 freed Kamaiya families have not been rehabilitated in the Far West Province yet. Most families in Kailali are living in temporary camps and on the roadside.

According to the society, 9,762 freed Kamaiyas have received identity cards in Kailali alone. Of these, 8,022 have been rehabilitated, while 953 families are still awaiting rehabilitation.

The then government had decided to provide 1 to 5 kattas of land to freed Kamaiyas of category 'A', depending on their location. But they say that some families have still not been able to get land.