By A Staff Reporter
Kathmandu, Nov. 20: When the country was observing the International Child Rights Day on Wednesday, the National Child Rights Council (NCRC), a government entity, announced that the overall status of children in Nepal had improved in recent years.
The country has achieved progress in child health, child mortality rate, immunisation, child education, abolishing child marriage and introducing child friendly laws due to the government’s priority to the development of children, the NCRC said.
Releasing a report ‘Condition of Children in Nepal 2076,’ on the occasion of the International Child Rights Day, the NCRC highlighted some notable progress that Nepal has made in the child rights sectors.
Highlighting the progress since fiscal year 1990/1991, the report stated that compared to the past two decades, the country has included expanded and progressive child rights provisions in the Constitution.
As a part of special act, now the country has laws like the Children’s Act 2018, Local Government Operation Act, Free and Compulsory Education Act, Social Security Act, Safe Maternity and Reproductive Heath Rights, among others, to protect child rights.
The government has also established various state and local level bodies to look after the issues of children, said Administrative head of NCRC Deependra Kafle.
Similarly, the government has now implemented the national action plans like national master plan to eliminate child labour and nutrition and policy to end child marriage, child friendly local governance, social security programmes and many more, he added.
Similarly, the net student enrolment rate in primary level was 96.5 per cent in 2075 B.S. while, total 475,003 students appeared in the Secondary Education Examination (SEE) in the same year.
There are 35,055 schools across the country, of them 322 schools have been developed as model schools throughout the country.
The report has also indicated some negative impacts on the child rights sector.
The number of missing children in 2017/18 was 2,330 while the number has increased to 3,422 in 2018/19.
Similarly, total 1,420 rape cases against under 18 years girls have been reported in the current fiscal year and 995 in last fiscal year.
There were 382 children have been sheltered in the eight child rehabilitation centers in the last fiscal year and the number has reached to 821 in the current fiscal year, the report shows.
Gauri Pradhan, senior human rights activists have welcomed the changing attitude of the society toward the children.
These days society is getting more sensitive toward children rights, owing to which, the senior child rights violation cases like, gender district, sex selective abortion and corporal punishment has been declining, said Pradhan.
He highlighted the need of investing more on children’s development to achieve the national goal of “Prosperous Nepal, Happy Nepali.”
Expressing his worries over the declining population growth rate and declining population of under 18, Pradhan said, this might hamper in the overall development of the country.
As per the Census of 2011, the population of people below the age of 18 consist 41.84 per cent of the total population, which is gradually declining.
In 2048 B.S, the percentage was 48.26 per cent and 45.72 per cent in 2058 B.S.
Three years after the ratification of the treaty, Nepal formulated Children’s Act 1992. Since then NCRC has been recording data related to the status and condition of children in the country.
International Day of Child Rights was celebrated across the globe, including Nepal on Wednesday with a call for ensuring the rights of children.
Various government and non-government organisations held programmes to depict the plight of the children who are deprived of the basic amenities of life.