Employment of children under the age of 14 as domestic help

or in restaurants, hotels, motels, teashops, resorts and other recreational centers have been made illegal in Nepal for the last few years. Needless to say, child labor is one of Nepal’s most intractable social problems. Under the existing law, children are already banned from working in a number of industries including bakery, handloom, cigarette manufacturing, glass-making, meat-processing etc.

The ban, announced by the labor ministry, is aimed at “ameliorating the condition of helpless working

children from “psychological

traumas and, at times, even

sexual abuse”. The penalty for flouting the law is a jail-term ranging from three months to two years, with or without a fine that could range from Rs 10,000 to Rs 20,000.

Unfortunately, the record so far

on enforcement is dismal. The

fact is that the country now has

10-15 lakhs child workers, who

contribute 10 per cent of the gross national product (GNP). UNICEF estimates that one in five children under 14 working outside the family is a domestic worker in Nepal.

With the phenomenon of child labor rooted in poverty, even limited anti-child-labor provisions have proved almost impossible to enforce. This has forced successive governments to take a gradual approach to its abolition. In a survey of child domestic workers in Kathmandu, it was found that many schools serving the poor were of such low quality that the expected return on education was not equal to the sacrifice of income made during school years. At the same time, many households that employ child workers as domestic help argue that they are doing their families a favor.

Who will take care of them once they are stopped from earning their livelihood? After all, on their meager earning depends the survival of their families. Only incapable parents push their children into those jobs. Economists and industry-watchers warn that the ban will not only spell economic doom for lakhs of poor families, but it will also saddle society with other social problems. This new caveat will throw millions of children out of job.

Unless there is a mechanism for rehabilitation of such children, who are forced to work for their survival, such laws will be ineffective.