ASIA/NEPAL - More than one and a half million child labourers, 24% are girls

Kathmandu (Agenzia Fides) - According to an International Labour Organization (ILO) report, documenting Nepal's sizeable population of child labourers, this year one million fewer children are working in Nepal than a decade ago, though more girls are toiling in dangerous conditions than boys. Nearly 24% of girls nationwide (or 911,000), compared to 17.5% of boys (or 688,000), perform work that qualifies them as labourers. Girls are 50% more likely to be involved in hazardous work - 373,000 girls, compared to 248,000 boys - exposing them to “significant” physical and psychological dangers. According to a communication from Child Workers in Nepal, a local child rights NGO, traditional attitudes favour educating boys, who are seen as a family's future breadwinners. The ILO estimates there are 7.7 million children aged 5-17 in Nepal, 1.6 million of them child labourers. A violent decade-long stand-off between the state army and Maoist insurgents pushed rural families to send their children to the safety of urban areas where they subsequently worked to support themselves, but the practice has declined since fighting stopped in 2006. While girls bear the brunt of labour, there has been a marked decline in `kamlari', outlawed in 2006, where parents loan their children - usually girls from the Tharu caste - as indentured workers to pay off a family debt. Rights groups have tried to discourage the practice by giving poor families grants, and the government has pledged financial assistance. Aggravating the problem is the fact that most children do not receive an education beyond primary school, and lax law enforcement allows factories to employ many of them despite a national ban. (AP) (1/2/2011 Agenzia Fides)