Published: June 13,2012
Kathmandu (dpa) – Hundreds of thousands of children are employed in the most dangerous sectors in Nepal, officials said Wednesday, despite recent measures against the practice.
As many as 600,000 underage children work in stone quarries, brick kilns, the transport sector, domestic work, embroidery workshops and the sex industry, according to a joint study conducted by International Labour Organization and Nepal Child Labour Report.
The children's working conditions are deplorable, and they are deprived of education and basic health facilities, and often suffer physical and sexual abuse, said Gauri Pradhan of the National Human Rights Commission.
In total, as many as 1.5 million children under the legal minumum age of 14 are employed in the country, according to a 2008 survey. Many work as helpers at restaurants, dishwashers, and fare collectors on public transport.
The government's 2011-20 roadmap aims to eliminate all types of child labour by 2016, but observers say progress is slow.
“There is a wide gap in the laws and their implementation as the concerned sectors do not appear committed,” said Sumnima Tuladhar, executive co-ordinator of CWIN, an organization working for child rights.
“Besides, the citizens haven’t fulfilled their social responsibility as they continue to employ children at home as workers.
“These children don’t receive an education and are often subject to physical and sexual abuse.”
Poor economic conditions are blamed for the large number of child labourers in Nepal. Parents often send their children to work as domestic help because they cannot fend for them. Some children work for a meagre salary, but others only receive food and shelter.
In some southern Nepal communities, girls are sold by their families into bonded labour. Although the practice has been banned by law, the tradition continues in some poorer families.
A lack of cooperation between agencies is another major obstacle top solving the problem, said former parliamentarian Shanta Chaudhary, who was a bonded labourer herself as a child.
dpa pt cds tlo
