Kathmandu, April 4:

The District Child Welfare Committee (DCWC), Kathmandu chapter, has scrapped the licences of nine shelter homes and is in the process of cancelling the same of nine other orphanages.

Action will be taken against them for not complying with the rules and regulations set by the government. Of the 400 shelter homes registered in Kathmandu, 50 have been blacklisted by the DCWC for not maintaining even the minimum standards and violating the laws governing the shelters .

Member secretary of the DCWC, Gyan Bahadur Lama, told this daily that the licenses of nine such shelter homes have already been cancelled, while the DCWC is working to scrap the same of nine others.

‘The entire process will be completed within six months,’ Lama said. He said that the children must be rehabilitated before the shelters are closed.

The DCWC, Kathmandu, rescued 33 children from a shelter home, Life for Nation, in February 2006. Till date children from 15 other homes have been rescued.

The next two shelters from where children will be rescued ‘very soon’ are Tuhura Aanath Bal Manch at Koteshwore and Mukti Nepal at Maharajgunj.

The Himali Aanath Bal Bikas Kendra, Thankot, one of the shlters from which kids were rescued, had 134 kids, the highest number. Pashupati Mohan Baba Dharmashala Bal Griha, Pashupati,where aslo a rescue operation was mounted, had just five children.

The Central Child Welfare Board (CCWB) has a 16-point regulation governing the shelters. According to the regulation, the shelters should have a transparent action plan in accordance with the existing laws, must provide timely food and education care, must in no way exploit the inmates, should be spacious and should have four employees for every 10 children.

While admitting a child in a shlter, recommendations from local authorities and the death certificate of either the father or the mother of the child must be produced.

Bijaya Sainju, president of Child Care Homes Monitoring Committee which works in tandem with the DCWC, said that the shlters are frequently monitored and if found unsatisfactory, they are given at least three months to improve the conditions.