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REPUBLICA:
KATHMANDU, Nov 2: Two and half years ago, the government itself pointed the need to rescue children living in group “D” category orphanages. But more than 4,000 children living in such orphanages are yet to be rescued.
In June 2008, the Central Child Welfare Committee (CCWC) had conducted a survey on the conditions of the orphanages across the country. After the survey we have rescued more then twelve hundred children living in various children´s homes, but we are unable to rescue more in the lack of budget,” Dharmaraj Shrestha, executive director of CCWC, said.
According to Shrestha, the survey categorized orphanages under four groups on the basis of their conditions and facilities they provided. “The children living in group “D” category orphanages were in pitiable condition and in dire need of rescue,” he said, adding. There are 198 orphanages under group “D” category. CCWC had warned orphanages under category “C” improve the conditions to graduate to category “B”.
The CCWC has put 192 orphanages under category “C”, 56 under category “B”, and only six orphanage meeting all requirements are under categroy “A”.
“Most of the orphanages have to work a lot to upgrade their standard,” Umakanta Chaudhary, monitoring officer at CCWC, said . After the survey ten orphanage were shut. Due to the lack of sufficient budget and transit home CCWC cannot rescue the children living in the vulnerable condition, he said. The CCWC doesn´t see rescue as ultimate solution. “They should be rehabilitated back in their homes. This is the only solution,” Chaudhary said.
Most of the children rescued before were sent back to their homes and few were sent to better orphanages.
The survey also showed that only 27.51 percent children living in orphanages were real orphans while 72.49 percent children had father or mother or both. Some children were found admitted to orphanages because their parents were too poor to provide for their children, the survey found.
There are 11,969 children living in 434 orphanages across the country, according to the survey.
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