Until some years ago, a lot of street children were seen wandering in the Kathmandu Valley and other urban areas of Nepal. Wearing tattered and dirty clothes, those children were found begging for money and food on streets. They were also seen walking barefoot, following an unhealthy lifestyle and sniffing glue (dendrite). The situation has now changed for the better with an intervention of the federal government. The Ministry of Women, Children and Senior Citizens has come up with a commendable initiative of making Nepal street children-free. Till date, the ministry, in collaboration with various agencies such as the National Child Rights Council and National Coordination Centre for Children at Risk, has rescued about 1,500 children from various cities across the country since the launch of the campaign in May 2016. As per the news carried by this daily on Wednesday, 192 of the total rescued children were girls. Some 73 children were also rescued during the three months of lockdown alone.

Normally, the children abandoned by the family or those who fled home because of poverty, family problems, hunger, and insecurity are found in the streets of Nepal. They are vulnerable to trafficking, drug smuggling and sexual abuse. Such children cause nuisance to the society because of their increasing involvement in numerous crimes such as theft, robbery, rape, murder and other untoward activities. Various anti-social elements may also find it easy to use the urchins for different criminal aims. It is noteworthy that children are now hardly seen in the streets of Kathmandu, thanks to this campaign. The ministry has mobilised teams to rescue such children and take them to the shelter for their well-being. The government has aimed to provide social security to these children and to engage them in some productive activities. Minister for Women, Children and Senior Citizens Parbat Gurung has said that no street children are seen in the urban areas as a result of this campaign.

The ministry has planned to take their leaders from the street to make the campaign a success. These leaders are normally aged above 19 years and are responsible to motivate the children to return to streets and beg and steal. The ministry has already identified about 100 adults, who motivate children to beg and force them into risky works like drug smuggling and stealing. The adults will also be trained to get them involved in productive works. It is a good idea that the ministry is working to bring them into the mainstream and make them realise that rehabilitation in family and society is far better than to stay in the streets. However, keeping the children away from streets is a challenging task. Such children love the street because they are free to do anything they want. As mentioned by Minister Gurung, it is certainly a tough task to bring them into normal life. Recently, more than 100 children, including 25 girls, fled the shelter and the rescue teams had to rescue them again. More than 800 children have been reintegrated into their family while about 245 have started to work with various organisations. The campaign will be successful only through reintegrating children into family and imparting skill development trainings and providing jobs to them.