Child labors in Nepal

          Nepal is a land lock country in south Asia. It is located mainly in the Himalayas but also includes parts of the Indo-Genetic Plain. With an estimated population of 26.4 million, it is 48^th largest country by population and 93^rd largest country by area. Its boarders China in the north and India in the south, east and west while Bangladesh is located within only 27 km of its southeastern tip and Bhutan is separated from it by the Indian state of Sikkim. Nepal has a diverse geography including fertile plains, sub-alpine forested hills and eight of the world’s ten tallest mountains, including Mount Everest, the highest point on Earth. The country is divided administratively into seven states, fourteen zones and seventy-seven districts In Nepal, the economy is dominated by agriculture where the livelihood for more than 80 percent of the population depends on agriculture, although only approximately 20 percent of the total land area was cultivable, it accounted for, on average, about 60 percent of the GDP and approximately 75 percent of exports.

          Children are future pillars of the nation, so their all round development is quite essential. Children are innocent, faultless and symbol of creatively. But in our society, the proper environment for them is not available in which they could grow happily rather they are ill-treated and exploited by bourgeois people. In Nepal children are facing various problems due to the backwardness. “Poverty” and “Illiteracy” are the main causes of “Child Labor” in Nepal.

            Child labor is not only the problem of an individual or a family but also the general problem of society. Child labor may be regarded broadly as any work of under recreation that children require. It is the working of children at unfit ages for unreasonable hours or under unhealthy conditions. There is a gradual increase in social awareness among different segments of society and this has helped to empower the movement for the rights of working children. The incidence of Child Labour in Nepal is relatively high compared with other countries in South Asia. According to the Nepal Labour Force Survey (NLFS) in 2010, 86.2 percent of children who were working were also studying and 13.8 percent of the children were working only. Most Children (60.5 percent) worked up to 19 hours, while 2.2 percent worked for more than 40 hours in a week and 7.3 percent worked for more than 40 hours in a week. This trend is consistent in both rural and urban areas. Also, female children work more hours than their male siblings. Child labor in Nepal has two distinct dimensions: One is connected with the rapid urbanization and the growth of industries. Children are engaged in various occupations such as the manufacture of carpet, the construction of road building, quarrying and mining as well as working in domestic service in towns away from their homes. The other dimension is in the traditional areas of work such as agriculture, animal farm, hand-looms, porters, grocery shops, other family operated business, domestic work; work in public transportation, hotels and restaurants.

          In developing countries like Nepal significant number of children migrate to urban areas for better opportunities and facilities, but they end up being engages in hotel and restaurant as servant. Children are regarded as cheap labor in Nepal therefore many children are used in hotels and restaurants. This study has been conducted in Gaushala, Kathmandu metropolitan city which is one of the most popular tourism areas of Nepal where there are numerous hotels and restaurants. Children working in restaurant are of age group between 10 to 14 years old.

          Children have to go through all sort of work in hotels and restaurants like cooking, cleaning tables, washing pots, serving meals, washing clothes, decorating gardens etc. Most of the workers in this field have to work for more than 12 hours and some of them have to work as “full time workers” mainly who gets the accommodation facility in the hotels and restaurants. They even have to work in employers’ house for his personal works after finishing works at hotels and restaurants. Their salaries are not fixed they are paid accordingly by their bosses.

          The problem of child labor has become an emerging issue in Nepal. There is a gradual increase in social awareness among different segments of society and this has helped to empower the movement for the rights of working children. Child labor in Nepal has two distinct dimensions: One is connected with the rapid urbanization and the growth of industries. Children are engaged in various occupations such as the manufactures of carpet, the constructions of road building, quarrying and mining as well as working in domestic service in towns away from their homes. The other dimension is in the traditional areas of work such as agriculture, animal farm, hand looms, porters, grocery shops, other family operated business, domestic work; work in buses and hotels and restaurants.

            Nowadays, child labour in Nepal is being considered very seriously. It is deeply rooted in most part of the country. Traditionally, children in Nepal are involved in agriculture domestication of animals, handicraft and other employments. Many children are compelled to migrate in town in search of employment, following the tragic calamity in their native land hardship, in their life, corrupted social relationship and so on. Children, working in small towns and big cities are increasing continually. These working children are largely increasing in Kathmandu alone (CWIN, 2001).

            The hotel and restaurant employed children have no other alternatives, and they stay there as long as the owner wishes. They always have to work from early morning to late night. They do not have chance to enjoy or even get holiday. So, they are exploited by their masters. The main right of children ‘education’ is disregarded by them. This study attempts to find out the present condition of child labor and trace out the social-economic conditions of the child laborers in hotel and restaurants of Gaushala, Kathmandu.

 

1.2 Statement of the Problem

                      There is a popular saying “Children are the hope and future of a nation and their overall growth must be the supreme concern of every country”. Yet, millions of children aged between 5 to 17 in Nepal are deprived of their right to quality education, food and health services. They are employed in hazardous work. Families living below poverty line are forced to send their kids to perilous work to sustain their households. Children in large numbers still are out of school. Many of them suffer from exploitation and end up on the streets.

         The problem of child labor in Nepal is principally, due to the acute poverty of the people particularly in the rural areas. Most people live on subsistence farming; exploitative social relations in the village further aggravate the problem. The harsh living conditions and frequent natural disasters lead to season as permanent migration of families and in some cases, that of children who, on their own, move from the rural to the urban areas (ILO, 1996).

         Similarly, in many rural areas of Nepal, lots of children, particularly from indigenous communities, drop out of the school to work. When they are supposed to go to school, they have to go the jungle to collect firewood, they return in the evening carrying loads of fodder and firewood on their shoulder where they should be hanging their school bags. The root of child labor is extreme poverty. Similarly, inadequate education and lack of awareness of society and parents are other reasons.

        The condition of child laborers engaged in hotels and restaurants are generally worse than in other employing agencies. The employers are well aware about their weakness and problem. So the employers prefer to take child as a laborers, because children are easy to handle in the way they like. The child labors play a supplementary role of adult labor. Children are cheaper, easily available, innocent, native willing, easy to control and exploit, and move reliable than adults. Children are a an complaining labor force than can be made to do any work for as much time in whatever wages the employers want them to give. In addition, employing children means a guarantee of stable work force as they can be exploited continuously for many years. There are the responds why the employers tend to hire children rather than adult laborers. They make the children work from early morning to late hours at night. They are paid very normal wages. They are deprived form basic human and children rights, nutrients, entertainment, sports and they have no holiday or any leave. The misbehavior and harsh treatment against children from their employers make negative and immoral psychological impact in their mind; as a result their lives become miserable and sorrowful. Today’s children are the citizen of tomorrow and future of nation. Child stage is the most effective stage of human development. Therefore, child labor is not the person of an individual or a family but it is the common problem of society, nation and 21^st Century’s globalize world.        

            Though little substantive research has been done in the field of child labor, anecdotal and case study evidences suggest that the situation is definitely getting worse in Nepal. The principal factor, responsible for this has been labeled as urban migration aggravated and accelerated by rural poverty, which has led to greater exploitation of child labor in Nepal. With increasing number of people in absolute poverty in rural areas, especially in hills, the trend of migration of children from the Hills to Terai and from Rural to Urban areas has been increasing day by day which is creating more problems of child labor in Nepal. However, the critical issues of child migration and labor have not yet been comprehensively and systematically studied.

In developing countries like Nepal significant numbers of children migrate to Kathmandu, the capital city for better opportunities and facilities. Many children migrate from rural areas to urban areas having hope for good job but they end up being engaged in hotel and restaurant as servant. Children are regarded as cheap labor in Nepal therefore many children are used in hotels and restaurants. This study has been conducted in Gaushala ward number 9 of Kathmandu metropolitan city which is one of the most popular tourism areas of Nepal where there are numerous hotels and restaurants. Children working in restaurant are of age group between 10 to 14 years old.

Most of the families at the rural areas are depended on the subsistence agriculture and even some of them do not have any land to do agriculture as well. There are very few opportunities and jobs situation with such as a situation around. The struggle for existence among the poor families is bound to create frustration and tension within the family as an ultimate choice, parents fell the compulsion sending their children anywhere, where their children get food and shelter to live in. sometimes, not only the children but the whole family migrate from one place to another in search of employments.

This study is concerned about child laborers working and their bosses exploiting them in different ways at the hotels/restaurants. Most of the child laborers are the migrants from different cultural, ethnicity and geographical places. This study seeks best to examine their demographic socio-economic, ethnic, cultural characteristics and also working condition with causes and effect of child labor.     

Children have to go through all sort of work in hotels and restaurants like cooking, cleaning tables, washing pots, serving meal, washing clothes, decorating gardens etc. Most of the workers in this field have to work for more than 12 hours and some of them have to work as “full times workers” mainly who gets the accommodation facility in the hotels and restaurants. They even have to work in employers’ house for his personal works after finishing works at hotels and restaurants. Their salaries are not fixed they are paid accordingly by their bosses.