2004 Findings on the Worst Forms of Child Labor - Nepal

Incidence and Nature of Child Labor

The ILO estimated that 40.8 percent of children ages 10 to 14 years in Nepal were working in 2002.^[2870] The majority of economically active children participate in the agriculture sector, while others work in the service sector, transportation, and communication.^[2871] Throughout the country, children carry heavy loads as short-distance and long-distance porters.^[2872] Over 10,000 children are estimated to work in stone quarries.^[2873] In Kathmandu alone, an estimated 21,000 children under 14 years old are domestic servants. Children scavenge for plastic, metal, and glass to recycle. To a lesser extent, children are engaged in brick making. Children make up an estimated 2 percent of the workforce in the export-oriented carpet industry, though more are estimated to work in family-based weaving operations and smaller factories.^[2874] According to ILO-IPEC, most working children do not receive wages.^[2875] They often work under exploitive and hazardous conditions.^[2876]

The government has reported a range of estimates for the number of child trafficking victims. Some 5,000 to 12,000 girls may be trafficked for commercial sexual exploitation annually, and as many as 200,000 trafficked Nepalese girls are estimated to reside in Indian brothels.^[2877] Girls as young as 9 years old have been trafficked. In 2001, a local NGO recorded 265 cases of girl trafficking victims, of which 34 percent were below 16 years of age.^[2878] While trafficking of children often leads to their sexual exploitation, there is also demand for trafficked boys and girls to work in the informal labor sector.^[2879] A 2001, study found 30 percent of commercial sex workers in Kathmandu were below 18 years old.^[2880]

A Maoist insurrection continues throughout Nepal with violence directed at government, security, and civilian targets. There are reports that Maoist insurgents use children as soldiers, cooks, and messengers.^[2881] There is anecdotal evidence that unaccompanied children are fleeing areas of civil unrest and migrating to urban areas because of economic hardship and to avoid recruitment by Maoist insurgents. There is concern among government officials and NGOs that these children are much more vulnerable to labor or sexual exploitation, or living on the streets.^[2882] A network of NGOs that monitor violations against children in armed conflict have documented cases of insurgents destroying schools and using school premises to abduct and recruit tens of thousands of students and teachers from schools, creating an atmosphere of fear and violence.^[2883] Schools have been battle zones for both the insurgents and the Royal Nepal Army.^[2884]

Education is not compulsory in Nepal. The Constitution states that it is a fundamental right for each community to operate primary schools and educate children in their mother language. It is government policy to raise the standard of living of the population through development of education and other social investments, making special provisions for females, economically and socially disadvantaged groups, and by making gradual arrangements for free education.^[2885] Primary schools commonly charge non-tuition fees to pay for other school expenses,^[2886] and families frequently do not have the money to pay for school supplies and clothing.^[2887] In 2001, the gross primary enrollment rate was 121.6 percent. There are wide disparities between primary school enrollment rates of girls and boys. In 2001, gross enrollment rates were 112.9 percent and 129.8 for girls and boys respectively. Net primary enrollment rates are unavailable for 2001. In 2000, net enrollment rates were 66 percent and 74.6 percent for girls and boys respectively.^[2888] Gross and net enrollment ratios are based on the number of students formally registered in primary school and therefore do not necessarily reflect actual school attendance. In 2000, the gross primary attendance rate was 116.9 percent and the net primary attendance rate was 73 percent.^[2889]

Child Labor Laws and Enforcement

The Labor Act of 1992 and the Children's Act of 1992 set the minimum age for employment at 14 years.^[2890] The Child Labor Prohibition and Regulation Act of 2000 (Child Labor Act) consolidates child labor provisions in the Labor and Children's Acts and lists different occupations in which children below 16 years cannot be employed, provides for penalties for those who do not comply, and calls for establishment of a Child Labor Elimination Committee and Child Labor Elimination Fund. Children can work up to 6 hours a day and 36 hours a week, between 6 a.m. and 6 p.m.^[2891] The Child Labor Act only covers formal sectors of employment, leaving the majority of child laborers who work in the informal sectors without legal protection. The Child Labor Act imposes a punishment of up to 3 months in prison, a fine of up to 10,000 RS (USD 145) or both for employing an underage child. Employing a child in dangerous work or against their will is punishable with imprisonment for up to one year, a fine of up to 50,000 (USD 725) or with both.^[2892] The Labor Act also allows for a fine to be levied against employers in violation of labor laws.^[2893]

The primary anti-trafficking law is the Human Trafficking Control Act of 1986.^[2894] The Kamaiya system, a form of bonded labor, was banned in 2000, and the Kamaiya Labor (Prohibition) Act came into effect in February 2002. The Act outlaws keeping or employing any person as a bonded laborer and cancels any unpaid loans or bonds between creditors and Kamaiya laborers.^[2895] The Constitution of Nepal prohibits the employment of minors in factories, mines or other hazardous work.^[2896]

The Central Child Welfare Board and Child Welfare Officers have the responsibility of enforcing child rights legislation.^[2897] The Ministry of Labor and Transport Management's Child Labor Section and Labor Offices are responsible for enforcing child labor issues.^[2898] Despite legal protections, resources devoted to enforcement of child labor laws are limited and the Ministry employs too few inspectors to address the problem effectively. There are 14 labor inspectors located in 14 offices in Nepal, who are responsible for conducting inspections of 20,000 corporations registered with the Ministry of Labor. Last year, the Ministry of Labor carried out 500 inspections; according to a Ministry official, no instances of child labor were found.^[2899]

Current Government Policies and Programs to Eliminate the Worst Forms of Child Labor

In February 2004, the Ministry of Labor and Transport Management of Nepal revised a national Master Plan on Child Labor for 2004-2014. The revised plan calls for eliminating the worst forms of child labor by 2009 and all forms of child labor in by 2014. It identifies 16 worst forms of child labor; the IPEC Core Timebound program will target seven worst forms of child labor in 35 districts of Nepal in two phases (totaling seven years). Targeted children are porters, rag pickers (recyclers), domestic workers, laborers in the carpet industry and in mines, bonded laborers, and children trafficked for sexual or labor exploitation.^[2900] In November 2004, the Child Labor Prohibition Act of 2000 was formally enacted, enabling the government to enforce the act's provisions.^[2901] The government has a National Plan of Action to Combat Trafficking and has established a 16-member National Coordination Committee with a National Task Force that provides policy direction and coordinates activities on child trafficking.^[2902]

The government continues to take action in order to rescue and rehabilitate freed bonded laborers and has established a Freed Kamaiya Rehabilitation and Monitoring Committee to promote this work at the district level. In 2000, USDOL funded a project that is on-going to support former child bonded laborers and their families.^[2903]

With funding from USDOL in 2000, the Government of Nepal and local partner organizations continue to implement a comprehensive ILO-IPEC Core Timebound Program.^[2904] World Education and its local partner organizations also continue to implement a child labor educational initiative program that was funded by USDOL in 2002 that works closely with the ILO-IPEC Core Timebound Project.^[2905] Nepal continues to be a part of an ILO-IPEC regional project to combat trafficking in Asia.^[2906]

In July 2004, the World Bank approved a USD 50 million credit that will be pooled with about USD 100 million in grant funding from other donors to support the Government of Nepal's Education for All program to finance basic and primary education expenditures over the next 5 years.^[2907] The Seventh Education Amendment was passed in 2002, which began the government's commitment to decentralization of the education system.^[2908] The Community School Support Project received funding in 2003 from the World Bank in support of the government policy of providing communities incentives to take over the management of government-funded schools.^[2909] The Basic and Primary Education Project has been underway since 1993 and works to improve quality, access and retention of students, and institutional capacity.^[2910] The Primary Education Development Project has been underway since 1992 and prepares new primary school teachers and constructs schools.^[2911]

[2870] World Bank, World Development Indicators 2004 [CD-ROM], Washington, D.C., 2004.

[2871] According to the National Child Labor Study, 50 types of paid economic activities outside the home have been recorded where children are involved. See Kamal Banskota, Bikash Sharma, and Binod Shrestha, Study on the Costs and Benefits of the Elimination of Child Labor in Nepal, Study for the International Labor Office International Program on the Elimination of Child Labor (IPEC), Kathmandu, 2002, 5-6. Over 80 percent of the population in Nepal support themselves with subsistence agriculture. See U.S. Department of State, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices – 2003: Nepal, Washington, D.C., February 25, 2004, Introduction; available from http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2003/27949.htm.

[2872] Ministry of Labor and Transport Management, National Master Plan on Child Labor, 2004-2014, Kathmandu, 2004, Annex 1.5. See also Ministry of Labor and Transport Management, National Master Plan on Child Labor, 2004-2014.

[2873] The majority of the children are 11 to 13 years old and more girls than boys work in quarries. Twenty-five percent of the children work 4 to 8 hours a day; 67 percent work 9 to 10 hours per day. See Suresh Pradhan, ILO-IPEC Nepal Official, Presentation on Child Labor in Stone Quarries in Nepal, Consultation Meeting on Child Labor in Artisanal and Small-Scale Mining, World Bank, April 29, 2004.

[2874] U.S. Department of State, Country Reports – 2003: Nepal, Section 6d. See also Nepal Rugmark Foundation, Rugmark Bulletin 2004, Kathmandu, January 1, 2004.

[2875] ILO-IPEC, Strategic Plan for 2000-2007: Nepal, Geneva, February 4, 2000, Section 2.1.1. Approximately 95 percent of child laborers are employed in the informal sector. See U.S. Embassy-Kathmandu, unclassified telegram no. 1661, August 20, 2004.

[2876] The hazards children face when engaged in the 16 worst forms of child labor are described in the National Master Plan on Child Labor. For example, children working in small restaurants and bars and in domestic service lack rest, work long hours, are under the control of their employers, and are at risk of sexual exploitation. When making bricks or in carpet factories, children inhale dust and risk bodily deformation from work posture or carrying heavy loads. See Ministry of Labor and Transport Management, National Master Plan on Child Labor, 2004-2014, Annex 1.7.

[2877] Ministry of Women, Children, and Social Welfare, National Plan of Action Against Trafficking in Children and Women for Sexual and Labour Exploitation, Kathmandu, 2001, 5. See also Ministry of Labor and Transport Management, National Master Plan on Child Labor, 2004-2014, 3.

[2878] Child Workers in Nepal (CWIN), The State of the Rights of the Child in Nepal, 2002, National Report, 1st ed. (Kathmandu: 2002), 33.

[2879] Ministry of Women, Children, and Social Welfare, National Plan of Action Against Trafficking in Children and Women for Sexual and Labour Exploitation, Kathmandu, 2002, 6, 9.

[2880] U.S. Department of State, Country Reports – 2003: Nepal, Section 6f.

[2881] Ibid., Introduction and Section 5, 6d.

[2882] U.S. Embassy-Kathmandu, unclassified telegram no. 1661.

[2883] Watchlist on Children and Armed Conflict, Nepal's Children Devastated by Raging Armed Conflict: Call for Immediate Action, press release, Kathmandu and New York, January 26, 2005; available from http://www.watchlist.org/reports/nepal.pr.20050120.php.

[2884] Some efforts are underway by the Ministry of Education and local NGOs to make schools a "place of peace" and safer to attend. U.S. Embassy-Kathmandu, unclassified telegram no. 1661.

[2885] Constitution of the Kingdom of Nepal, (November 9, 1990), Part 3, Article 18 (2) and Part 4, Articles 26 (1, 7-10); available from http://www.oefre.unibe.ch/law/icl/np00000_.html.

[2886] ILO-IPEC, Sustainable Elimination of Bonded Labor in Nepal, project document, NEP/00/P51/USA, Geneva, December 2000, 1.

[2887] U.S. Department of State, Country Reports – 2003: Nepal, Section 5.

[2888] World Bank, World Development Indicators 2004. For an explanation of gross primary enrollment and/or attendance rates that are greater than 100 percent, please see the definitions of gross primary enrollment rate and gross primary attendance rate in the glossary of this report.

[2889] USAID Development Indicators Service, Global Education Database, [online] 2004; available from http://qesdb.cdie.org/ged/index.html.

[2890] The Labor Act defines a child as anyone below the age of 14 years and a minor as anyone between the ages of 14 and 18 years. See Government of Nepal, Labor Act, 1992, Chapter 1, Section 2 (h) and (i); available from http://natlex.ilo.org/txt/E92NPL01.htm. The Children's Act identifies a child as below the age of 16 years. See Government of Nepal, Children's Act, 2048, (1992), Chapter 1, sec. 2(a) and Chapter 5, sec. 47(1); available from http://www.labournepal.org/labourlaws/child_act.html.

[2891] Ministry of Labor and Transport Management, National Master Plan on Child Labor, 2004-2014, 10. The original Master Plan on Child Labor was developed in 2001 and revised in 2004. This revised plan has been submitted to the Cabinet but has not yet been approved. See U.S. Embassy-Kathmandu, unclassified telegram no. 1661. The Child Labor Act defines children as below the age of 16 years, and permits the employment of children 14 years and older. See Government of Nepal, Child Labor (Prohibition and Regulation) Act (No. 14), (2000), Sections 2 (a), 3 (1), 9 (1) and (2); available from http://natlex.ilo.org/txt/E00NPL01.htm. The act, however, did not take full effect until November 2004 (see below).

[2892] Child Labor (Prohibition and Regulation) Act (No. 14), Section 19 (1) and (2). For currently conversion, see FXConverter, [online] [cited February 15, 2005]; available from http://www.oanda.com/convert/classic.

[2893] Persons in violation of this Act may be subject to fines between 1,000 and 5,000 Nepalese Rupees (USD 14 and 72). Labor Act (1992), Section 55. For currency conversion, see FXConverter.

[2894] U.S. Department of State, Trafficking in Persons Report – 2004: Nepal, Washington, D.C., June 14, 2004; available from http://www.state.gov/g/tip/rls/tiprpt/2004/33197.htm#nepal.

[2895] Shiva Sharma, Bijendra Basnyat, and G.C. Ganesh, Nepal Bonded Labor Among Child Workers of the Kamaiya System: A Rapid Assessment, ILO-IPEC, Geneva, November 2001, 6, 10; available from http://www.ilo.org/public/english/standards/ipec/simpoc/ra/index.htm. See also Government of Nepal, The Kamaiya Labor (Prohibition) Act, (2002).

[2896] Constitution of the Kingdom of Nepal, Article 20.

[2897] Children's Act, 2048, Sections 32 and 33.

[2898] Ministry of Labor and Transport Management, National Master Plan on Child Labor, 2004-2014, 10.

[2899] U.S. Embassy-Kathmandu, unclassified telegram no. 1661. In 2002, the Ministry of Labor conducted 369 inspections in carpet factories and found 63 children under 14 years old; however, no convictions for employment violations were made. U.S. Department of State, Country Reports – 2003: Nepal, Section 6d.

[2900] Ministry of Labor and Transport Management, National Master Plan on Child Labor, 2004-2014, 1, 3, Annex 1.7.

[2901] ILO-IPEC, Supporting the Timebound Program in Nepal: The IPEC Core TBP Project, technical progress report, Geneva, December 2004, 3.

[2902] The Ministry of Women, Children and Social Welfare has been appointed the national focal point for anti-trafficking initiatives. See Ministry of Women, Children, and Social Welfare, National Plan of Action Against Trafficking in Children and Women, 8. Nepal's District, Municipality, and Village Task Forces in four districts are engaged in capacity-building activities in cooperation with ILO-IPEC and will play a part in cross-sectoral coordination of implementing and enforcing the National Plan of Action to Combat Trafficking. See U.S. Embassy-Kathmandu, unclassified telegram no. 2168, November 2002.

[2903] The Kamaiya Labor (Prohibition) Act, Section 8 and preamble. The government categorized the ex-Kamaiyas into categories based on socio-economic indicators, and the poorest were distributed land successfully. Still other ex-Kamaiyas have not received government support or benefits. Some observers are concerned this could lead to a reoccurrence of a bonded labor system. See U.S. Embassy-Kathmandu, unclassified telegram no. 1661. See also ILO-IPEC, Bonded Labor in Nepal, project document, 3.

[2904] ILO-IPEC, Supporting the Timebound Program in Nepal: The IPEC Core TBP Project, project document, NEP/01/P50/USA, Geneva, September 2001.

[2905] World Education, Projects by Region, [online] 2004 [cited March 25, 2003]; available from http://www.worlded.org/projects_region_asia.html#nepal.

[2906] This project is funded by USDOL. See ILO-IPEC, Combating Child Trafficking for Labor and Sexual Exploitation (TICSA Phase II), project document, RAS/02/P51/USA, Geneva, February 2002, 8.

[2907] The program primarily targets girls and children from disadvantaged groups and provides scholarships to attend primary school, as well as expands teacher training and institutional capacity. See World Bank, World Bank To Support Nepal's Education For All Goals, [News Release No:2005/12/SAR] July 8, 2004 [cited September 6, 2004]; available from http://web.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/NEWS/0,, contentMDK:20223949~menuPK:34465~pagePK:64003015~piPK:64003012~theSitePK:4607,00.html#.

[2908] "The New Approach," The Kathmandu Post (Kathmandu), October 25, 2002; available from http://www.kantipuronline.com/archive/kpost/2002-10-25/kp_editorial.htm.

[2909] Incentives include grants to about 1,500 schools, scholarships to out-of-school children from poor households to attend primary school, and support for capacity building to assist communities in school management. World Bank, Nepal: World Bank Approves Credit for Community School Support Project, [online news release] 2003 [cited June 7, 2004]; available from http://web.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/NEWS/0,, contentMDK:20117923~menuPK:34463~pagePK:34370~piPK:34426~theSitePK:4607,00.html.

[2910] International Bureau of Education – UNESCO, World Data on Education: Nepal Country Report, Geneva, revised February 2003; available from http://nt5.scbbs.com/cgi-bin/om_isapi.dll?clientID=531873&COUNTRY=nepal…{A60}&softpage=PL_frame. See World Bank, Basic and Primary Education Project, World Bank, [online] June 7, 2004 [cited June 7, 2004]; available from http://web.worldbank.org/external/projects/main?pagePK=104231&theSitePK….

[2911] The Primary Education Development Project is funded by the ADB. See International Bureau of Education – UNESCO, World Data on Education: Nepal Country Report.