Himalayan News Service

Kathmandu, July 24:

A group of five non-governmental organisations working in the field of child rights today asked the Ministry of Education and Sports to make provisions to consider torture of children and even verbal misbehaviour with them, as crimes. The group of NGOs included Centre for Victims in Torture (CVICT), Child Workers in Nepal Concerned Centre (CWIN), Education Journalists’ Group (EJG), Children and Women in Social Service and Human Rights (CWISH) and Capcorn. Submitting a memorandum to the ministry, they have asked the ministry to implement the January 6 directives of the Supreme Court to define any kind of torture of children as a punishable crime and launch a campaign to create awareness among teachers

and parents against corporal punishment. The SC on its verdict had nullified a children-related act of 2002 that defines normal torture of children by their parents and teachers as unpunishable and had ordered the government to make provisions defining such torture as

a crime, according to a joint press release issued by the five NGOs. In the wake of a series of reported cases of torture of children in Valley schools leading to the children committing suicide, the group moved the ministry to stop such incidents. Speaking at a programme organised by the group, Bharat Adhikari, programme officer at CWIN, said 999 cases of torture of children were reported in the CWIN Helpline from 1999 to 2004. Among them, 394 cases had happened in schools.