25 street children rescued during lockdown : NCRC

9 June, Kathmandu : The government has rescued 25 street children from various places in Kathmandu Valley since the nation-wide lockdown came into effect.  The National Child Rights Council (NCRC) undertook the rescue mission under which such children were rescued from Thamel, Old Bus Park, Chabahil Chuchepati among others places and have been rehabilitated in the Rehabilitation Centre.

No sooner the pictures of stranded street children began to do rounds in the social networking sites and social media during the stay-at-home order, Minister for Women, Children and Senior Citizen Parbat Gurung ordered their immediate rescue and rehabilitation.

Towards this, a total of 32 street children were also rescued from out of Valley since the lockdown was ordered on March 24 to prevent spread of COVID-19, Council said.
The government in mid-April 2016 had launched a campaign to make Nepal free of street children.

Council’s chief administrator Krishna Prasad Bhusal shared that 17 street children were rescued from Thamel, three from Old Buspark area and five from Chabahil Chuchepati area. The rescued children were put on test for COVID-19 too, informed Rehabilitation Centre’s office Santosh Chandra Adhikari.

A high alert has been maintained to prevent the children from coming to the road during the lockdown, according to Centre’s DSP Ramesh Bahadur Singh.  Since the commencement of campaign, the Council has rescued 1,476 stranded street children among them 190 were girls. They all were rehabilitated and some were reintegrated to their families and those having nowhere to go were sheltered in the Centre.

The Council has also appealed one and all to inform the Council through its hotline no 104 if any street children were sighted across the country.