Deadline 2005

A LOT of children in Nepal do not get a fair deal in life. Poverty goes to stunt their growth. They live in situations where many of their rights are violated. One of the issues that are tellingly serious vis-à-vis children’s rights is the rampant practice of child labour. An estimated 2.6 million children in Nepal are working children. That so many children between the age of 5 and 14, who collectively represent a whopping 41 per cent of the total population of children, continue to toil away at an age when they are supposed to be going to school and enjoying rights to proper physical and mental development is a national sore. What is even worse in the child labour scenario is the fact that quite a sizeable number of children among those 2.6 million are suffering in some of the worst forms of child labour. Children in bonded labour are one example of such forms of child labour. Eight-year-old kids having to log 16 hours of work in carpet factories would be another instance of the worst form of child labour. While complete elimination of all forms of child labour can only be a long-term goal given the socio-economic conditions of the Nepalese, there is no ground to believe that the worst forms of child labour cannot be done away within a relatively shorter time. The recently-launched Time Bound Programme against Child Labour, being implemented with ILO assistance, gives hope that campaign against child labour may get an extra push. Nepal is one of the three sample countries ILO has selected to launch this programme for elimination of the worst forms of child labour. But the success of the programme depends on how competently the programme is carried out and how partnerships with different stakeholders are struck. Inaugurating a national stakeholder consultation on the programme Tuesday, Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala informed that government was in the process of drafting a master plan for the elimination of the worst forms of child labour by 2005 and all forms of child labour by 2010 and was, in connection with this, in the process of ratifying ILO Convention 182. Two deadlines have now been fixed. It is up to the concerned to see that at least the first deadline is met successfully and the worst forms of child labour become a thing of the past by 2006.

Time Ripe For Consensus

THERE was a time when the two major political forces-the Nepali Congress and the CPN (UML) were travelling in the same boat. They were striving for a common cause, i.e. to restore democracy in the country. Both the forces together with other left parties had exhibited unity so unique and intact that it had really brought great hopes to the impoverished Nepalese. On the day multiparty democracy was announced and the dictatorial rule was abolished, it seemed as if things would change overnight. The enthusiasm to vie for a better tomorrow was very intense and promising.. Things changed in an unprecedented manner following the first general elections.

Political parties, which had once put the nation’s interest above all other interests, gradually turned selfish. One time friends became enemies and failed to come together to draw a line between partisan interests and the national interest. The result was confusion and anarchy. Several attempts were then made in the ensuing days to forge national consensus among the political forces. The attempts were repeatedly foiled and the nation was mired by a host of problems. Still, the repeated call for national consensus coming from the ruling party and the main opposition party seems to be disappearing with a distant echo. When the Congress calls for it, the UML turns away and when the UML does the same the Congress becomes skeptical.

How long will this go on? Time is running out. At a time when the nation is struck by a host of problems- Maoist insurgency, poverty, corruption- parties must shun differences and come forward to forge consensus. It is indeed heartening to note here that the CPN (UML) has formed a task force to explore the possibilities of finding a common ground to address the problems besetting the nation. Political leaders from all the major parties while speaking at a workshop on "The Gravity of the Maoist Issue and Its Resolution" recently denounced the violence unleashed by the Maoists and called for consensus to protect democracy. The UML move has come at a right time. This time the efforts must be geared to materialise the long awaited consensus. And the national and partisan priorities defined so that a joint endeavour among all political players becomes instrumental to address the aberrations and inconsistencies.