village in Bara district
One of our final meetings was with an organization that works for (and with) children regarding their rights and empowerment. It was an impressive organization, and a lot of topics were covered in the limited amount of time we had available. Towards the end of the meeting a question was posed regarding the aspirations of what the future might hold for the organization and for the children of Nepal in general. I was somewhat taken aback when there didn’t seem to be a clear answer. In fact, this could have been the first time there wasn’t at least a formulaic answer readily available for such questions. The gentleman we were meeting with implied that survival was one of the most important goals for children in Nepal.
We had been exposed to life in rural Nepal away from the capital so this statement wasn’t shocking, but somewhat surprising that such a basic concept was still a priority for an organization that has been working for over 20 years in this field. It makes a lot of sense. We had experienced many examples of children still being manipulated by political parties to carry out the “dirty work” for them, and being recruited by criminal gangs was an issue that at least one member of our group was determined to find out more about. Young people are at high risk for trafficking, and often go overseas in order to earn money to send back home. We were informed that child labor is a huge problem in Nepal, and that only 2 labor inspectors are available to investigate the issue in the entire country. If survival is a priority then it shouldn’t be all that surprising to see such issues take the main stage in the arena of children’s rights.
It would seem that there are some basic needs that are not being met in the rural homes of these children. This organization is dealing with the problems that arise as a result of these needs going unfulfilled, and the gentleman we interviewed said that some work was being done at a local village level in order to mitigate some of the circumstances that arise when children leave in order to simply survive. There are many challenges that Nepal is facing on the road to building a peaceful society, and this simple challenge might be one of the most significant.
