CWISH to reunite minor domestic helps with their families

KATHMANDU, Oct 2: Minor domestic helps who serve well-off families in the capital have a reason to cheer, as a non-governmental organization working for such children has decided to facilitate such children to return home, so they can celebrate Dashain with their families.



Hundreds of children toiling in the capital as domestic servants are barred to enjoy festivals with their families, officials at Children and Women in Social Service and Human Rights (CWISH), said. [break]



"We will arrange bus tickets to those children, who wish to return their homes in the festival," said Pradeep Dongol, a child right officer at the organization, adding that the organization has been approaching to community schools of the capital to encourage such children to return homes.



The organization, which advocates rights of such child laborers, said that their masters do not let them return home during major festivals, as they want their service during such occasions.



Domestic helps are mostly enrolled in community schools of the capital, but the quality of education in such institutions are poorer compare to privately run ones.

"Our organization will ensure they get education in their own villages if they don´t wish to return back to capital as servants," he added.



The organization has also been offering gift hampers containing educational materials to those children who are willing to return home for the festival.

Dongol said that they will also guarantee educational support including scholarships to the students who wish to live and study in their villages.

"Our main motto is to discourage these children to come back to the capital as domestic helps," he added.



The organization in the past had liberated such children who were working in a pathetic condition. Due to abject poverty of their family, hundreds of children mostly from the countryside adjoining the capital, and also from across the country, have been slogging as domestic helps in the capital valley.



A study conducted by the International Labor Organization (ILO) in 2003 estimated that about 21,000 domestic helps work in the capital.

Several studies have divulged that most of such children have been denied even their basic rights. In some instances, underage domestic servants have also become victims of sexual abuses.



The organization has been conducting a campaign to reunite domestic helps with their families for many years now.

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