Prepared by:
Vasha Shrestha

Edited by:
Sumnima Tuladhar Sophie Shugg

Published by:
CWIN National Resource Centre on Child Rights and Children in Conflict


CWIN-Nepal
in partnership with
Plan-Nepal

P.O.Box. No. 4374
Rabibhawan, Kathmandu
Email: cwininfo@mos.com.np
URL: www.cwin.org.np

"Lets Build New Nepal With Children"
Building New Constitution: Respecting Child Rights !
NATIONAL CAMPAIGN 2009

This is the most important phase in the history of the country, where the general public can participate in building the new constitution. It is a high time to be aware and to ensure the rights of people belonging to different class, level and regions by institutionalizing national integrity, democracy and inclusiveness. Therefore, to ensure the rights of child in the constitution a national awareness campaign was initiated to give equal importance to children's voices and issues affecting them in the Constituent Assembly. Dysentery

The objectives of the campaign were; (a) To collect child rights issues directly from the children from different districts at a national level. (b) To promote awareness among the general public regarding 'Child Rights Sensitive Constitution' in a national level. (c) To provide suggestions by compiling the issues at a national level in order to give importance to children's issues in the Constituent Assembly.

Activities carried out:

Collection of Children's Thumb-print: Around 10 lakhs children's thumb prints were collected to insure children's rights in the new constitution. With a strong voice on "Building New Constitution: Respecting Child Rights"; ten lakhs colorful and creative thumbprints will be handed over to Hon. Madhav Kumar Nepal, Chairperson, Constitution Drafting Committee.

Child Rights Bus: For the first time in Nepal "Child Rights Bus" traveled successfully in 36 districts with the cultural demonstration to raise public awareness. Different awareness programs were conducted through street drama, oratory, children's songs, rallies, public gatherings promoting Child Rights, and the collection of thumb prints.

Essay Competition: National level Essay Competition entitled "Constitution I Desire" was organized to collect creative suggestions and ideas to ensure children's right in the new constitution. 657 essays were registered from 43 districts which were pre-selected by the district organizing committee in the district level competition. However, 3000 children from all the districts participated for the competition. Two renowned literary figures- Mr. Naranath Luitel, and Mr. Bijay Chalise were appointed for scrutinizing and grading the essays collected. The top twenty five essays will be published in book form.

Suggestions Collection: Suggestions were collected from 26 districts by organizing meetings. In 36 districts where the Child Right Bus reached, the team collected thousands of suggestions directly from the children organizing discussions, interactions. Apart from this, 1351 children personally sent their suggestions written. Likewise, from the schools of 44 districts, children's issues were sent filling the form distributed through the campaign.

Media Mobilization and Information Dissemination
During the campaign in the districts, the local, national, international (BBC) news media highlighted the campaign with great importance. All the national TV channels and news papers have taken the issue and broadcasted/telecasted through their channels, which have helped in making campaign successful. More importantly, our weekly television programme 'Bal Sarokar' has been telecasting campaign activities every week through NTV2.

Preparation for National Convene of the Campaign
Grand National Event of the campaign will be organized. Chairperson of Constitution Drafting Committee, Hon. Madhav Kumar Nepal will be handed over the document in the ceremony. Children's thumb prints, suggestions, glimpses of the campaign, campaign materials, etc. will be exhibited. Name list of all the organizers will be displayed and also interested organizers will put their stall and distribute their publications related to child rights and constitution.
A national report of the campaign will be launched in the ceremony. A book consisting top 25 essays written by children will be published. The winners of the essay competition will be awarded in the programme. Further, there will also be a documentary show of the campaign.

While the first phase of the campaign will be to hand over 10 lakhs children's thumb prints and submit suggestions; advocacy, lobbying, pressurizing the concerned etc. for ensuring child rights in the new constitution will continue until the New Constitution is finalized.

Adolescent Education Training [TOP]

Adolescent Education Training is one of the major programs of CWIN Balika, which has been running since 1998. This training is provided to adolescent girls from various vulnerable and marginalized communities in Kathmandu. The main objective of this training is to empower the girls. This is through building confidence and leadership qualities. It enables them to fight for their rights in "at risk" situations. It provides knowledge and understanding of various facets of life such as child marriage, trafficking, gender discrimination, family planning etc. and to enhance the capabilities of adolescent girls to become an agency of social transformation to bring about desired change in the community

A six day training was conducted in the Balika home of CWIN for the marginalized adolescent girls living in different areas of Kathmandu which started from the 13th of April till the 19th of April in CWIN Balika. There were about 102 participants from different areas of Kathmandu. The training covered subject matter such as: Adolescent stage and its change, Trafficking, Menstruation, Child rights, Violence, Gender, Child marriage, Sexual abuse, HIV/AIDS, Family planning.

Drinking, smoking habits among children rising [TOP]

Academic and health status of Nepalese children who are involved in smoking and drinking is deteriorating day by day. Drinking and smoking among children is said to be a result of imitating behaviours.

According to a survey prepared by CWIN, 16 per cent children imitated drinking habit from their family members.

Of then, 41 per cent children started smoking and drinking from bars, restaurant, and 18 per cent imitated their friends.

According to the report prepared by CWIN, some 39 percent were involved in smoking and drinking for recreation, 17 per cent to minimize tensions and other 10 for getting strength.

Some 600 street children migrate to the capital each year from different districts.

Meanwhile, life in Dhankuta has been affected due to the acute shortage of cooking gas (KP gas) and kerosene caused by the daily strikes. People have started to eat beaten rice. Mainly, students and employees have been adversely affected.

They have accused entrepreneurs of creating artificial shortages and demanded action against them.

Distribution of cooking gas and kerosene could not be done in the district for the past two months, as they were not supplied from Biratnagar as per the demand, said Dhankuta-based dealer of Koshi gas.

Source: The Riding Nepal, April 27, 2009

Maoists violating child rights: UN [TOP]

United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has said that Nepal's ruling Maoists are one of 56 partied across the world committing grave violations of child rights.

Ban's report released in New York on Thursday has featured UCPN (Maoist)'s name alongside the likes of the Taliban in Afghanistan and al-Qaida in Iraq, among other prominent armed groups operating in Sudan, Congo, Myanmar, Somalia, Chad, Burundi and Sri Lanka, among others.

The 15-member UN Security Council will carry out an open debate on the report, which has also enlisted Maoists on the list of 19 persistent violators, on April 29.

In order to halt violations and ensure greater protection of children in conflict situations, Ban has recommended targeted measures by the Security Council against repeated violations.

"Accountability for perpetrates will create a sense of justice for the victims and it will also have a deterrent effect. Persistent violators have to realize that their crimes will not remain unpunished", a statement issued by the UNMIN quoted Coomaraswamy as saying.

Ban has also mentioned about unkept promise of PM and Maoist chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal to release 2,973 children from the cantonments by the end of February 2009.

The report covers compliance and progress in ending six grave violations against children: recruitment and use of children; killing and maiming of children; rape and other grave sexual violence; abductions; attacks on schools and hospitals; and denial of humanitarian access to children.
Source: Republica, April 25, 2009

Walking 7 hours everyday to go to school [TOP]

Narayani Oli is a student of class 8 from Garpa Khaheri, Salyan. She needs to walk for 3 hours to go to school everyday. She decided to walk that long as there is no Secondary level shool in the VDC. She studies in Nepal Rastriya Higher Secondary School in Kimuchowr.

She needs to walk at 7 in the morning from home. 'She already starts feeling hungry when she reaches school'. 'There are lots of problems when the school is far'. She takes longer when she's returning home. 'On the way back, I'll have no strength to walk much, due to hunger'. Also get very tired. 'In the evening, I feel too sleepy to study.' 'This has hampered my studies in different ways.'

Another resident, Suresh Bhandari of 14 has the same problem as Oli's. He tells 'I need to get ready for school as soon as I wake up in the morning. As the school is very far, I miss classes.' He condemns that, Education Office shows little concern about the necessity of a Secondary School in the village. As there is no Secondary School in Garpa, more than 200 students from Gairibang, Gothiban, Sarpani Garpa, Danbang, Simalkuna, Khahare, Bajkot, Kalapatala come in this school.

'They make you run in the morning and in the evening while returning home, you already feel tired.' Parent and a teacher, Yam Bahadur Oli states, 'Due to the economic status, they are as well not able to stay in rent nearby.'

Source: Kantipur, April 15, 2009

Martyrs' children to get free education [TOP]

As per the government declaration of providing free education to the children of martyrs in the budget for the current fiscal, construction of a building for a boarding school has started in Sunsari's Hansposa.

The government has authorized Martyr Memorial Foundation for the operation of the school. According to chairman of the school management committee Ram Koirala, construction of the building has begun in earnest. The government is set to provide Rs. 10 million for the infrastructure of the school.

Koirala said they had bought a bigha of land for Rs. 1.7 million price to construct bamboo huts for temporary use. A minimum of 150 children of martyrs from the eastern region will study in the school, he said. The children will be provided food, clothes and health service free of cost.

The committee said preliminary construction of the school would be completed in two weeks. In the first phase, six huts will be constructed while permanent infrastructure will be completed within two years Koirala added that kin of martyrs will be prioritized while selecting teachers and staff for the school.

Source: The Himalayan Times, April 29, 2009

Children stop four child marriages in Morang [TOP]

Children of Nocha Village Development Committee-8, Morang have taken on the responsibility of helping to combat a social evil that plagues Nepali society: child marriage. The children have stopped the marriages of four underage girls and threatened the parents with legal action if the marriages goes ahead.

The children enlisted the help of police to stop the marriages of their school mate, which was scheduled for this month. Last month also, when a team of Constituent Assembly members visited the village to collect suggestions for writing the new constitution, the children had demanded tough punishment for people who forced children into marriage.

The girls set to be married off were 14-year-old Kiran Kumari Mandal and 17-year-old Ruda Kumari Mandal of Nocha-8, 16-year-old Gunja mandal of Nocha-3 and 15-year-old Sulekha Kumari Mandal of Nocha-6.

After local children came to know about the impending under-age marriages in Nocha, they initiated a movement for three days and succeeded in stopping the marriages from going ahead, according to Chanda Yogi, chief of the police post in Gadariya.

We persuaded the four girls and their parents to stop the marriages," Yogi said. It took quite an effort though to make the parents agree.

Dipak B.K, program coordinator of a local social group, said the parents refused to cooperate at first. "After the refusal, local children took to the streets, held rallies and raised slogans chanted by the children, saying "Marriage only after 20" and "Child marriage will land you in jail".

The children numbering about 150 carried out mass sloganeering in front of the four girls houses and forced the parents to abandon plans to marry them off. Neighbors also played an instrumental role in persuading the parents to stop the marriages.

It is likely that some of the parents will shift the marriage venues to India and go ahead with the marriages, said Yogi of Gadariya Police Post.

"Some parents seen to be intent on going ahead with the planned marriages as matchmaking has been completed and they have already spent money preparing for the ceremony," Yogi said.

Nepal has a legal provision for slapping a penalty of Rs. 10,000 and six months' imprisonment on those marrying or organizing the marriage of girls less than 18 years of age. The law has a provision for slapping a similar penalty on those marrying or organizing the marriage of girls under 20 without the consent of their parents.

Source: Republica, April 22, 2009

Man thrashed to death on kidnapping charge
Five killed in two days on similar charges [TOP]

Yet another man has been thrashed to death by locals in Dhanusha on Thursday on suspicion of being involved in kidnapping children as life in Dhanusha, Mahottari and Siraha districts remains terrorized due to an alarming rise in the number of kidnapping cases.

The locals thrashed the unidentified middle-aged man believed to have come from India with sticks and bricks in Thadijhijha. The number of public killings on suspicion of the victim's involvement in kidnapping children in Dhanusha and Mahottari districts as now reached five, with four in Dhanusha alone.

Two unidentified persons were killed in Janakpur and one in Mahottari on Wednesday while one woman was burnt to death at Bharatpur in Dhanusha on April 12.

A man and a woman of Indian origin were killed by locals in Janakpur on Wednesday accusing them of kidnapping children in the Tarai. The man was drowned in a pond by locals in Kapileshwar, Jankapur-16 while the woman of around 40 years died after she was attacked for the second time while undergoing treatment at the emergency ward of the Janakpur Zonal Hospital following her rescue by police in Ramananda Chowk, Janakpur.

One unidentified man believed to be of Indian origin was beaten to death on a similar charge in Khuttapipradi, Mahottari on Wednesday night.

In another incident, locals severely beat up one Kisun Das, a labourer from Deuri Prabaha-9 Wednesday night. He was saved after police intervened and sent him to hospital. Similarly, police rescued a woman, who has been identified as Sahida Khatun, 38, of Sitamadi (India), from Sapahi, Dhanusha Wednesday morning when locals were trying to burn her to death alleging her involvement in kidnapping children.

Another man was handed over to police by the locals after severely thrashing him in Kishorinagar, Janakpur on Wednesday. He is recieving treatment in the emergency ward at Janakpur Zonal Hospital in a critical condition. Police have increased security in the emergency ward and barred entry to locals from Wednesday.

The locals have handed over 17 persons to the District Police Office, Dhanusha after beating then up on charges of kidnapping in the last 10 days alone.

"These are just mentally-challenged Indians chased away by the Indian authorities during the general elections," said Superintendent of Police Yadav Raj Khanal. The locals beat up strangers and hand them over to the police and kill them if they resist, Khanal added.

Even in Siraha, 13 individuals of Indian origin are in police custody, according to Siraha's Superintendent of Police Ramesh Kharel. Such incidents have made it dangerous for strangers to travel in Dhanusha and Siraha these days.

Govt. set to take on pneumonia [TOP]

In its bid to bring down child mortality rate, the Ministry of Health (MoH) is planning to vaccinate all children under five years of age against pneumonia and meningitis from June/July. The first phase of the campaign was launched in 25 districts from western and far-western regions on April 14.

The ministry aims to expand the campaign to all the districts from the fiscal year beginning June/July, according to Dr. Shyam Raj Upreti, director at the child health division under the MoH.

The Haemophilus influenzae type B (HiB) campaign will be part of the government's ongoing national immunisation programmes.

The government woke up after a survey showed that over 11,000 children under five years of age were dying of pneumonia and meningitis every year.

Two bacteria, namely Haemophilus influenzae Type B (HiB) and Pneumococcus, cause pneumonia and meningitis. "In Nepal, thousands of children die of HiB disease every year. Moreover, the survivors of HoB meningitis are often permanently disabled - deafened, paralysed or brain damaged," said Dr. Shyam Raj Upreti, director at the child death division under the MoH.

According to MoH statistics, diseases kill 58,000 children under five years of age annually. Of them, 4,000 died of HiB. The new combination vaccine will protect children against HiB and five other deadly diseases, namely diphtherias, pertussis, tetanus, Hepatitis B and BCG.

HiB campaign, so far the most expensive vaccination drive incorporated in the government's national immunisation programme (Each vaccine costs around Rs. 300), will also make it easier for health workers to reach out to children across the country at a time when the government's immunisation campaign is underway.

"After introducing this (HiB) vaccine, we became able to bring down the child mortality rate from 91 in 2001 to 61 in 2006. We hope to be able to bring down the mortality rate to 54 by 2015, which is Millennium Development Goal (MDG) target," added Dr. Upreti.