One million Nepali orphans - why so many & what can be done?

by Hank Pellissier

Nepal is famed for its majestic Himalayas, Hindu & Buddhist temples, and 125 different exotic ethnic groups. Tourism is the largest industry in this spectacular roof-of-the-world country that’s ranked one the “Ten Bucket List Trips” by Forbes. Despite the acclaim, Nepal has multiple severe problems, evidenced tragically in it’s one million orphans, representing 9% of all children in this nation of 31 million.

The primary reason is heart-breaking. In Africa, children are orphans because their parents are dead, but in Nepal children are often without parents because they’ve been abandoned. Sometimes they’re cast out because their parents divorced, and got remarried, and the new stepmother or stepfather doesn’t want them around. But more often, they’re displaced due to poverty; their parents couldn’t afford to feed and take care of them, so the child was trafficked off to a city. One estimate suggests 80% of “orphans” in Nepal have parents, what they don’t have is parents who want them.

Nepal’s poverty rate - 25% - is the second-highest in Asia, trailing only Bangladesh. 30% pf Nepalis live on $14/month, claimed a 2013 United Nations report, ranking Nepali per capita income in the Bottom 30 of nations worldwide.

Destitution is a rural predicament. 86% of Nepalis live in villages, farming for subsistence on very small landholdings with rugged terrain, poor soil quality and unreliable rainfall. 90% of the poor dwell in rural areas, especially in the majestic Himalayas covering 64% of the land. The high altitude area is wonderful to visit but you wouldn’t want to live there because the remoteness delivers brutal hardships, like lack of medical aid, unsafe drinking water, no sanitation systems, and insufficient schools. Poor nutrition is rampant in the lofty valleys, where 50% of children under 5 are malnourished.

Poverty in Nepal can be partly blamed on the Hindu caste system - low caste families are usuallly desperately poor, especially Dalits (“untouchables”) and dozens of marginalized, indigenous communities. Wages are abysmally low for the laboring poor. An article in Global South Development Magazine claims it takes “3 hours and 21 minutes to earn enough money to buy a kilo of rice, 4 hours and 26 minutes for a liter of milk… a color TV would cost you 1,258 hours of labor, a bicycle 436 hours.”

Suicide in Nepal is the 7th highest in world per capita, due to poverty and absence of mental health care (only 0.22 psychiatrists and 0.06 psychologists per 100,000 Nepalis, with near zero in rural areas). Suicide and homicide linked to poverty increased by 31% in Nepal in a recent two-year span.

Adding to these problems are natural disasters, like the 7.9 magnitude earthquake in 2015 (killing 8,964 people, injuring 21,952 others, and causing $6.66 billion in damages) plus annual devastation from flash floods and landslides. Nepali politics have also been chaotic - a violent civil war between government forces and Maoist rebels lasted from 1996-2006.

What’s the mental and physical health of Nepali orphans? Research indicates 33.2% of Nepali orphans in child care homes have depressive symptoms, with girls 1.96 times more likely to be depressed than boys. Orphans in marginal situations also have poverty challenges, such as food insecurity, poor health, and inadequate schooling, are more susceptible to mental, physical, and sexual abuse.

What can be done to help Nepali orphans? Both those without parents and those who’ve been abandoned?

1. Encourage the Nepali government to register and inspect all orphanages, guaranteeing care, comfort, education, and vocational training to the children. Orphanages that do not provide basic services should be shuttered, with the children moved to superior homes.

2. Assist Nepal’s rural areas with subsidies, loans, infrastructure, improved schools, and vocational workshops. Eliminate the caste system and other marginalizing, improve access to mental health, and deliver land reform: 1.6 million people are still landless, working as tenant farmers. Improving rural life will enable families to stay together.

3. Halt trafficking of Nepali children. Many unsuspecting rural parents pay large amounts to people they mistakenly trust, who promise to deliver their sons and daughters to better situations in cities. The children are then sent to brothels in India, for example, or sold into “bonded or slave labor [at] brick kilns and factories, [or] as domestic servants or circus entertainers.” 1.5 million Nepalis are at risk of being trafficked.

4. Provide assistance to legitimate orphanages. Children in these facilities need proper food, clothes, education, vocational training, and compassionate adult attention. The best orphanages are small ones with a good child-adult ratio, like Supporting Children Initiative Foundation (below) where 14 children are cared for by a staff of five adults.

You can help Nepali orphans HERE.