January 30: Minister for Labor, Employment and Social Security Dol Prasad Aryal has pledged that he will take initiatives to end forced labour. Minister Aryal made such a remark during a discussion on the protocol on forced labor and the need for a unified law for the abolition of forced labor held at the ministry on Sunday.

Minister Aryal urged all the concerned agencies to expedite the works related to the proposed bill for the prohibition and rehabilitation of forced labor in an effective manner. He said, “The laws and policies should be made to work for a long term so that they don't need to be changed as soon as the ministers and government employees change. For that, I am ready to have an in-depth discussion with the concerned parties and relevant agencies.”

Minister Aryal said that such discussions and interaction programs held in the capital will be limited only to the cities and will not reach the target groups. He requested the concerned agencies to work in such a way that the forced labourers should not feel that they are left out.

During the program, Labour Secretary Ek Narayan Aryal said that he is ready to help the ministry to reduce forced labor. He emphasized that economic, political and educational transformation in the country cannot take place until the end of forced labour.

A seven-member committee has been formed under the coordination of Danduraj Ghimire, Joint Secretary of the Labor Relations and Social Security Division of the Ministry of Labor to finalize the Forced Labor (Prohibition and Rehabilitation) Bill 2079.

Nirmala Gurung, Deputy Secretary of the Ministry's Law and Judgment Implementation Branch, presented the draft of the bill in the program. Likewise, labor immigration expert and advocate Som Luitel informed about the provisions of forced labor in Nepal and the international provisions.

According to a study report of the Nepal Labor Survey in 2018, a total of 31,338 people are involved in forced labor in Nepal. Similarly, the report of the International Labor Organization (ILO) mentions that there are 40,000 unskilled workers, 16,953 new workers, 45,065 agricultural workers and 6,229 people working in brick kilns as forced labourers.

The workers of these four sectors are included in the current Forced Labor (Prohibition and Rehabilitation) Bill 2079. Advocate Luitel said that even though there are so many people doing forced work in Nepal, not a single case has been brought to the court because of lack of procedures. Concerned agencies hope that after the bill is endorsed, it will be easier to give justice to the victims.