ILO approves grant to combat child labour

The International Labour Organization (ILO) has expressed commitment to provide half a million dollar worth of grant assistance to help combat the child labour in the country.

"The International Labour Organization (ILO) has approved eight new Action Programmes worth US$575,291 to combat child labour and support Kamaiya and Haruwa/Charuwa adults and their children," states a press release from the ILO.

The work is being funded by contributions from the United State Department of Labour (USDoL).

"Through the programmes almost 9,600 children of freed Kamaiya and Haruwa/Charuwa will be mainstreamed into formal education or Out of School Programmes (OSP), depending on their age. Older children will receive Non Formal Education (NFE) and pre-vocational education. The programmes will also cover functional literacy training, vocational education and group dynamics-training for 1,600 freed Kamaiya and Haruwa/Charuwa adults."

The ILO statement adds that the projects also support the withdrawal of 3,000 children working as Kamalhari and child domestics under the former Kamaiya and Haruwa/Charuwa system and will assist their re-integration into their communities.

The work with the Kamaiyas and their children will take place in five districts - Dang, Banke, Bardia, Kailali and Kanchanpur. The support for the Haruwa/Charuwa will be in Dhanusha, Siraha and Saptari districts.

"The eight action programmes are being subcontracted through the ILO-IPEC Project on Sustainable Elimination of Child Bonded Labour in Nepal, and implemented by local groups, including Rural Access Development and Research-RADAR, Dang; Active Forum for Human Rights Awareness-AFHA, Banke; United Youth Community-UNYC Nepal, Bardiya; Creation of Creative Society–CCS, Kailali; Rural Women Development and Unity Centre-RUWDUC, Kanchanpur; Aasaman Nepal, Dhanusha; Srijana Community Development Center (SCDC), Siarha and Shreepurraj Community Development Centre-SCDC, Saptari."

The ILO has said that all the eight new Action Programmes, as well as several others already underway, are aimed at creating an environment for the sustainable elimination of child bonded labour in the country, within four-year duration of the ILO/IPEC project. nepalnews.com sd Jan 26 08