Child Labor Situation in Nepal ( A Case Study of the Micro Bus Helper of Kathmandu City)

Abstract

Child labor is a global problem but its magnitude varies between the countries. Nepal is no exception to it .This study has been carried out with the aim to analyze socio-economic condition of child laborers and to identify the responsible factor as well as problem faced by these children in micro bus of Kathmandu City.And for the study,samples were selected with purposive method. The study shows that most of the child laborers family faces very poor socio-economic condition. For instance, most of them have large family size and the problems of mouth to feed, while on the other hand they have limited and marginalized productive land. About 64 percent child labor has no sufficient productive land in their village.Similarly, majority of child laborers belong to age of 15-17 years where the lower stage of child labor is 13 years. This study shows that more than fifty percent respondents are literate and only 10 percent children are getting secondary education. This clearly shows that those children who are working in micro bus have low level of education Most of the child laborers leave home due to family poverty and influenced by friends.They arrive in Kathmandu with relatives and friends but living with driver and sleeping on the floor. In addition, about 78 percent children reported that they are working 14-17 hours per day but their monthly salary is R.s 1000-6000 only. This shows that they are given less salary compared to their long working hours. This study also explores their level of satisfaction with their current job. About 51 percent of them are satisfied with their current job while about 49 percent are dissatisfied.Among the total who are dissatisfied more than 60 percent are dissatisfied due to overburden of work. The existence of child labor is largely the result of mass poverty, landlessness,unemployment, illiteracy, lack of health awareness, and socio-culture environment of the society. So there is urgent need to curb poverty in under to prevent the phenomenon of all forms of child labor.The concerned authorities have to focus as the aspect of child labor.