Katmandu, Nepal, December 22--Nepal plans to unveil a program to eliminate all forms of child labor by 2014, a senior official said here Tuesday, according to a report from Indo-Asian News Service.
The government has also planned to emancipate 127,000 children involved in the worst form of child labour by 2008, Narayan Prasad Silwal, secretary at the Ministry of Labor and Transport Management, told reporters.
According to a survey conducted by the ministry, there are 2.6 million child workers in Nepal. The largest number of them, 55,600, are engaged as domestic workers, while 4,200 are in carpet industries, 4,000 in the streets, 46,000 are child porters, 12,000 have been trafficked and 17,000 are bonded slaves.
The survey shows that 14,000 children are involved in unpaid jobs and 278,000 get paid less than they deserve, reports Xinhua.
Nepal ratified the Convention on the Rights of the Child in 1990, one year after it was adopted by the UN General Assembly.
It has also signed two optional protocols on the involvement of children in armed conflicts and the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography, which were adopted in 2000 and came into force in 2002.
