National 5 (Spotlight Weekly)

The Children's Army

With child labor and the abuses that go with it steadily worsening, Nepal's most vulnerable citizens are now taking their defense into their own hands.

By A Correspondent

Kamal Nepali has already seen more in his short life than anyone should have to witness in a lifetime.

Child laborers : Safelty in numbers

“In Thamel, there was a street child, a rag picker,” he says in surprisingly good English considering he was forced to quit school at ten and start working. “One day, he got sick. Everyone there saw him. He just got sicker and sicker until he died. No one would help him.”

It's a dark side of Nepali society most chose to ignore, but one with which the 15-year-old tempo conductor and his fellow child workers are confronted every day. And its often the very people meant to protect them that are the most feared. Kamal relates his own experience.

“Traffic police always hassle us, beat us, try to snatch money from us,” he says. “If we don't give money, we have to stay in police custody.”

More than two and a half million children are now part of the workforce in Nepal, a figure that places the country among the worst in the world. And though there is much debate over the necessity of their participation in the economy, the fact that children are regularly underpaid, overworked, and, in many cases, abused is something beyond dispute.

“One of the problems is we don't get timely pay,” says Ajit Maharjan, a 13-year-old restaurant worker. “There's no health care. Sometimes at hotels they have drunk customers who abuse us. Employers always side with the customer.”

Despite the ever increasing involvement of foreign donor countries and largely because of the government's reluctance to enforce child labor laws, the situation for the county's child workers is steadily worsening. So now, those most immediately affected are taking things into their own hands.

Last week, at the National Convergence of the Representatives of Working Children, more than thirty child laborers from sixteen economic sectors came together to discuss the problems faced by underage workers and what can be done about them. Sponsored by Concern for Children and the Environment Nepal, Child Workers in Nepal, Save the Children Norway, the Underprivileged Children's Association, and trade union organization GEFONT, the two-day conference was meant to empower the children that make up a full quarter of Nepal's workforce and allow them to have a say in directing the fight against child labor.

“Adults have surface-level knowledge,” says Concern Nepal's Bijaya Sainju, explaining the importance of involving children in processes that have long been directed by grown ups. “We know there are abuses. But these children bring in-depth information. People don't know about these things. And they need to know.”

As part of the conference, child representatives discussed with welfare groups the ways in which current programs aimed at improving the lives of working children could be improved. And on the final day, they elected delegates to a Working Committee that will lobby to the Singh Durbar for more protective legislation for children.

“Children are working in more than 80 areas. But they've been facing many problems.” says Sainju. “This group can now represent the 2.6 million in child labor. At the same time they will have some bargaining power with the government.”

And it's not only the conference's organizers that are excited. Elections to the standing Working Committee were vigorously contested, and debate over what would be included in the group's manifesto was heated.

“From time to time, we will have discussions,” says Maharjan, who was elected to represent restaurant workers on the Working Committee, explaining what will be the next step in the process. “We can discuss the problems to bring some programs to end discrimination against poor children.”

One of the first responsibilities of the new Working Committee will be the creation of a permanent secretariat that will be charged with organizing the First National Convention of Working Children that organizers hope will extend the same kind of child participation to the rest of the country. It's set to take place next year.

Until then, there is still much work to be done. But the children at the National Convergence of Working Children feel well up to the task.

“It's good. I think it will help,” says Tej Ratna, a representative for the newspaper hawkers delegation. “We've already discussed problems in child labor. Now we can come up with what problems can be solved. Children understand children's problems on their own.”