CHAPTER I
Introduction

1.1 Background

Nepal is one of the smallest countries in the world, land locked by India and China, two of Asia's largest countries. Its total area is 147,181 sq. km. and the total population is 18.4 million . The country is divided administratively into 5 development regions, 14 zones and 75 Districts. There are three ecological zones: the mountainous region, the hilly region and the Terai region.

The principal economic activity in Nepal is agriculture, which provides employment to more than 80 per cent of the total labour force in the country. A study by Agricultural Projects Services Centre (APROSC) indicates that a majority of the rural population of Nepal lives in abject poverty. The rural economy is characterised by small and fragmented land holdings, feudal socio-economic structures, non-optimal utilisation of available scarce productive resources, low land and labour productivity, backward farming practices and inefficient technological base, and a lack of access to inputs, markets, information and other production raising opportunities (APROSC, 1991:1). Child labour is a common phenomenon in the economy.

It is within this context that this study on Child Labour in Tea Estates of Nepal has been designed and conducted. We have distinguished between. 'Child Work and Child Labour'. We mean by child work, the work which does not deprive the children of education and does not have negative effect on their health. On the other hand, work done by children which affects their schooling and health must be regarded as child labour. Child labour is prevalent in the agricultural sector (farming, tea estates), service sector (hotels, restaurants, transport & tourism), manufacturing sector (carpet and garments) and domestic services. Needless to say, child labour in Nepal, as well as in most parts of Asia is synonymous with low wages, poor working conditions and long hours of work.

Nepal ratified the ILO Convention No. 138 concerning child labour in 1990 and the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child in 1996. As a SAARC member, Nepal is a signatory to the Colombo Resolution (1992), the Rawalpindi Resolution (1996) and the Male Declaration (1997) which inter alia, commit the government to eliminate child labour. The Constitution of the Kingdom of Nepal (1990) protects the interests of children. It prohibits the employment of minors in factories, mines or any other hazardous work situations. The Labour Act (1992) and the Rules made thereunder as well as the Children's Act (1992) and the Children's Rules (1995) are the major legislation in this regard. In addition, several provisions on children can be found in the Common Law Code (1963), the Begging (Prohibition) Act (1962), the Prison Act (1963), the Foreign Employment Act (1985), the Trafficking Control Act (1986) and so on. The implementation and the enforcement of the statutes have not, however, been satisfactory.

Of late, child labour in Nepal has drawn the attention of many non-governmental organisations, governmental organisations, international agencies, labour-based organisations such as the ILO, regional organisations such as SAARC and the World Trade Organisation. This has resulted in the introduction of a specific programme for the elimination of child labour namely, IPEC, by the ILO in 1995.

In its report, Designing a National Framework of Action Against Child Labour in Nepal (1996), the ILO clearly states that:

The problem of child Labour in Nepal is due principally to the acute poverty of the people particularly in the rural areas. Most people live on subsistence farming. Exploitative social relations in the villages further aggravate the problem. The harsh living conditions and frequent national disasters lead to seasonal or permanent migration of families and in some cases, that of children who, on their own, move from the rural to the urban areas.

The main factors contributing to child labour have been identified to be (a) poverty; (b) social customs, values and attitudes; (c) illiteracy of parents (d) lack of access to education for the children; (e) agrarian relations; (f) migration from rural to urban areas; (g) family disharmony and diminishing family support; (h) trafficking of girls within he country and across the border and (i) inadequate enforcement of labour and criminal law. (ILO, 1996:1)

This study has also confirmed most of these factors to be true in the tea estates. Thus, a solitary call for the simple abolition of child labour is not, as many of us may think, a progressive step as it is divorced from the socio-economic realities of Nepal. Unless it is integrated with equally humane measures towards poverty alleviation such as a fair and adequate remuneration for workers and an improvement in social welfare services from the government and employers etc., a mere call for children to stop working is hollow. Children are by no means insulated from the economic and social impoverishment - in fact, poverty hurts the young even more than the adults. Thus, it is of the utmost priority for His Majesty's Government of Nepal and the concerned agencies who verbally profess to be committed to the welfare of the people, to start implementing concrete programmes for genuine poverty alleviation.

1.2 Objective of the Study

The ultimate objective of this study is to help design measures for the elimination of child labour from the tea estates of Nepal. The specific objectives are as follows:

1. To investigate the conditions and the extent of child labour in tea estates

2. To investigate and study the causes of child labour in tea estates

3. To document the various forms and nature of child labour in tea estates

4. By involving the workers in the study to increase awareness about the issue of both adult and child workers.

5. To disseminate the results of the study on child labour in tea estates to the general public

6. To design and develop action programmes based on the study in order to address the problems of children and their families in the tea estates.

1.3 Location of the Study

The study covered all the 35 major tea estates of Nepal. These tea estates are located in the Districts of Jhapa and Ilam. The study excluded a few small tea gardens, which were established very recently in the Districts of Panchthar and Tehrathum.

Twenty-six of the thirty-five tea estates covered are private-owned, six being owned by small tea farmers. Among the other nine tea estates, seven are public enterprises under the Nepal Tea Development Corporation (NTDC) and two under the Ministry of Agriculture as part of the National Tea and Coffee Development Board (NTCD Board).

Twenty-six tea estates are situated in Jhapa District: twenty-three private-owned and three NTDC tea estates. Out of the remaining nine estates which are in Ilam District, three are in the private sector, four owned by the NTDC and two by the NTCD Board. Of late, an increasing number of small farmers are being highly motivated towards tea farming as it is financially more beneficial than working on their own.

[The names of tea estates surveyed are in Appendix 1.]

1.4 Research Methodology

The Central Research and Co-ordination Team was formed. It consisted of a research co-ordinator, two expert consultants ( including a demographer) and two research assistants. The demographer and the consultant acted as resource persons throughout the study and were responsible for designing the sample survey, training the field staff and analysing the information collected from the tea estates. The study questionnaire was pre-tested in two tea estates (Kanyam Tea estate of Ilam and Nakalbandha tea estate of Jhapa).

The survey covered 35 tea estates in Ilam and Jhapa of eastern Nepal. The survey excluded the very small and newly established tea farms. It is estimated that there were 5,169 workers working in these tea estates at the time of survey. This number is relatively small because the survey was conducted during the off -season. The survey covered 19 to 20 per cent of the total workers from each tea estate. Ultimately the total sample size was 19.2 per cent. Among the total 992 workers interviewed, 971 were adult (450 male and 521 female) and 21 were children below 15 years (7 boys and 14 girls). Besides, the survey covered 509 Dhuras (working households).

Four separate sets of questionnaires were prepared. The first set involved the family schedule aimed at discovering the socio-economic condition of the workers' families, and the nature and causes of child labour involvement. The individual questionnaire for the adult workers was aimed at finding out the condition of the workers and exposing the causes of child labour in their family. The third set was directly presented to the child workers employed at the time of survey. The fourth set of questionnaires was administered to the management (employer/manager).

The first three sets of questionnaires were administered by the 20 field staff members of GEFONT under the supervision of two research assistants and co-ordinated by the project co-ordinator.

A Focused Group discussion was conducted in two tea estates of Jhapa to obtain qualitative information on the issues of tea workers, especially the child workers. Barne Tea Estate was selected from the public sector tea estates and Loknath Tea Estate from the private sector. Five groups were formed from each estate and consulted by a team of researchers including the co-ordinator, the demographer and research assistants who were also involved in the field survey. The type of groups formed were :

1. Adult male workers (above 18 years of age)

2. Adult female workers (above 18 years of age)

3. Boys (up to 18 years of age)

4. Girls (up to 18 years of age)

5. Key informants ( school teachers, local political party leaders, elected VDC officials and social workers).

Discussion was also held with the officials of the Labour Office, Jhapa, to test the validity of the information provided by the participants of different group discussions.

Besides the primary data collected through direct interviews with child workers, adult workers, management and Focused Group discussions, secondary data were also used in this study. A study by Child Workers in Nepal Concerned Centre, (CWIN) conducted in 1991, titled Child Labour in the Tea Estates of Nepal was the main source of secondary information. A preliminary survey report, titled Child Labour and Tea Estates in Nepal, conducted by GEFONT in April 1995, which covered 5 tea estates in Jhapa and Ilam was used as the basis of this study.

1.5 Limitations of the Study

Only those workers and working families living in the 'Dhuras' suggested by the tea estates concerned (with a few exceptions) have been covered by this study. Besides this, there were two main obstacles encountered while conducting the study:

1. Communication: There were problems in conducting the interview with the respondents who were from the indigenous ethnic groups as most of the researchers spoke only in Nepali and had very little knowledge of their dialects.

2. Discrepancies in information given by management and employers were seen, as opposed to our observation. Most of the respondents claimed that there were no child workers in their employment but during our study, we encountered several of them. Furthermore, the management of both private and public estates seemed hesitant to provide information and data on a number of subjects such as the exact number of workers in their tea estates, the gender distribution, production figures, financial data and so on.

1.6 Validity of the Study

During the study, almost all tea estates of Jhapa and Ilam were surveyed. Over 19 per cent of the estimated total number of tea estate workers in Nepal were interviewed, thus making the qualitative and quantitative findings and data comprehensive. The study, therefore, can be regarded as reflective of the overall situation of tea estates. However, during the survey period, a total number of only 21 child workers were detected and interviewed. We believe that this number, representing 2.12 per cent of the total respondents, is not indicative of the real situation of child workers in tea estates of Nepal. The reasons will be explained in detail later in this report.