Child Welfare

NEPAL’s ratification of United Nations Convention on Child Rights coincided with the advent of democracy in Nepal itself. By endorsing the convention in November 1990. Nepal gave its solemn pledge to care for its children and protect them from all kinds of discrimination. The CRC articulates different rights the children have. It mentions the state’s responsibility towards the right to life and the longevity and development of children, the right to express their views on any matter that affects children, freedom of expression without violating others’ freedom of expression etc. The signing of the convention is celebrated every year. On Sunday, the tenth anniversary of the signing, saw much discussions among government officials and child rights and welfare advocates on the issues confronting this field. The consensus was that there have been some achievements on the children’s front since 1990, but they are far from enough. True, implementation of Children’s act 2048 B.S. and the Children’s Regulations-2051 B.S., initiation of policy and programmes in the interest of children as per the suggestions of a task force in 2053 B.S., establishment of a child reform centre, the start by HMG of four children’s welfare centres one each in Biratnagar, Birgunj, Butwal and Parsa as child welfare homes are, among others, some laudable steps taken to give a better life to children. Also significantly, the formation of 75 district child welfare committees and making arrangement for district child welfare officers as well as introduction of juvenile benches in the 75 district courts are potentially far reaching administrative and judicial moves that could decentralise the child welfare efforts in a true sense. However, a mere expansion of child welfare centres is not an answer to the gigantic problems prevalent. For instance, Nepal continues to have about 2.6 million child workers aged between 5-14 out of which 1.7 million work full time. There are hundreds of NGOs working to uphold their cause. Despite all this, why hasn’t child welfare made great strides? The government must take stock of the situation and make child welfare a part and parcel in the planning process of all relevant development schemes. Only then could concern for the children internalised in different processes at different levels of developments works.

Identify Needs

COTTAGE and handicraft industries are the lifeline of local rural economies. The economies of these small pockets of villages that are, more often than not, inaccessible by roads survive on the locally made products both for domestic and commercial use. Growth of handicrafts has been more or less stagnant since the last ten years owing much to the kind of policy we have adopted. We must not forget that these little small-scale enterprises will not be able to hold on their own unless subsidised. Adopting free market policy without making appropriate provisions for product that need subsidy has resulted in the fact that the area of handicrafts and cottage industry has not made desirable progress. As we talk of cottage industries, it follows that they belong to people in the villages who do not have an easy access to the global market outside. So, if we are to think in terms of commercialisation of these products, the need of an effective network of co-operatives arises.

Classification of handicraft products is a difficult task as the products are made by hand and will definitely vary in their quality. In order to be able to call them commercial products we have to keep in mind that, whereas strict quality control is possible, no two handmade items can turn out to be exactly the same. If they are to be called works of art made for commercial purpose, an intangible factor of its worth as an art object comes in and the worth of an art object can not be standardised. Producing handicraft requires specific skills that has been honed as a legacy- it is more like folk art while the definition of cottage industry can be expanded to include other products that can be produced in greater amounts at a time. Hence, though handicrafts can be categorised under cottage industry, they cannot be treated the same way as products that do not require skills of an artist. For example, production of Thangka paintings cannot be rated the same as production of home made paper. Therefore, it is necessary to identify the nature of the cottage industry product, the people who produce it and those who buy it and formulate an appropriate policy that is friendly to cottage industries before we attempt to regulate and monitor the industry.