KATHMANDU, Nepal–At a time the country is observing World Day Against Child Labour, scores of the children are toiling in harsh weather condition. They are working round the clock either in some industries or other workplaces as a bonded labour. The situation is worse in rural belts than in urban.
Many reports have shown that Child labor in Nepal is relatively high compared to other countries in South Asia as 33 percent children between the age of five and 14 involved in labor, compared to 12 percent in the South Asian region as a whole.
Though the government has made commitments to seek new solutions to end exploitative work for children, they seemed less fruitful to eliminate the worst forms of child labour–slavery and trafficking.
Although the National Master Plan on Child Labor (2004-2014) call on the end of all forms of child labor after its proper identification, the plan proved to be less fruitful in terms of curbing child labour and other kinds of exploitations which are being practiced across the nation.
In the meantime, a report has revealed that Nepal has one and half million child labourers who have been deprived of their basic rights to education, health and social positions.
Nearly 1.6 million children between the ages of 5 and 17 are involved in some kind of child labour in the country, according to a report on Nepal Child Labourers.