Kathmandu, Sept 29 : National Child Rights Council has intensified its rescue operation in Kathmandu.
According to NCRC, 98 street children were rescued from various places of Kathmandu in the last nine days.
The NCRC has stepped up operation to rescue street-children in a bid to meet the government’s aim of making Kathmandu a street-children-free city. Last Wednesday, it rescued 45 street children (30 boys and 15 girls) from various places such as Ratnapark, New Road, Basantapur, Jaisi Dewal, Thamel, Durbarmarg and Pulchowk.
NCRC is carrying out the rescue operation in coordination with Nepal Police, Children Search Coordination Centre and various other organisations such as Child Workers in Nepal Concerned Centre. NCRC has also claimed that it has rescued 140 street children in the current fiscal year. Children aged between four and 18 were rescued during the period, according to NCRC officials.
All the rescued street children have been sent to various child care centres. As per the data with NCRC and CSCC, there are around 300 street children inside the valley.
Police Inspector Mohan Bikram Dahal, also a head of CSCC, said, “If we keep on rescuing street children in the current rate, we will be able to rescue all street children within a few months.”
Dahal, however, stressed the need to find the root cause behind abandonment of these children. He said most of these children ended up on the streets after running away from their houses due to family conflicts triggered mainly by poverty.
“If we fail to address the root cause of the problem, children will continue to end up on the streets,” Dahal said.
The NCRC also said they had inspected and monitored around 100 child care centres since mid-July and rescued over 200 children from five illegal child care centres that were operating without fulfilling the basic criteria.
Administrative Chief at NCRC Krishna Prasad Bushal said, “We found that five out of 100 child care centres were operated illegally, which meant that there could be more such centres,” adding, “All illegally operating centres and centres that do not meet basic standards will be closed soon.”
