SIMKOT, JULY 5

Nine children from Kharpunath and Adanchuli rural municipalities of Humla district were reunited with their families yesterday after being rescued from child care homes in Kathmandu.

They had been taken by some middlemen, who lured them with the promise of good education and proper care, it is said.

Himali Nabin Samaj, an organisation working in the sector of children for long, repatriated eight boys and a girl to their families yesterday in the presence of chief district officer and the local people's representatives.

The eight children were rescued from the Light for National Child Care Home located at Dharmasthali of Kathmandu in March. The child care home was also found not to be operating as per the Residential Child Protection Home Operation and Management Standards and the children sheltered there were in poor health.

A joint team from the National Council for Child Rights, Tarakeshwor Municipality, Children at Risk Coordination Centre 104 and Police Station at Dharmasthali had rescued these children.

It is said that some unscrupulous people acting as middlemen had been taking children from the district to Kathmandu and other towns of the country, luring them with cost-free better education and care. Some of the parents have also said that they had to provide money to such people. It is said the children were admitted to the child care homes also for the purpose of religious conversion.

A version of this article appears in the print on July 6 2021, of The Himalayan Times.