Kathmandu, February 22

Most of the residential child care homes in Lalitpur district are understaffed, according to a recently published report.

According to the report on ‘Assessment of Residential Child Care Homes in Lalitpur’, that was made public today, there are 21 caretakers in 14 child care homes in the district.

The report was prepared after assessment of 20 residential child care homes out of 120 homes that are operational in Lalitpur.

The homes have been providing shelter to as many as 419 children 208 girls and 211 boys. Altogether 116 staff members are working in 20 residential child care homes, while there are no caretakers or any designated staff in as many as six such homes.

Most of the homes also lack psychological counsellor, medical practitioner and social workers. Shree Shankar Pradhananga, national director of SOS Children’s Villages Nepal, said though there were 116 staff in 20 residential child care homes, the number of qualified and designated staff is nominal.

“Of the total, around 50 per cent are administrative staff,” he added.

Though each child care home is supposed to have 12 staff members on average as per standards, only three homes have more than nine staff at present. Moreover, most of the staff are unskilled, the report said.

It added that half of such homes have never trained their staff on any aspect of child care, which shows that the quality of service is being compromised.

Pradhananga said, “There is dire need of capacity building of human resources mobilised in child care homes.”

The report was prepared by the Ministry of Women, Children and Social Welfare in close coordination with SOS Children’s Villages Nepal as part of ‘Care for Me!’ Campaign launched by SOS.