Child Protection Mapping And Assessment Summary Report (September 2015)
Nepal’s Child Protection Systems Mapping and Assessment was carried out by the Ministry of Women Children and Social Welfare (MoWCSW) and the Central Child Welfare Board(CCWB)
Highlights
Nepal’s child protection system has been governed by a broad range of laws, rules and policies aimed at preventing and responding to all forms of violence, exploitation and abuse against children. The system includes social welfare, security and justice, labour, health and education sectors. It is operated at national, district, village, ward and community levels with wide-ranging formal and informal mechanisms and services.
Poverty, inequality, illiteracy, cultural rigidities, patriarchal mindset, political instability, and gender based violence are some of the reasons, which cause the frequent violation of children’s rights. Many Nepalese orphan children belonging to vulnerable ultra poor house-holds are compelled to be separated from their families and are living in child care homes. Moreover, many other are at risk of being abandoned because of social and economic reasons. There are significant numbers of children, who are living on the streets engaging in the worst forms of child labour, while many others are living in Child Correction Homes.
Despite various efforts of the government in the form of programmatic, legal and policy level interventions in collaboration with various development partners, mistreatment, abuse and exploitation of children is still a widespread phenomenon in Nepal. An integrated and holistic approach, is, therefore, warranted to eliminate these practices from the country. Such approach is possible when robust child protection mechanism is in place. Towards that end, Child protection mapping and assessment has been done by the Ministry of Women, Children and Social Welfare (MoWCSW), Central Child Welfare Board (CCWB) with the technical support of development partners including UNICEF to highlight system-wide strengths, weaknesses and gaps in relation to international standards with the aim of guiding strategic actions to protect vulnerable children.
