Dear guardian

Almost a year back, I was having dahi puri at New road, when a small girl, roughly around 9-10 years of age came to me and asked for money. I asked her if she would have the dahi puri with me and she nodded. She ate it with great delight, at least it seemed so. Then she asked for money again. I asked her where her parents were and she ran away. 

Child beggary is a prominent problem in Nepal, especially in busy city areas. The Prime Minister has committed to ending child beggary in Nepal, but the plans and policies for this are either non- transparent or non-existent till now. 

State has provided the rights of children as fundamental rights in article 39 of constitution of Nepal. Child beggary itself is prohibited by section 66(2j) of child rights act 2075. Article 19 of CRC requires states to protect children from all forms of violence and exploitation, which must be a cardinal point to focus for street children who are highly vulnerable to abuse. Despite these laws, many children still end up begging due to difficult circumstances.

Beyond the specific differences of each case concerning the reason behind the children coming to streets that has been carried out by multiple empirical researches, most of the stories have a common issue that shows the intolerant families situation and the experiences of poverty. Witnessing constant violence and abuse in the home amongst parents, not being able to have a full plate meal are unimaginable experiences for children growing up to go through. So their desire to travel in the hope of finding a better life results in facing a slew of other problems, one of them being children of streets tackling more horrible situations such as being exploited, sexually assaulted, and prone to a number of diseases like malnutrition and injuries. This harsh environment exposes them to dangers like drug addiction, with some as young as nine years old regularly using marijuana and even more harmful substances like glue and benzene, poor living conditions, lack of access to food, education, and healthcare. Research published in the Journal of Health Promotion highlights that street children face numerous hardships, including lack of shelter, hunger, and exposure to violence, drugs, and criminal activities. Most of them are living, sleeping and working under the open sky and engaging to survive as they can without family support, for example, either by presenting themselves as rag pickers, dishwashers, shoeshine boys and others.

Poverty and marginalization of children are often associated with developing countries, but they also exist in the middle of Europe. However, they have time and again brought plans and policies to tackle this problem. The European Parliament’s Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice, and Home Affairs has emphasized the urgency of addressing this issue. In its Communication ‘Towards a Strategy on the Rights of the Child’, the Committee advocated for a decisive goal: ensuring that no child remains homeless or living on the streets in the EU. 

On the other side of the world, Brazil came up with the social welfare program called Bolsa Familia, where they provided financial aid to poor families, on the condition that they send their children to schools and get them properly vaccinated. 

In Nepal, various agencies like the National Child Rights Council and various NGOs are constantly working to find a quick solution to this problem, mostly by rehabilitating them with their parents. 

According to the Resource and Information Centre of Child Workers in Nepal (CWIN) there are approximately 5,000 street children, with around 1,200 to 1,500 residing in Kathmandu alone in Nepal. Krishna Thapa from Voice of Children (VOC) highlighted that sexual abuse of male street children by foreigners is a severe and rampant issue, and that over 40 such foreign individuals might have been involved.

The Government of Nepal, under Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli, launched a campaign in 2016 that rescued 574 street children, aiming to eventually eradicate street begging through continued efforts. Despite these initiatives, the Centre for Research on Education, Health and Social Science (CREHSS) notes that the problem remains inadequately addressed by political authorities, with Kathmandu and Birgunj experiencing growing numbers of street children. The core reason being unidentification of the in depth problem, mostly rooted with poverty and socioeconomic reasons.  

Foremost plan of the government must be primary identification of the issue; it could be done by forming a separate committee for its investigation. In current practices, the agencies ‘rescue’ the children  and reunite them back to the family then what? Major problem is poverty itself. Children run away from the family given their harsh socioeconomic background and they will run away once again. It is the responsibility of the state to ensure that parents are able to provide at least basic living standards to their children. One of the major steps for eradicating poverty could be by involving parents in employment generation programs. In the cases where their families are not traced, they are sent to child care homes that contribute to their education and basic services, but irregular inspection of these homes by the government causes them to be treated poorly. 

One of the other major problems that is rampant currently is beggary or using a child in beggary, by parents themselve. In Pashupati and various other religious sites, women carry their children in their lap and beg for money. If children are toddler, they roam here and there in the temple. Beggary prohibition act, though remains as a dead law, has restricted using child in any form of beggary. This is one of the forms of using a child in beggary. Many of them are the women who are breastfeeding the baby and begging or taking their children with themselves and begging.

Again, pushing everyone asking for the money from the temple out might not be a solution to this. Rather, the root socio economic cause behind this, i.e poverty needs to be addressed which was never reflected in the intent of the beggar prohibition act, probably one of the reasons it remains non-functional. Such an act defined as ‘crime’ by the law has a deep sociological problem embedded within, that is poverty. 

In terms of statistics, the population of street children are overlooked in census counting, one of the major reasons being their parents remaining untraced. But the constitution clearly provides that a child whose parents remain untraced and are found in the borders of our country are the citizens of Nepal. The vaccination programs to children, or various programs brought by the government for child’s welfare, never encompasses the street children. They are mostly deprived of state run programs and policies for children like health check ups or scanning of certain diseases. These vulnerable populations must be counted countrywide and on the government’s approach. Street children and their families should be included in national census data, health registries, and government welfare databases. This will ensure they are eligible for various welfare schemes, including healthcare, education, and financial support.

Every year, the budget allocated for social welfare programs is not properly utilized, while there are multiple areas for it to work on. KMC budget review of the ongoing fiscal year provides least utilization of the budget in the employment sector, after land management. If the metropolitan can integrate employment generation with coordination from social welfare programs, it could be beneficial. A robust solution for this issue must involve sustainable livelihood programs for families of street children, like creating programs regarding vocational training to the families and a linkage between child welfare programs and existing prime minister employment generation programs. Families of street children should be actively prioritized for these programs, ensuring a steady income source.

Many national and international organizations like NCRC, CWIN have been working to rescue these children from the streets, rehabilitate them or send them to their families. But rehabilitating them or uniting them with family could not be counted as a success rate. Whether or not they have again run away from the family, whether they are living in better condition and happier, promoting their physical, mental and emotional growth must be looked after.Tracking the success rate of children who are rescued, whether they remain with their families, their economic status after intervention, and their overall well-being is another essential way forward. Rescued children and their families should be regularly checked on for at least 2–5 years to prevent re-entry into street life. Partnerships with community-based organizations can help maintain this contact.

Simply rescuing and reuniting children with families or placing them in childcare homes cannot be the final goal. After initial rescue, children need continuous support, one of the crucial ones being Long-term psychological counseling to address trauma, abandonment, or addiction issues. This is another core area the government must focus on. 

Article 39 (9) of the constitution provides that the child who is helpless, orphan, with disabilities, conflict victim, displaced or vulnerable shall have the right to special protection and facilities from the State. To do any legal or administrative work or to carry responsibility for children, law demands a guardian, which in the case of the helpless children, whose home has been the streets, is state. So Dear Guardian, it's high time that you actually execute the laws you have committed to implement, not just surfacially and not just for the sake of showing you did good, but actually researching deep for actual solution of this problem, mostly embedded in economic factors. Efforts must go beyond superficial measures to address the root causes of poverty and provide comprehensive, sustainable support for families. The ‘best interest’ of children is not to be limited in legal provisions. After all, we all were children once. 

Monika Khatiwada

BA LLB IIIrd Year

Kathmandu School of Law