CWIN Strategies for the Elimination of Child Labour in Nepal

Child labour cannot be viewed in isolation because it is a cause and consequence of the country's socio-economic and political reality. Child labour is not a new phenomenon in an agriculture dominated country like Nepal. For many years, it has remained a part and parcel of the feudal economy. Like in other developing countries in South Asia, the rural communities in Nepal are living in a state of social injustice, economic exploitation, deprivation and backwardness. The growing marginalisation among the rural population, landlessness, unemployment and unplanned urbanisation have also contributed to an increase in the magnitude of child labour exploitation in the country. Constant poverty, unemployment and lack of basic needs in the villages force the parents to send their children to work in the cities for additional income for family subsistence. On the one hand, families and parents are forced to send their children to work due to poverty, and on the other hand, most of them are not aware of the consequences of child labour. Farming, plantation, cattle grazing and agriculture bonded labour are most common forms of child labour in rural areas, whereas factory work, domestic service, construction work, scavenging, transportation work etc., are common in the urban areas. In addition, a number of new areas of child labour emerge both in rural and urban areas with every passing year. This problem is closely interlinked with various other socio-economic and political realities of the country. Landlessness, poor access to resources and national productions, gender discrimination, unfair distribution of land, unemployment, lack of people-centered and sustainable development programme and environmental degradation are the under-lying factors of the child labour problem in Nepal.

Employment of child labour in hazardous areas has been prohibited since 1959. Nepal has ratified the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) and ILO Minimum Age Employment Convention (ILO Convention No 138). On the basis of these conventions, Nepal has adopted the Labour Act 1991 and Children's Act 1992 and has declared that employing children under the age of 14 is illegal. The Constitution of the Kingdom of Nepal has also clearly states that traffic in human beings, slavery and serfdom or forced labour in any form are prohibited. Any violation of that provision is punishable by law. The by-laws of the Children's Act 1992 have also provided special rights to the children to be protected from harm and exploitation, including child labour exploitation. However, the concerned authorities have neither effectively implemented the law nor formulated any plans of action for children's welfare and rehabilitation.

Most children in our country do work. Many children over five or six years may help within the home. It may not always be wrong for children to work, as long as they can enjoy their fundamental childhood rights at the same time. It can be taken as a process of socialisation, too. However, child labour is different. In most cases it cannot be seen as a process of socialisation. It can be seen more as a matter of exploitation. In such a situation, we should try to differentiate between socialisation and exploitation.

Child work might not always be bad, but child labour is always exploitation of children. In the rural communities and urban poor areas, most children do the household chores like fetching water, cattle herding, cutting grass, looking after younger siblings, and so on. Such activities are undeniable and compulsory chores entrusted to children in the rural areas. If such activities do not hinder the basic education and other rights of children, they are not objectionable. But hundreds of thousands of our children are deprived of their basic rights to education, health care, nutrition and entertainment while working for their survival and family subsistence. In such cases, parents regard their children as "economic assets" and send them out to work, no matter how hard the job would be. The children, then, are not only exposed to exploitation, but also occupy jobs that adults could have had. In a country like ours, this leads towards growing adult unemployment and child labour exploitation. If we could properly introduce compulsory primary education for children and motivate their parents towards this goal, we could surely bring down the burden of exploitation of children and protect their childhood rights.

Many people think that the abolition of child labour is impossible, that it will always exist in one way or other form in all third world countries. However, examples have proved that child servitude or any form of slavery can be overcome through the social liberation movement. There are different views in this regard. Some follow the radical approach and others prefer a more reformative one. Working for the elimination of child labour is also a worthy investment for the movement against social servitude. With a clear political vision and plans of action, children living and working in the most difficult circumstances can be protected and their rights promoted towards a safe childhood. For this, the government, social activists' groups and solidarity movements should link up with each other to develop concrete tactics and strategies and put them into action without delay.

As the pioneer child's rights movement in Nepal, (CWIN) has been advocating the rights of working children and children in servitude for the past 11 years. During this period it has undertaken a number of research studies, surveys and discussion programmes. More than a decade ago in 1987, a group of University Students' activists had taken a bold decision to fight against different forms of exploitation and slavery on children by starting CWIN. It was the first initiative in Nepal that organised activities against child labour exploitation and waged social mobilisation to build up public awareness in this regard. Through the help of public campaigns, advocacy and different public programmes, CWIN tried its best to develop the non-issues of child related problems into issues and convert them into the political agendas. These days, the rights of working children have become an important political agenda of the rights of the child movement, human rights and trade union movement in Nepal.

Taking into consideration the future of the nation as a whole, CWIN proposes the following 10-point strategies for the elimination of child labour:

1. Promoting Good Education for Social Change:

Education plays a very vital role for the prevention and control of child labour. An overwhelming majority of children in our society has been deprived of the right to education. Many of those who happen to be in the school for the time being are also dropped out or pulled out due to various social and cultural reasons. In fact, education is a process which will enable people to find a broader horizon in life. Education is essential in order to be liberated from all sorts of exploitation and oppression. In our context, education plays a very significant role in combating child labour. It is said that a good Education Act is better than other acts to prevent and control child labour. However, we have not adopted such conception in practice yet. This kind of law would not only ensure the right to education of working children but would also give certain obligatory role to the states and guardians as education is not only the right of children but also the obligation of adults.

A planned education programme incorporating ll types of education such as formal, informal, non-formal, vocational, semi-vocational or pre-vocational education, should be introduced in problem areas. Experience has proved that there are tremendous drop-out rates from the schools. Such situation generally occurs because of poverty in the family, need of children for work at home and field, death of family bread winner, family break-ups, family migration for work, etc. If we are really committed to bring enlightenment of education to every child, education should be free, compulsory and employment generating and it should give incentives for poor children.

Many people believe that the meaning of education is to send children to school. But this is a very conservative definition of education. Education, in fact, is a process which will lead the children into safer, sounder and more peaceful atmosphere. For this, there is a great need for good education. Good education consists of many components including transparency, ethics, dynamism and self-reliance. Many people think that compulsory education can resolve many problems connected to children. But this cannot be achieved without concrete political commitment and active participation of the government, society and NGO-sector. Therefore, the popular slogan of the compulsory education will not be materialised unless it addresses the situation which make the children deprived of the right to education. Besides, we should not forget that both formal and non-formal education including vocational education or functional education have important role to play in the elimination of child labour.

2. Social Mobilisation for Social Development

Despite many problems of working children, child labour used to be non-issue in this country. It is because of the continuous efforts of child rights and human rights movement, the issue has been converted into a political and social agenda today. However, the movement for the elimination of child labour has not yet been very effective due to the lack of adequate and active participation of the people from different walks of life. For this, we need to invest our efforts for social mobilisation. In this context, human rights movement, trade unions, social activist organisations, and consumers movement can play a very important role for social mobilisation through advocacy programmes and campaigns.

Majority of the Nepali people are not aware of their civil rights. This fact is not only linked to their social ignorance, but also associated with the level of commitment and effectiveness of various social organizations as well. As the advocate and social conscientisers, the social activist groups can organise advocacy campaigns, awareness building programmes and investigative activities for promotion and protection of the rights of the child. As a social watch-dog, social activist groups can also observe, review and monitor the implementation of the child's rights in practice.

3. Economic Alternatives for Every Day Survival

- Introduce village-centred development programmes and prevent the migration of children and families to urban areas.
- Stop trafficking in young children to urban centres.
- Bring alternative means of survival for relatives or family members.
- Introduce risk-free part-time jobs for grown ups for income generation activities for their livelihood in the problem areas.
- Replace child labourers by their parents and provide skill education for their capacity building
- Ensure distribution of land for the landless and squatter people

4. Legal Protection or Protective Measures

- Compulsory registration of child labourers in the Labour Office
- Introduce fixed minimum wage scheme for working children except in health hazardous areas
- Introduce special law on child labour, implement it in an effective way and stop further employment of children under 14 years of age
- In the given context of migration of child labourers abroad, children below 16 years should not be allowed to cross international borders without a permission of parents or guardians.
- Develop time phase action programme for elimination of child labour
- Establish child labour welfare fund through children's welfare tax, so that expenses for the welfare and rehabilitation of children at risk can be met

5. NGO-Government Cooperation

While formulating national plans of action for elimination of child labour, HMG-Nepal should concretely define the role of social organisations, human rights organisations, trade unions, business community, political parties and so on. Without mobilising people of different strata in the society, elimination of child labour is not possible in reality. Many experiences of other countries have proved that the government alone cannot make such initiative successful without an active participation of people. Therefore, in order to implement education, health, income generation, welfare and rehabilitation programmes, HMG-Nepal should develop partnership programmes with non-governmental agencies working for the same objective. This will not only share the burden of the government but will also bring effectiveness in the policy implementation process.

The partnership between HMG/Nepal and social NGOs should be maintained for:

- Building social awareness in the society
- Drafting and amending new and progressive laws
- Formulating concrete plans of action
- Coordinating relief and crisis programmes
- Constituting welfare, service and rehabilitation programmes
- Establishing agency for the co-ordination and communication of HMG/Nepal and NGOs activities for the elimination of child labour

6. Curative/Reformative Actions

- Identify children working in high risk areas and rescue and relieve the exploited working children at risk condition, such as sick children, children in debt bondage or children in forced labour
- Carry out reformative and welfare programmes for working children
- Take action against those who violate laws or put children in exploitative and health hazardous conditions
- Introduce compulsory registration system of factories and industries. Similarly, legalise the compulsory registration of children below 16 years in any form of employment
- Stop night work for children and rescue children at risk condition
- Reform and amend the laws to ensure the rights of working children, including the Labour Act 1991 and Children's Act 1992
- Develop time frame programmes of action to eliminate child labour from different sectors and implement them accordingly

7. Rehabilitative Measures:

- Up-date thedata on rescued children and develop the following types of rehabilitation programme for their social security:
- Family re-unionisation
- Community rehabilitation
- Medical rehabilitation for sick children
- Capacity building or income generation activities programmes for self-sustainability
- Formation of transit centres for ultimate rehabilitation
- Child care centre for homeless and orphan children

8. Political Commitment in Action:

In the last seven years after the restoration of democracy, HMG/Nepal has ratified about a dozen international conventions including the Convention on the Rights of the Child and ILO Minimum Age Convention (ILO Convention No. 138). Based on these political commitments, HMG/Nepal adopted the Children's Act, 1992 and Labour Act, 1991 which prohibit the employment of children in health hazardous areas. The slavery system was abolished by law in Nepal nearly 70 years ago.

Ineffectiveness of laws relating to the rights of the children and the lack of political commitment towards its implementation is the reality in many countries. So many national and international laws and regulations have been adopted and enforced, but they have so far not been able to lessen the growing problem of children at risk. Despite many commitments, the status of children of the third world countries is continuously worsening and their fundamental right to survival, security and childhood is being threatened every day.

As elsewhere, the duplication of programmes, resource constraints or misuse of resources, lack of vision, ineffective programme implementation and weak or total lack of participation of target groups in the programmes are major constraints in the areas of children at risk. Moreover, lack of proper co-ordination and networking among individuals and organisations working for the benefit of such communities, and 'red-tapism' and favouritism among the government bureaucracy and funding agencies are other challenging problems in the rights of the child movement in Nepal. Similarly, development programmes which are not people oriented and donor-driven projects are other challenges. Many of our national plans are not people-centred and lack sustainability. Most of the time our politicians and planners are busy with a dream-selling scheme. They make many commitments but fulfill very little in practice.

9 Child Labour and International Concerns:

Child labour is a matter of international concern. Protection of the rights of the children living and working in the most difficult circumstances can not be achieved without political commitment and co-operation of the international community. However, it is very difficult to intervene in such area without enough knowledge and understanding of the socio-economic realities of a country. Recently there has been increasing concern regarding the rights, welfare and dignity of working children of the world through mobilisation of international public opinion. In this context, we should follow the principle of pressure and partnership so that we can properly motivate the responsible authorities of a country like ours. In the mean time, we need to be very clear that the international support and solidarity should be in conformity with the local social movement against child labour exploitation.

Education for children, social mobilisation for the rights of the child and formation and reformation of the progressive laws were the main agendas widely discussed and reached into consensus in the international child labour conference held recently in Oslo. We think that the donor countries also should come up with a broad understanding to strengthen this initiative through extending support and solidarity to both governments and NGOs working for the common cause. The 20x20 initiative, which is a joint political commitment between interested developed and developing countries to allocate 20% of ODA and national budget respectively to basic social development programmes, is directly relevant in efforts to fight against child labour.

10 Promotion of the Rights of the Child Movement:

Each problem related to children reflects the state of the society. Most children generally do not land on the areas of risk themselves- they are pushed down by the socio-economic factors of their circumstances. Generalising the problems of children at risk without properly analysing their individual components may hinder the identification of the root cause of the problem and the effective strategic planning for its solution. In principal, we all think that children have got the first right to receive humanitarian support at the time of emergency, therefore, all children living at risk should be prioritised for their overall development. But the existing situation does not reflect these principles and the reality suggests otherwise. To work for children is not only a welfare work. It is empowerment, motivation and networking of people and groups for concrete action.