Kathmandu, January 31, 2006

At a time when the Election Commission is not being able to find a single candidate for over a thousand seats and scores of municipalities had one-seat- one-candidate results, a public opinion poll released today predicted 43 per cent voting in the forthcoming municipal elections. According to the poll, conducted as part of a nationwide poll by Interdisciplinary Analysts, a Kathmandu-based research organisation with ACNielson, a marketing research organisation and supported financially by the Asia Foundation, 42.9 per cent of the respondents said they would vote, 19.5 per cent said they would not and 30.7 per cent said they are yet to decide on it. Also, 46.9 per cent said they don’t think the exercise will be free and fair. “The poll indicates that people intend to vote even though they know it is not going to be fair,” said Pawan Kumar Sen, co-researcher of the opinion poll. Another researcher, Dr Sudhindra Sharma said the opinion poll only represents the trend of a limited number of people in a given time. A questionnaire was distributed to 3,000 respondents in randomly selected 25 districts between January 5 and 25. Of the respondents, 1,500 were randomly selected from 32 municipalities of their districts.

Transport crew comprises 43.69 pc children: Study

As much as 43.69 per cent of the total workforce of the transportation sector, one of the most hazardous sectors for children, consists of children below 14 years of age, according to a report on ‘Child Labour in Transportation Sector in Nepal’, which was prepared in 2005. The Child Workers in Nepal Concerned Centre (CWIN) had prepared the report. According to the CWIN report, children working in 5,019 public vehicles in the Kathmandu Valley work for 12 hours a day on an average. Presenting the report today, research coordinator Govinda Subedi said, “Twenty-eight per cent of child labourers in the transportation sector are below 14 years of age. The sector falls under one of the worst forms of child labour because of poor working conditions, accidents, various forms of exploitation, long working hours and lack of bargaining power of child labourers.” Twenty-seven per cent of these children are illiterate and 80 per cent of them are from outside the valley, according to the report. While child labourers working for daily wages earn Rs 98 per day on an

average, those working on a monthly basis earn Rs 930 on an average. Sixty-six per cent of them support their

families with their limited income. Gauri Pradhan, executive director of the CWIN, said, “Though plans and policies have been formulated and budget allocated for children, the results are far from satisfactory.”