Protection of Bhotekoshi Flood-Affected Children to Be Managed Through State System
The government has initiated a process to manage the protection of children affected by the severe flooding in the Bhotekoshi–Trishuli River in Rasuwa on Bhadra 10 through the state's designated child protection system. The Ministry of Women, Children, and Social Security has expressed serious concern over activities that take advantage of the sensitive disaster situation to arbitrarily take children under their care.
Kathmandu. The government has initiated a process to manage the protection of children affected by the severe flooding in the Bhotekoshi–Trishuli River in Rasuwa on Bhadra 10 through the state's designated child protection system.
The Ministry of Women, Children, Gender and Sexual Minorities, and Social Security has expressed serious concern over activities by individuals or organizations taking flood-affected children under their care in the name of upbringing, education, and protection, influencing them through various means, and attempting to exert unwanted religious influence under the guise of counseling.
According to the ministry, activities that take advantage of the sensitive disaster situation to arbitrarily take children under care or transfer them elsewhere can pose risks to their safety, psychosocial condition, emotional development, and long-term future.
To ensure the best interests and safe protection of children, a temporary protection service center has been established at Godavari Municipality-12, Thecho, Lalitpur, under the National Child Rights Council. The ministry stated that children who are found to need immediate safe protection based on preliminary investigation and assessment will be placed in the center according to established procedures.
To bring children who have lost their guardians due to the floods or are temporarily deprived of family protection into safe protection, the ministry has urged the relevant agencies through the Ministry of Land Management, Cooperatives and Poverty Alleviation and the Ministry of Federal Affairs and General Administration to coordinate and facilitate with the concerned local levels.
Similarly, the ministry has urged the local levels affected by the Bhadra 10 floods and those declared as crisis-hit areas by the government to coordinate with relevant state agencies for rescue, identification, protection, family reunification, and necessary services, keeping the best interests of children at the center.
The ministry emphasized that during disasters, child protection should not be carried out through personal initiatives of any individual or organization but must be done in an organized, safe, and accountable manner through state mechanisms and the child protection system as per the law.
This government initiative has prepared the foundation to provide immediate safe shelter to flood-affected children and to advance their identification, family situation assessment, protection, education, psychosocial support, and long-term rehabilitation through an integrated system.