Nepal & Children’s Development
More Efforts Needed

By R.Sharma

NEPAL is a country where the problems of children are hard to scale. They can be linked to the height of its mighty mountans. It is a country where two thirds of its population lives below poverty line. One out of seven children die before age five. Widespread poverty, poor infrastructure, and illiteracy contribute to make the situation of over three million children especially those less than four years of age, vulnerable.

Responsibility

True freedom as a popular adage goes, is not what you want to do, but what you have to do. The responsibility rests no longer entirely on the government, but on the civil society as a whole. Real change will occur only when this collective responsibility fuelled by appropriate government planning, comes into being. It is with this in mind that we should examine the situation of children in Nepal.

About fifty two per cent of the total population of the country comprises of children below eighteen years of age. Projected number of children by the year 2002 is estimated to be 12 million. For the development of children, vairous programmes have been carried out since the planned development for education and health sector. A cursory look at child developemnt history indicates that child development policy has been adopted since the Seven Five Year Plan. In line with the commitment expressed by the government in World Child Summit-1990, child development Action Plan 1990 was formulated with a determination of meeting the targets by 2000 A.D. But it is regrettable to note that due to poverty and other social reasons, Nepalese children are suffering from malnutrition, illiteracy, economic and social exploitation and diseases.

Children, especially the protection of their rights, have become an issue in Nepal’s new democracy. It is in this backdrop that the Convention on the Rights of Child was ratified, the Declaration of the World Summit for Children was signed, the ten year National Programme of Action for Children the 1990s was finalized.

The Ninth Plan (1997-2002) has an objective of developing children physically, mentally and intellectually and to protect and promote rights of children as they are the pillars of the country.

Yet, child labour remains a serious problem not only in the world, but also in Nepal. According to revised estimates by the International Labour Organization (ILO), there are at least 120 million children between the ages of 5 and 14 who are working full time in developing countries alone and more than 250 million if those for whom work is a secondary activity are included. Asia has 61 per cent of the world’s working children, followed by 32 per cent in Africa and 7 per cent in Latin America. Although child labour was one of the first and most important issues addressed by the international community and was enshrined in an International Labour Organization Convention on Minimum Age in 1919, the World has not yet eliminated the many forms of abusive working conditions which children still endure today.

It is undisputed that chidren have been working for generations for a variety of reasons: acute poverty, lack of basic education facilities and the lack of legitimate alternatives. The status of the people in relation to health, nutrition and education-the key components of human resources-remains poor. Despite some progress, PEM and other nutritional deficiencies remain extremely high. Infant, child and maternal mortaility rates remain very high as well. Only about 40 per cent of the 6- plus age group are literate. Safe drinking water is available to a small proportion of the population.

What is particularly relevant to South Asia is the international protocol’s provision on Child labour-Article 18, which recognises the rights of the child to be hazardous to child’s education, or harmful to the child’s health or physical, mental spiritual, moral and social development.

The text of the ILO Convention 138, adopted in 1973, which is yet to be ratified by many countries, points in the same direction. For example, its first article states:

"Each member for which this convention is in force undertakes to pursue a national policy designed to ensure the effective abolition of child labour and to raise progressively the minimum age for admission to employment or work at level consistent with the fullest physical and mental development of young persons."

Children First

The day will come when the progress of nations will be judged not by the military or economic splendour of their capital cities and public buildings, but by the well-being of their people; by their levels of health, nutrition and education; by their opportunities to earn a fair reward for the labours; by their ability to participate in the decisions that affect their lives; by the respect that is shown for their civil and political liberties; by the provision that is made for those who are vulnerable and disadvantaged; and by the protection that is afforded to the growing minds and bodies of their children.