JAJARKOT: A total of 2,309 children in the district are left high and dry with no one to take care of them, a report prepared by the District Child Welfare Board said.

According to the report, children who were separated from their parents, had gone missing, suffered sexual abuses, become victims of child marriage and Chhaupadi tradition (a tradition wherein women are banished from their home during menstruation) and been forced into illegal drug trade have become helpless.

The report said that, 53 of those children are currently taking shelter in various child care homes in the country with 44 of them in the child homes being run illegally.

Of them, 39 are taking shelter in Kathmandu-based Jyoti Ghar Nepal (JGN) illegally, three in Kathmandu-based Women and Children Upliftment Centre, one in Lalitpur-based Moonlight Child Home and one in Surkhet-based branch of the JGN, said Dambar Bahadur Rokaya, Child Welfare Officer at the Women and Children Office, Jajarkot.

Chief District Officer Janardan Gautam blamed poverty, domestic violence, death of parents, sexual abuses and divorce between parents among others for the miserable situation.

He said that they are finding it hard to provide shelter, food and education to such children properly for want of budget.

Civil society leader Rajendra Bikram Shah accused the government of failing to protect such children.