Metal worker, India, 1995. Photo: David Parker.

There are various reasons why The Advocates for Human Rights has chosen to address the issue of child labor in Nepal. However, it should be noted that child labor is a widespread problem that is not limited to Nepal alone:

For hundreds of millions of children, forced and exploitative labor is an ABUSE OF BASIC HUMAN RIGHTS.

• A large but unknown number of children are held as bonded or slave laborers or are working in conditions that are clearly harmful to their growth and development.
• The global community is doing too little to ameliorate this problem.
• Child labor is closely linked to women's rights and women's level of education.
• The availability of good schools, books, and food would go a long way to help many children.

 For these and other reasons, The Advocates for Human Rights has taken a direct approach to stopping child labor in Nepal by founding and sustaining the Sankhu-Palubari Community School.

CHILD

Young brick workers, Nepal, 1995. Photo: David Parker.

LABOR: WHAT’S THE PROBLEM?

The International Labor Organization (ILO) estimates that close to 250 million children worldwide are victims of forced child labor.  These children, some as young as four years old, are subjected to 12-hour days of harsh, unhealthy, and hazardous work in quarries, brickyards, and carpet-weaving factories.  Frequently these children must work to support their families and to pay their parents' debts. In exchange they are paid little and exposed to physical, emotional, and sometimes even sexual abuse. These children sacrifice their health and well being. Indeed, they sacrifice their childhood.  Education is rarely part of their lives.

OUR LEGAL OBLIGATIONS

International law provides a clear and accepted consensus on the nature and definition of child labor. The International Labor Organization has adopted many international conventions on child labor. The rights of children to education and freedom from exploitation are also clearly stated in the Convention on the Rights of Children (the Children's Convention) adopted by the United Nations General Assembly on November 20, 1989. The Children's Convention is the most widely ratified international instrument. Only the United States and Somalia have yet to ratify it.

WHY DOES THE ADVOCATES WORK IN NEPAL?

As of 1995, the average life expectancy in Nepal was 55 years, adult literacy was 41 percent for males and 14 percent for females, and only 52 percent of children completed a primary school education. These statistics are some of the worst in the world. Dozens of brickyards surround Kathmandu, where children make and carry thousands

At Sankhu-Palubari Community School, children are students, not laborers.

of bricks each day. Not only is the work arduous, but the children are at significant risk of injury from strain, falling bricks, and respiratory illness from dusts. In Nepal approximately 45.8% of children ages 10 to 14 are involved in the child labor force. More than one million of these children work in difficult, dangerous, and sometimes even slave-like conditions.

OUR SOLUTION:  

In response to the overwhelming number of Nepalese children who cannot sustain their basic needs and have no alternative to becoming child laborers, a volunteer committee of The Advocates for Human Rights established and opened the Sankhu-Palubari Community School in the Kathmandu valley of Nepal on September 9, 1999, for children under 16. There is no tuition for the school and all students receive free lunches. A Nepalese non-profit organization committed to ending child labor, Hoste Hainse, works with The Advocates to administer and monitor the Project.

How You Can Help:

A volunteer committee of The Advocates for Human Rights works to raise funds to support the school. Click here to donate money to Sankhu School or other The Advocates' projects (direct your payment to "Sankhu School").