Prasanna Chitrakar

Kathmandu, January 9

Last November 14-year-old Bikesh Shrestha and another child-worker were working on an automobile in a motorcycle repair shop. Both were in a pit dug underneath the vehicle for convenience.

Bikash recalled, 'Suddenly, the petrol tank began leaking and the pit started filling up. The more we tried to control it, the more petrol kept pouring in.'

The petrol fumes choked them, and both boys lost consciousness by the time other workers pulled them out. They were rushed to hospital where it took them four days to recover from their brush with death.

'We were lucky there was no naked electric wire around or else the petrol would have ignited in a flash and burnt us,' said Bikesh with a shudder. 'I will never forget that day,' .

Bikesh said he was 12 when he began working in an automobile repair shop in Lalitpur after his father died. The workshop owner, Ramesh Shrestha, was kind to his employees. Bikesh decided to stick around, though the work was risky and hard. Besides, he was learning the automobile repair trade. Accustomed to accidental electric shocks and body aches, Bikesh has gone back to work but confessed he is scared each time he steps into the pit to work on an automobile.

'Child labour in the mechanical sector has not been identified as a form of child labour, although children involved in this sector work in more hazardous conditions than in some of the identified sectors,' Bijay Sainju, executive chairperson of Concern for Children and Environment-Nepal (CONCERN-Nepal), said.

The organisation has started working with such children as a major target group. It is also working with children employed in brick kilns, stone quarries, restaurants, tea shops and those working as porters.

Recently, CONCERN-Nepal began non-formal education classes for these children at Sanepa, Kopun, Kupondole, Tika Bhairav and Chobhar. Bikash is one of the beneficiaries. 'He is short tempered, but diligent and does not harm anyone,' his teacher said.