Poverty & Child Labour in Kathmandu

Foreword In 1999 the International Labor Organisation adopted Convention 182 on the Worst Forms of Child Labor. It was a major step forward in the worldwide movement against child labor. Since then, many countries have ratified the Convention and have introduced policy measures, often with the support of international organisations such as the ILO and UNICEF.

The Convention on the Worst Forms of Child Labor suggests that there are other forms of child labor as well. Children all over the world do some kind of work; some of this work is socially and pedagogically suitable. Other work, however, is not. That is when innocent work turns into labor. The ILO, right since its start in 1919, has developed policies aimed to eradicate such child labor. Convention 138 (1973) set the broad age-wage parameters for the permissible entry into the labor market. Children below the age of 12 are not allowed to work and children between 12 and 14 are allowed to do only light work, which does not interfere with schooling and does not impair their physical, emotional and intellectual development. Convention 182 further specifies which forms of child labor should be eliminated in the best interest of the child. It defines 2 categories of worst forms of child labor:

The unconditional worst forms include slave labor, prostitution and pornography, participants in armed conflicts and illicit traders.

Introduction Time and again analyses of the development situation in Nepal have evidenced huge gaps in terms of distribution: "Development outcomes have varied inequitably, manifesting themselves in gender, caste, ethnic and geographic disparities." [UNDP 2004:25]. Whilst in many areas progress has been made, development efforts targeted at reducing poverty have largely floundered, so that in 2004 a UNDP report described poverty in Nepal as "intractable" [UNDP 2004:25). The report goes on to argue that traditional economic based means of tackling poverty have failed to lead to greater inclusiveness in society and that what is needed in Nepal is development which empowers the poor to contribute to decision-making and to access public resources, a pro-poor approach to development [UNDP 2004:30]. This analysis makes sense of the intractability of poverty, of child labor and of the risks associated with childhood in Nepal.

**Contents and Sample Pages**