Nepal: a potentially explosive situation
Gurung, A.
Children Worldwi de 20(2-3): 24
1993
ISSN/ISBN: 0258-9648 PMID: 12179304 Document Number: 537399
90% of Nepal's population is engaged in agriculture; the rural children lack all modern amenities and facilities, and boys are given preference over girls, who do not attend school. In urban populations, girls and boys are treated equally; however, 150,000 children, aged 7 to 16 years, work in carpet factories in unhygienic conditions. 52.71% are illiterate; 47.29% are dropouts. Others work as domestic servants, dishwashers in restaurants, or ragpickers. Many fortunate children do attend schools, which are numerous and filled to capacity. But thousands of Nepalese girls are sold to brothels in Bombay, Calcutta, and other parts of India; upon their return home, they bring human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) with them, as do thousands of male adult migrant workers. A government agency, AIDS Prevention and Control Programme, and about 50 nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) are collaborating to help persons who are infected with HIV or suffering from AIDS. Caritas works with two of the NGOs on a mass education program, prevention, and rehabilitation of HIV-positive women. Although government statistics indicate there are 133 identified cases of HIV in Nepal, the World Health Organization estimates the number of people there who are infected with HIV to be 10,000.