Children left behind by the parents... and the system? Nepal, 2022

There is little as heart-breaking as an abandoned new-born baby. Maybe it was a teenage pregnancy, or a baby born out of wedlock, the reasons behind it might remain a mystery, but it happens, also in Nepal. In the hills of Helambu, to the north east of Kathmandu, where the snowy mountains can already be felt breathing down, these babies are kept for six months in a safe shelter run by a partner of WSM, MANK, giving the change to parents to come forward. Besides a multitude of other problems however, civil servants often don’t know how to deal with the administration of such children. What do we put as name for the child, even temporarily, or exact date of birth, or as guardians? While it is thankfully rare, it also means that these children, who need to be entered into a system, are often not processed correctly in the system, causing so many problems down the line that could have been avoided.

This was only one among many issues raised by civil servants in charge of making birth or death certificates in and around Helambu in February 2023. This workshop run by the municipality with Social protection Civil Society Network (SPCSN) and Mahila Atma Nirbharta Kendra (MANK) is just one of the activities part of the EU-supported project to improve Social Protection Floors and Public Finance Management in Nepal, where WSM facilitates the involvement of civil society, ensuring more people get better coverage.

Two people from the Department of National ID, and Civil Registration (DONIDCR) from Kathmandu explained how to do online data entry and deal for instance with migrating parents, or how to correctly encode people with disabilities. While this should be part of what the Nepali government does, without some support from civil society, this would not happen and more people would be excluded from a pension they are entitled to, or a scheme that should help them cope with shocks, just because of administrative hurdles or formalities.

Reason for choosing this testimony: the issue of non take up. A big part of promoting social protection is not just lobbying for schemes or more budget for social protection, but also to ensure that people who should be receiving the existing schemes are actually getting them. In many cases, ignorance of schemes but also bureaucratic hurdles and discrimination prevent people from receiving often crucial support they are entitled to. Hence, social protection facilitators that know the schemes in place and the procedures to obtain them can assist these often very precarious populations.

First and last name : Man Bahadur Mijar
Nationality: Nepali
Location: Sindhupalchowk
Family situation: family with one daughter 

Initial problem: Due to a child marriage, when their daughter was born, these parents could not receive the child nutrition allowance that should have been provided to them as Dalits.

Accompaniment of partner SPCSN: The social protection facilitator discovered this during house visit and managed to successfully register the birth of the girl child by bringing it to the ward and obtaining the mother's birth registration.

Change achieved: The child is now receiving a monthly child nutrition allowance of NPR 532 through the social assistance program. Many such cases were referred to the ward by the facilitator.

Some results by intervention strategy...

Labour rights: In total over 160.000 people, of which 31% women and 27% under 35 years, were involved in services by the Nepali partners to promote labour standards.

GEFONT ensured over 50.000 workers (35% women and 60% younger than 35 years) became more aware of their rights though campaigns and public outreach. Empowering young workers, GEFONT also organised 14 one day trainings to 300 new members in all 7 Nepali provinces, reaching 469 workers (157 female and 397 under 35 years).

Social Security: nearly 5.800 workers (42% women and 93% under 35 years) were reached by the services of the trade unions to ensure coverage of workers in the contributory Social Security Fund.

Vocational training: 60 people received vocational skill training on tailoring and embroidery, and self-employment from NTUC.