Care For Children
THE plight of Nepalese children in the vortex of the violence
that Nepal has experienced was highlighted by Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba in his
address to a gathering in Bal Mandir on Tuesday on the occasion of the 75th auspicious
birthday of Her Majesty Queen Mother Ratna Rajya Laxmi Devi Shah and 38th National
Children's Day. Nepalese children in general right from their birth face tremendous odds
to survive and grow physically and mentally because of poverty and ignorance, among other
factors. Many children of school-going age have been deprived of education because
families cannot affort to send them to school. Many of them are involved directly or
indirectly in child labour. On top of these numerous challenges in an average Nepali
child's life has come the completely avoidable problem of fall-out of the terrorist
violence. Mr. Deuba mentioned how innocent children have fallen victims to the violence,
many becoming orphans and helpless. Furthermore, this year the flooding and landslides
rendered many children and their families homeless. As a special measure, Mr. Deuba
informed, 5 million rupees from Prime Minister's Relief Fund and 80 million rupees to be
made available within this month by USAID would be mobilised for the education, health
care and rehabilitation of children who have been displaced or orphaned by violent
incidents, natural calamity or in other special circumstances.
This is a welcome move. So is the government step to arrange
for scholarships for Dalit children of school going age from the current fiscal year. Top
priority is being given to the rehabilitation of children and the young suffering from
terrorism or natural calamity and to this end private boarding schools, technical schools
and centres looking after children would be mobilised. All these steps are in the right
direction and are in conformity with the government's commitment to the welfare of
children and UN's Convention on Children's Rights, 1990, which Nepal has endorsed. Because
children are especially a vulnerable lot, the ongoing and future measures to protect their
rights and promote their welfare have to be at the top of the national agenda always.
Their plight must receive the full attention of the government for launching remedial
measures targeted at problems ranging from those engendered by the terrorist violence to
those related to child labour. For, to repeat a truism, on our children rest the future of
the nation.
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