Nepal to eliminate child labor by 2014

The Nepali government has a 10-year master plan to eliminate all forms of child labor by the year2014, a senior official said here Tuesday.

The government has also planned to emancipate 127,000 children involved in the worst form of child labor by 2008, Narayan Prasad Silwal, secretary at the Ministry of Labor and Transport Management, told reporters.

According to a survey conducted by the ministry, there are 2.6 million child labors in Nepal. The largest number of them, figured 55,600 are engaged as domestic labors, while 4,200 are in carpet industries, 4,000 in the streets, 46,000 are child porters, 12,000 have been trafficked and 17,000 are bonded labors.

The survey shows that 14,000 children are involved in unpaid jobs and 278,000 get paid less than they deserve. Only 6.4 percent of the total child labors have got opportunity for education.

Nepal ratified the Convention on the Rights of the Child in 1990, one year after it was adopted by the United Nations General Assembly, and has also signed tow optional protocols on the involvement of children in armed conflicts and the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography, which were adopted in 2000 and came into force in 2002.

Source: Xinhua