Socio-Economic Condition of Domestic child Labour of Katmandu Metropolitan City (A case study of Kuleshwor Area of Kathmandu District)

Abstract

The use of domestic child laborers (DCL) is common in Nepal,especially in its affluent urban areas. At Kuleshwor area of Kathmandu.According to the study's findings, one of five household employs children. Many have been victims of trafficking. Child domestic work is also achild labour issue because it involves economic exploitation and hazardousworking condition. Child domestic work is a children's right issue. It violatesmost children's rights. Child domestic work is also a gender issue becausemost of them are exploited by sexual abuse. Domestic child laborers mostcommonly come from poor, often large rural families and poor urbanfamilies. The terms of employment of child domestic workers are a reflectionof the social, cultural, land, economic factors that have put them in domesticwork and held them there. A characteristic of all child domestic workers isthe child's dependence of the employer. The attitude of the employer largelydetermines the child's level of vulnerability to exploitation and abuse. Thispresent study was conducted at Kuleshwor area of Kathmandu metropolitancity. As the research target of this project work, this study covered varioussocial, economic and cultural aspects of the respondents in the study area.The objectives of the study were to assess the socio-economic condition ofDCL and to study the relationship between DCL and employer. Concerningthese objectives this study followed different theoretical as well as researchdocuments and methodological procedures of research. The research designof this study is descriptive and quantitative survey tools that can be adoptedas necessary to investigate certain, often hidden. Primary data collectionthrough field visit adopting different data collection tools as interview,household survey, Observation etc. the 60 domestic child labourers aretaken with the help of purposive and convenience sampling. Some casestudies of DCL are more significant toachieve the objectives in this study. According to this study, Domestic child labourers are employed toperform domestic chores such as washing dishes, cooking, cleaning thehouse, look after the young children and other households activities. This study considers and child from the age of 5 to 18 working in an employer's household as a domestic labourers. Parents, relatives, employers, friends,villagers and broker play a key role in enrolling children to work asdomestic child labour. It has seenthat the significant members of children invarious families routinely begin working as domestic workers well beforethey reach adolescence. Employers probably prefer to hire young childrenbecause teenager can be more difficult to manage for them. More than 50percent DCL are boys because some ethnic group considers females to beimpure during the saturation. More than one fourth of DCL are indebtedfrom rural area. About 40% of the respondents can write their name andread Nepali difficultly. Employers do not send DCL to school because ofincreasing load and cost. Typically, there are no specific hours of tasksallocated to child day or night more than one third of DCL work more than8 hours per hour which is abolished by law. Loneliness, high workloads, bad treatment and extreme violent orabuse were cited by the children as reason they believed other might notenjoy this work. The DCLs spend all of their time inside layer. Sleeping andeating arrangement, typically separate, child domestic workers fromothermember of the house hold and reinforce their sense of inferiority. Most of the DCL do not get paid for many years, some employers havemany businesses so children have to work long hours without any day off,and some are beaten, scolded, sexuallyabused or raped. Children often donot dare to negotiate, they are afraid to go any where because they do notknow the way. The relationship between employer and DCL is as owner andslave. Most of the children feel the lack of freedom and privacy. More thanhalf (66.6%) percent DCL have left the working place one or more timeswho can find alternative job. So it seems that domestic work is just steppingstone. Very few of them do not change jobs frequently because decentemployers who make them feel at homeand part of the family. Often, all ofthem complained of their little earning. To improve the situation socio-economic condition of DCL andestablish the good relationship between employer and DCL following commendations are mentioned. 1. There is clear need to strengthen the existing national machinery(Government, employer, workers and civil society) to workcollectively in detecting monitoring and rescuing of DCL. 2. Awareness rising by conducting the educational and advocacyprogram. 3. Rehabilitation center should be increased.4. Skill development programmes should be conducted.