SOUTH ASIA - House Foreign Affairs Committee Democrats

2284timated 20 percent of wage earners in the organized sector. However, labor remainswidely unable to use collective bargaining effectively due to inexperience and employerreluctance to bargain.There are no export processing zones.c. Prohibition of Forced or Compulsory Labor.—The Constitution prohibits slavery,serfdom, forced labor, or trafficking in human beings in any form; however, forcedlabor and trafficking in persons remain problems (see Section 6.f.). The Departmentof Labor enforces laws against forced labor in the small formal sector, but remainsunable to enforce the law outside that sector.Large numbers of women still are forced to work against their will as prostitutes(see Section 6.f.). Bonded labor, especially in agricultural work, was a perennialproblem. Bonded laborers usually were members of lower castes. Bonded labor reportedlyoccurred among certain ethnic groups in the western Terai region. However,the Government in July outlawed bonded labor and released the ‘‘Kamaiya’’bonded agricultural workers, from their debts. By year’s end, the Government hadnot yet provided land to the Kamaiyas for resettlement nor had it begun programsto prepare the Kamaiyas for economic independence; however, it had announcedplans to do so. The Government has set up temporary camps for the Kamaiyas andbegun arrangements for distribution of food under a food-for-work program.d. Status of Child Labor Practices and Minimum Age for Employment.—The Constitutionstipulates that children shall not be employed in factories, mines, or similarhazardous work and limits children between the ages of 14 and 16 years to a36-hour work-week. The law also mandates acceptable working conditions for children.The law establishes a minimum age for employment of minors at 16 years inindustry and 14 years in agriculture and mandates acceptable working conditionsfor children.On July 21, the country passed its first comprehensive child labor law. The law,drafted with the assistance of the International Labor Organization (ILO), tightenedearlier laws. It is the first national legislation to establish specific penalties forthose who unlawfully employ children. It repeats the existing prohibition of the employmentof children under the age of 14 years and renews the constitutional provisionthat children between the ages of 14 and 16 years may work, but no more than6 hours a day and 6 days a week. The law prohibits child labor in tourism, cigaretteor carpet factories, mines, or laboratories. Employers must maintain records of all14- to 16-year-old laborers.These legal protections notwithstanding, resources devoted to their enforcementare limited, and children work in many sectors of the economy. According to a 1996ILO study, up to 40 percent of all children work, mostly in agriculture. Others workin the carpet weaving, pottery, basket weaving, sewing, and ironsmithing industries.NGO’s estimate that 2.6 million children are economically active, 1.7 million ofwhich work fulltime. According to a 1996 ILO study, most working children in thecountry are girls. Roughly 60 percent of the children who work also attend school.However, approximately 70 to 75 percent of boys who work go to school, comparedwith 50 to 60 percent of girls who work. There also are reports that the Maoistsuse children, including girls, as soldiers, shields, runners, and messengers.The Ministry of Labor’s enforcement record is improving. In February police rescuedfive children from a garment factory in Kathmandu. The children claimed thatthey were forced to work more than 12 hours a day and that some were abused sexually.According to a February 1999 press report, police found 14 boys aged 15 to17 years who were employed forcibly in a wool factory in Jorpati. The Governmentintroduced a number of programs beginning in 1998 that are designed to reducechild labor. For example, the Ministry of Labor has set up three centers for childrenof carpet weavers, who might otherwise join their parents at the loom. The centersprovide day care or education for the children, depending upon their ages. The Governmentalso conducts public awareness programs to raise public sensitivity to theproblem of child labor.The private sector has made its own efforts to eradicate child labor, especially inthe carpet industry. Since 1996, the Rugmark Foundation has certified carpetsmade without child labor. Over half of all carpet factories now participate in thisor a similar certification system. Partially as a result of this initiative, and of consumerpressure, children reportedly now constitute only 5 percent of the work forcein the exportoriented carpet industry, and the carpet manufacturers association inAugust 1999 pledged publicly to end child labor in the industry by 2005. However,children’s rights activists still say that, in the smaller factories, children remain apart of the work force. Rugmark, in its self-policing function, reports that it found20 children working in carpet factories in Kathmandu in April and May.Trafficking in girls continues to be a serious problem (see Section 6.f.).VerDate 11-MAY-2000 13:46 Sep 20, 2001 Jkt 071555 PO 00000 Frm 00128 Fmt 6601 Sfmt 6621 F:\WORK\COUNTRYR\S71555\71555.036 HINTREL1 PsN: HINTREL1