A raid by the police on a Lalitpur-based orphanage last week brought to light the deplorable conditions in which children were kept and sheer disdain the operator had for the rules, raising concerns about conditions at other shelter homes. 

Out of total 85 kids, as shown in the orphanage´s own records, only 78 were present at the Happy Home Orphanage in Dhapakhel, Lalitpur district when the Central Investigation Bureau, Central Child Welfare Board (CCWB) raided it on Friday. Later, after the police initiated a search, three out of seven missing kids were found, however, the status of others is still unknown. 

A case of child trafficking has been has been filed against the operator, who is under police detention for further investigation. 

The orphanage, which was established eight years ago, had come under scrutiny even the previous year. 
Finding that the orphanage had failed to meet the set standards, Central Child Welfare Board (CCWB) had issued a warning against it and let it of the hook only after it promised to implement a 13-point agreement reached with the board. 

What is startling in the case of both the raids is that the CCWB sprung to action only after being repeatedly prodded by an NGO. 
While there are hundreds of such child care homes in the valley and thousands more across the country, monitoring and regulation of this sector is almost non-existent. And there is a reason why. 

“There is a central board for the job. There are committees in all 75 districts of the country that are supposed to carry out monitoring work, issue authorization annually, and take actions if they are not run properly. There is an Act that clearly stipulates how they should be run,” said Sunita Shah, child welfare officer for Kathmandu district. “However, not a single penny is provided for the committees. We are not government staff, though we work under a CDO of the respective districts. Without budget and adequate staff, the committee cannot carry out effective monitoring.” 

Interestingly, Sunita and those who hold the same position in other districts are paid their salaries not by the government but by donors. Sunita was hired 10 years ago by Save the Children, Ministry of Women, Children and Social Welfare and CCWB. She was among 25 child program officers selected by the team for 25 different districts child welfare committees (DCWCs). 

More DCWCs were appointed later to represent all the 75 districts. In the meantime, the government did put some effort toward setting standards for child care centers but it did not think it important to recruit staff or allocate budget for the committees.
As a result, when they go to monitor some child care home or NGOs--at the time of renewal or for other reasons--most often the child program officers use the vehicle and resources of the NGOs themselves. 

“Our salary is paid from the basket fund administered by CCWB, the money for which is provided by donors. As for monitoring work, there is no budget, no vehicle and no allowance. When I go for monitoring alone, I take my scooter. But it is difficult when the team has to go. Even responsible officers lose interest in the work after once or twice,” said Sunita. 
According to Sunita, her job is to oversee all issues related to child care homes and matters of child rights violation, as per the Act. This huge responsibility is being shouldered by a single staff like Sunita in all of the 75 districts. 

“To function properly, we need at least one officer level person, an assistant and one accountant in the committee. We have voiced for several times but nothing has happened so far,” she said. 

Meanwhile, Pradeep Dongol, child protection officer at Children-Women in Social Service and Human Rights (CWISH) said that until and unless the government mechanism is strong enough to look after the issues of child rights, poor kids will continue to be exploited and abused. “Our government mechanism is so poor that until violations are reported by other agencies, it never rescues the kids in trouble. When non-government bodies seem more active than the government, you cannot expect good result,” he said. 


Resource not a constraint 
Basanta Raj Gautam
Chief District Officer, Kathmandu 

While a DCWC officer says lack of budget and staff has been crippling children home monitoring mechanism and other efforts to check child rights violations, Kathmandu CDO Basanta Raj Gautam had different perspective though. Excerpts of his interview: 

Who is responsible for the child care homes running in poor condition?

We are responsible for each and every such wrong things happening in this district. Definitely, we are to blame for poor standard child care homes too. We do have a committee that particularly looks after the issues of child rights violations. 

It is said that there is no sufficient resources and proper mechanism to ensure monitoring?
Resource is not the constraint. What is important is the coordination. As and when required, we need to be able to coordinate and reach out to the spot to rescue the kids. In other districts, only CDO is responsible for regulating this sector. But here, there is police; there is Social Welfare Ministry with us. We all work in coordination when we are informed about abuses at children homes. 

Does that mean you act only when things are reported by somebody else?
No. Just last year we monitored around 58 such homes. But when things are reported to us by NGOs or other bodies, we respond promptly. Depending on the case, we take actions against the operators. 

But dozens of child care homes are still running in deplorable conditions and the government has failed to act against them.
Ok, I agree. See, there are crimes happening in the society. If you could recruit enough policemen to monitor everyone then may be there´d be no crime, right? But is that required or not? May be you could similarly recruit as many CDOs as the child homes. But is that the solution? We need functional mechanism and we do have it. 

What are the challenges after rescuing kids?
Over 70 percent of children living in orphanages have parents. We hand over such kids to their parents. For the rest, we try to find some good orphanages and settle them there.

 Published on: 19 February 2014 | Republica