Women’s Cause

THE formation of the National Women’s Commission by the government over a month ago has been welcomed by every quarter. The need for such commission had been felt for long but only recently it has been fulfilled. Women, who constitute over 50 per cent of Nepal’s population, have been playing a vital role in every sector of national life but with the conservative thinking regarding them still prevailing in the society it was necessary that such a commission be formed to address the basic issues concerning women. The empowerment of women and their active participation in every sphere is deemed very essential if the country as a whole is to come out of its shell of backwardness and progress forward. The Commission with the involvement of women themselves has the task to identify problems confronting them and devise appropriate measures to resolve them. Once the problems are sorted out and resolved there can be no reason why women cannot work at par with men. Though the Constitution does not discriminate against them, it is a widespread phenomenon in the society. People must change their attitudes if the contribution of every citizen is to be taken into account for the overall good of the nation.

In this connection, addressing a programme organised by Human Rights Organisation of Nepal on the rationale of the National Women’s Commission, Minister for Women, Children and Social Welfare Rajendra Kharel underlined that the commission was for the women to work collectively for resolving their common problems. As the concerned people would be working together they can identify the common problems and take the necessary steps to eliminate them in view of the government’s commitment to cooperate with them in this noble mission. Herein, it may be necessary to mention that the Lower House has passed the Domestic Violence (Crime and Punishment) Bill-2058. This must also be considered as a landmark event in the sense that the women at home too cannot be taken for granted. As domestic violence is very common in this part of the world, this Bill when it becomes an Act will be a deterrent to those males who flaunt their superiority by ill-treating the women at home. Now the women can look forward to better times ahead and a life of peace and security with the state offering them protection even inside their house.

Ending Child Labour

HIS Majesty’s Government has enacted necessary laws and ratified a number of conventions adopted by the International Labour Organisation to end child labour. The practice of employing young children in numerous works began to come under public scrutiny in the early 1990s. Yet child labour continues to be a serious problem in Nepal. While millions of adults pass from door to door in search of employment opportunities, roughly one third of the country’s child population is forced to work in different circumstances. According to a study conducted by International Programme on the Elimination of Child Labour, there are roughly eight million children between the ages 5 and 14 and about 2.5 million of them work as child labour. The study says these children are involved in a number of physically and mentally harzardors works. Children in hundreds of thousands work as porters and domestic workers in urban and semi-urban centres. Kathmandu alone employs some 22,000 of about 55,000 child domestic workers. Hundreds of thousands of them toil for hours every day as agriculture labourers and industrial workers. A large number of children are forced to work as bonded labourers. Children, young girls in particular, are trafficked within the country and across the border, where they join others as commercial sex workers. There are street children, who could be exposed to hazardous diseases as well. It is high time the state and the civil society at large did something to tackle the problem of child labour as ILO’s Director stressed the other day: commitment of the parents and the government is necessary to achieve the objective of ending child labour. If the state fails to address the problem of child labour and provide them alternatives this not only contributes to poverty, but could also invite a number of social problems. In that case tackling these problems could cost the state much more than what it actually calls for now. The UN agencies, bilateral donors and international non-governmental organisations are all working in Nepal to address the problem of child labour, but somewhere there are gaps and overlapping. These lapses should as well be corrected while implementing programmes to protect the vulnerable sections of society.