Children in Nepal are exploited to the hilt by a vast majority of the child-employers. They are often forced to work in difficult conditions, including unhygienic and hazardous environment. Worse, the hours are long and wages very low. A report by Child Workers In Nepal (CWIN), an organisation working for child rights, points out the dismal condition of children at home and a bleak future awaiting them hereafter. The condition of children has simply failed to budge from where it was a decade ago, although awareness on child rights and the number of organisations working for children’s uplift have considerably gone up. If anything, the Maoist conflict only worsened the plight of the children who have been forced to flee their homes and villages in large numbers to the cities, where, even in the best of conditions, rampant abuse has greeted them. That is an alarming situation for the juveniles to get exposed to.

The report that the child rights situation has been pushed back by several years underlines how severe child abuse is in Nepal. Even those as young as five are forced to work as labourers to eke out a living. Worse, children constitute about 20 per cent of the economic work force. All efforts must be targeted at eliminating child labour in the the first place. But because the malady is a reality, let us face it. Efforts at decent wage and work environment too must be ensured through the help of the International Labour Organisation, other rights bodies and the government. Child abuse, however insignificant it might appear at the face value, leaves a long lasting psychological scar on the children. Reports of unpaid domestic hands, underpaid children in factories, and sexually exploited children at child-care centres have made it to the headlines very often. Such ignominious behaviour on the part of the adults or employers and guardians must be prevented from happening in the future. It is important to keep a constant vigil over how children are treated in child-care centres and factories where they are employed.

But all efforts to root out child labour and restore child rights must be accompanied by supporting services such as rehabilitation of the abused children, psychological counselling and measures to educate them. Education plays a crucial role in eliminating all kinds of abuses. That is also one means through which the abusers too can realise that the practice they have been sheltering is in fact inhuman. Reintegrating the abused juveniles into the mainstream and enabling them to lead a normal life by providing training and education is the cornerstone in phasing out the anomaly in the long run. The present generation should do that much in shaping the future of Nepali children.