The Badi community in Kailali demonstrated on Saturday against the government’s failure to implement the agreement signed with them eight years ago.

They obstructed traffic at Lamki on the East-West Highway for an hour. The Badis have complained that the government did not rehabilitate them. They have also asked for programmes for their welfare as agreed.

Rama Badi, one of the protesters, said the government had not introduced any effective programme to uplift their status. She also accused the government of not providing the facilities it had pledged.

On January 7, 2008, the Cabinet decided to rehabilitate the Badi community by giving them land and teaching them income-generating skills. The objective was to end poverty in the community and to help women abandon prostitution with income generation options.

According to the 2011 census, the population of Badis is 36,600. Some of them say they have no land to construct houses even though the government had decided to build homes for them.