KATHMANDU, 9 July 2007 (IRIN) - In oil-stained clothes, nine-year-old mechanic Ramesh Shahi is busy changing the wheel of a tractor with injured hands.

"I have to support my father as he cannot make much money to support our family," Ramesh told IRIN in the Nepali capital, Kathmandu.

The boy works 10 hours a day at a workshop in Kathmandu for US$15 per month.

He quit school after migrating with his parents from Nawalparasi District, 200km southwest of Kathmandu, to escape hardship and poverty. "But life is more difficult here as we can't afford to buy medicines and don't have time to go to hospital," said Ramesh.

Ramesh is among 18,000 children working in the country's garages or similar workshops considered to be among the most hazardous and unsafe workplaces according to new research by a local (non-governmental organisation) NGO, Concern-Nepal, and funded by Plan International.

Mechanics at risk

According to the UN-affliated International Labour Organisation (ILO), Nepal has 2.6 million child labourers employed in areas categorised as hazardous. Nepal has a total estimated population of nearly 29 million. Concern-Nepal has found that children are employed in nearly 82 work areas, but being a mechanic is deemed to be the most risky.

"This sector is considered the most exploitative in terms of child labour and the problems are multi-dimensional," said prominent child rights activist Bijaya Sainju of Concern-Nepal.

Concern-Nepal has recorded how young workers are forced to work in unsafe environments - exposed to fumes, electric shocks and injuries sustained by dangerous tools. The children work in garages, welding workshops, and as blacksmiths or at bicycle repair workshops in over 4,000 centres country-wide.

"When I got skin irritation and itching due to welding, my employer refused to provide any medical treatment or expenses," said Hari Khadka, a 16-year-old mechanic working in Kathmandu where he had fled to escape forced recruitment by former Maoist rebels last year.

Growing health hazards

Health risks are growing among child mechanics. They get respiratory problems, physical injuries, body aches, fever, eye infections, chest pain, etc., said Concern-Nepal officials.

Most children are 14-16 and around 60 percent of them are migrants who left their homes due to extreme poverty. Nearly 20 percent are barely 10.

"I take care of myself and don't tell my employer when I get injured because it is no use," said welder Rajendra Shah, a young worker who pours kerosene on his wounds to treat his cuts.

But his employer, who refused to give his name, denied he was neglecting any duty of care. "So many are unemployed and we are not forcing anyone to work with us and they can leave if they don't feel well-treated," he said.

"Child labourers working in this sector have been mostly neglected and deprived of support of any kind," said aid worker Prem Shukla from Plan Nepal.

Lack of government action

Activists say the government has yet to take action to safeguard child labourers.

The country has ratified the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and committed itself to abide by various international conventions but not much has been done to improve the situation of working children in Nepal, said Sainju.

Member of Parliament Urmila Aryal said the government was considering the enforcement of children's rights, and he welcomed pressure on this issue from NGOs, saying it would help guide the government in developing an action plan.

Apart from the mechanical sector, a large number of children also work in other areas - 60,000 in brick kilns, 72,000 in restaurants and tea shops, 32,000 in stone quarry sites and 46,000 as child porters.

nn/at/ar/cb

© IRIN. All rights reserved. More humanitarian news and analysis: http://www.irinnews.org

IRIN news