Understanding Children‟S Work in Nepal
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Public Disclosure Authorized Public Disclosure Authorized July 2003 Understanding Children‟s Work Series in Nepal Report on child labour Country Report Public Disclosure Authorized Public Disclosure Authorized July 2003 Understanding Children’s Work Project Understanding children’s work in Nepal Country Report July 2003 Understanding Children‟s Work (UCW) Programme Villa Aldobrandini V. Panisperna 28 00184 Rome Tel: +39 06.4341.2008 Fax: +39 06.6792.197 Email: [email protected] As part of broader efforts toward durable solutions to child labor, the International Labour Organization (ILO), the United Nations Children‟s Fund (UNICEF), and the World Bank initiated the interagency Understanding Children‟s Work (UCW) project in December 2000. The project is guided by the Oslo Agenda for Action, which laid out the priorities for the international community in the fight against child labor. Through a variety of data collection, research, and assessment activities, the UCW project is broadly directed toward improving understanding of child labor, its causes and effects, how it can be measured, and effective policies for addressing it. For further information, see the project website at www.ucw-project.org. This paper is part of the research carried out within UCW (Understanding Children's Work), a joint ILO, World Bank and UNICEF project. The views expressed here are those of the authors' and should not be attributed to the ILO, the World Bank, UNICEF or any of these agencies‟ member countries. Understanding children’s work in Nepal Country Report July 2003 ABSTRACT The current report as part of UCW project activities in Nepal. It provides an overview of the child labour phenomenon in the Kingdom - its extent and nature, its determinants, its consequences on health and education, and national responses to it. The report serves two important UCW project objectives in the country. First, it helps provide a common analytical understanding of child labour, that can be used to inform the current activities of the three partner agencies and Government, and that can be used to develop joint interagency strategies for future cooperation with the Government in addressing child labour. Second, through close involvement of local counterparts in its development, the report contributes to a broader effort to build national capacity in analysing and using data on child labour for policy development. The paper is the product of a collaborative effort involving local researchers, the three implementing partner agencies and the UCW core team. The statistical information presented in the review is drawn primarily from the Nepal Labour Force Survey conducted in 1998/99 (NLFS 1998/99) and the Nepal Living Standards Monitoring Study conducted in 1995/96 (LSMS 1995/96). The first involved a stratified sample of 14,400 households and the second a stratified sample of 19,200 households. A series of five ILO-IPEC sponsored rapid assessments is the primary source of information on worst forms of child labour. The review also draws on a number of smaller-scale studies, qualitative as well as quantitative, Government and NGO reports, agency documents and other information sources. Understanding children’s work in Nepal Country Report July 2003 CONTENTS Executive summary............................................................................................................................. 2 1. Introduction............................................................................................................................ 7 2. The national context ............................................................................................................. 9 3. Extent of children’s work in Nepal .................................................................................. 13 3.1 Children’s work defined ............................................................................................... 13 3.2 Total prevalence of children’s work ........................................................................... 14 3.3 Prevalence of children’s work by sex and age........................................................... 17 3.4 Prevalence of children’s work by residence and region .......................................... 17 4. Characteristics of child work ............................................................................................. 20 5. Worst forms of child labour .............................................................................................. 23 5.1 Overview of worst forms ............................................................................................. 23 5.2 Seven priority worst forms .......................................................................................... 25 6. Determinants of children’s work and school attendance .............................................. 31 7. National response to child labour ..................................................................................... 34 7.1 National legislative framework .................................................................................... 34 7.2 National policy framework .......................................................................................... 35 7.3 Programmes and interventions relating to child labour .......................................... 35 7.4 General policy considerations ..................................................................................... 39 7.5 Priority target groups .................................................................................................... 43 Annex A: Detailed descriptive tables ............................................................................................. 45 Annex B: Results of econometric analysis .................................................................................... 52 Bivariate probit regression ......................................................................................................... 52 Marginal effects after bivariate probit ...................................................................................... 54 1. Children working only............................................................................................................ 54 2. Children working and studying ............................................................................................. 55 3. Children studying only ........................................................................................................... 56 4. Children are idle ...................................................................................................................... 57 Description of bivariate probit model variables ..................................................................... 58 Annex (C) Comprehensive bibliography ....................................................................................... 59 National Child Labour Survey/Studies ................................................................................... 59 Child Labour in Carpet Industry .............................................................................................. 61 Domestic Child Labour.............................................................................................................. 62 Bonded Child Labour ................................................................................................................. 63 Tea Estate/Tobacco ................................................................................................................... 64 Child workers in Brick Kilns/Coal mines ............................................................................... 65 Child Porter, Ragpicker, Street Children ................................................................................. 66 Migration and Trafficking .......................................................................................................... 67 Policy and Legal ........................................................................................................................... 69 Other Child Labour studies ....................................................................................................... 71 Education ............................................................................................................................. 73 Health and Nutrition .................................................................................................................. 78 Poverty ............................................................................................................................. 79 1 UCW COUNTRY REPORT SERIES, JULY 2003 2 UNDERSTANDING CHILDREN‟S WORK IN NEPAL EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Introduction 1. The current report was developed under the aegis of UCW project activities in Nepal. It provides an overview of work performed by children in the Kingdom – its extent and nature, its determinants, and its consequences on health and education. The report also looks at national responses to child labour, i.e., responses to negative or undesirable forms of work that should be eliminated The report serves two important UCW project objectives in the country: first, it helps provide a common analytical understanding of children‟s work, upon which common strategies can be developed addressing child labour; and second, the report contributes to a broader effort to build counterpart capacity in analysing and using data on children‟s work for policy development. Prevalence and characteristics