Child Labour

Domestic Child Labour

Domestic child worker is common and wide spread phenomena in Nepal. The subsistence Economic can hardly support people for their live hood. The rural people send their children to the urban centre hoping their better future on the one hand and for earning money to support their family on the other. Thus domestic child labour is not only problem of an individual or a family but also the problem of the society.

Children are base for any country. They should be provided with health care, education and other important aspects of life. However, the majority of domestic child are living fearful and uncertain life. Most of the families are even unable to feed their children, so they send children to rich family, relatives or bigger cities to work as servant, with a prospect of better life. Most of the rural poor families leave their children when they can’t afford basic food and education to Live. In Nepal child work has not been clearly defined yet and no national level study has been conducted about domestic child worker. Although the constitution of interim Nepal 2063 ensures the child right and has prohibited the child worker to work in factories, mines and other similar health hazards sector. The problem of domestic child worker is increasing day by day. Instead of Improvement in the situation, the present condition of Nepalese children is far below from satisfactory level. Many domestic children are compelled to work by the rich family and exploitation by them.

Most of the study conducted on domestic child worker suggests that the situation of children is getting much worse than ever before. Increasing poverty and ignorance are leading our society into extreme misery (ILO, 1999). This miserable condition of our country has affected every sector of the society and the children are its main victims. We all desire children to grow up into good citizen but there is a lack of proper opportunities for overall development of the country.

The use of domestic child worker is common from middle to higher level of families, especially in its affluent urban area. However specific information on the incidence of domestic child worker in urban and rural setting is lacking, though it is suspected that at least half of the domestic child worker may be in urban centre. Narayan Municipality is Dailekh district one of the highly urbanized and situated at opportunities for business, jobs and for better life. In reality, they are not better life; instead they are exploited by the employer, elite or house owner and family members. Most of the female workers have to face many sexual harassment from the owner’s family and local guys (CWIN, 1998). So Narayan Municipality has been selected as the study area to identify the problems of domestic child worker in domestic work. This study has attempted to find out the answers of the following research questions.

·        What causes enforce them to do work as a child worker?

·        By whom they because harassed?
·        What kind of relationship do they have with their owners?
·        What are the problems they faced?

·     What is the socio-economic/ family background of the domestic child? Therefore, many poor or rural children are working as child labour in different types of working sectors among which domestic child worker is one of them. So to conduct study of this situation of domestic child worker is essential.