Govt-ILO signdeal to stop child labour

By A Staff Reporter

KATHMANDU, Aug 19: His Majesty's Government and the International Labour Organisation today signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to eliminate child labour in Nepal. The MoU to extend the International Programme on the Elimination of Child Labour (IPEC) for the next five years was signed by Secretary in the Ministry of Labour and Transport Prem Nidhi Gyawali and ILO Director Ms. Leyla Tegmo-Reddy.

The programme will help sustain the commitment of the government towards eliminating the worst forms of child labour in Nepal in the first five years. Nepal has drawn up a 10-year master plan against child labour beginning 2001. Nepal has one of the highest child labourers in the world, with figures put as high as 2.6 million. Most of the children work as porters, domestics and in teashops. Quite a few work in hazardous industries and stone quarries.

Every year, thousands of children, mostly girls are taken across the border and forced into a life of prostitution and slavery.

Cooperation between the two signatories is based on the objectives and principles of the ILO, in particular the obligation borne by Nepal after it ratified ILO Convention on Minimum Age (No. 138) and Convention of the worst forms of child labour (No. 105).

On the basis of the MoU, HMG and ILO/IPEC will work towards establishing a sound implementation and monitoring mechanism of policies and time-bound programmes for the elimination of child labour, an ILO press statement said today. It will give priority to the worst forms aimed at preventing and rehabilitating child labourers and their families, it said.

Nepal and ILO signed the first MoU in 1995 when the IPEC was extended to Nepal.

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