Human rights
"Dear Friends, I’m writing to you from Nepal. “To have the right” means satisfying each person’s needs without interruption. It’s the freedom to think, to act and to say whatever one wants. Children rights belong to human rights. Children are the future of our nation. They’re those who will bring our country to prosperity, peace and progress. Children should benefit from these rights.
Children rights encompass different notions: they have need for health care, mother care, access to drinkable water and proper food, access to education (including games as represented here).
Here some kids can fulfil their basic needs, most don’t. Many of them live in the street all over the country. Some kids are underemployed in factories, hotels where they don’t receive proper salaries for their work.
People right in their relationships with others. Everybody has the right to have a nationality: Tibet was invaded by China more than 50 years ago and is still not recognized as an independent state. More than 1 200 000 Tibetans died as a result of the Chinese invasion, and Tibet is against its will assimilated to China."
Public freedom
Anyone is free to think what he wants or to choose his own religion. In Nepal, religions live together without tensions. Hinduism is the state religion (81% of the Nepalese population in 2001). There are also many Buddhists (11%), some Muslims (4.2%). There are also other religions as Kirantism or Animism (3.6%), Christians (0.45%) and others…
The right to healthcare
Will Nepal recover peace after 10 years of armed conflict between
Maoists and the Nepalese royal army ? Peace would first benefit
children, health, family life and the environment.
The painting shows the differences between girls and boys in a village. The boy can do his home works at night, at the candle light, whereas the girl has to do house tasks in the kitchen. Many parents don’t send their girls to school. Once married, the young girls have to leave their family to live in their husband’s one. Thus many parents, when asked why they don’t send their girls to school, answer “ why would I pour water on my neighbour’s plants?”
Here you can see 2 activities in which many kids are working instead of going to school: field working the countryside on the left and art crafts work such as pottery, on the right, in urban areas. Kids working in Nepal is a reality and an economic necessity for the families. For some families it is a question of surviving. If the kids don’t work they just don’t eat.
Bikash, the drawer, used
to be living in the street and working as an employee in a house to feed
his family, before joining the Chess shelter. Today he can go to school
(8th grade) and his dream is to become a helicopter pilot.
Public Liberties
Each single person has the right to express what he thinks. In April 2006, in Nepal, the demonstrations which took place to ask for the return to a parliamentary democracy and the end of the reign of the King, have been severely repressed. In 3 weeks, more than 5 000 demonstrators were injured by bullets or beaten; 16 demonstrators died and many other will remain disabled. Schools had been closed.
Migration
For the past ten years, villagers have had to leave their homes
because of the conflict between Maoists and the Nepalese royal
army. Private properties have been requisitioned either by the
army, or by the Maoists. This forced migration has led many Nepalese
to the cities, where they hope to find work and income to survive.
Two countryside scenes: young girls dedicating their life to house work, often within their step family house once they’re married and young girls chatting at the water point. Young girls, which most of them are illiterate, spend most of their time in the kitchen, taking care of the kids, or doing other works such as cutting herbs for animals, or fields work.
On
the right side, a young boy is watching after the cattle. In the
countryside, often the kids miss school; their parents would rather send
them to work in the fields, or to take care of the house.
People rights
Each single person has the right to live, has the right to be free and to live in security. For 10 years, the Maoist guerrilla and Royal army of Nepal are fighting (more than 13 000 dead persons). Children are often forced to join the guerrilla. They’re also often accused of being an indicator for the enemy. Their rights are not respected: their life, their freedom and their security are threatened.
Two
young girls walking. One of them, is going to school, proudly, with
her schoolbag in one hand and lunch box. The other girl is working
as a carrier. In Nepal, men and women are carrier.
They have
sandals on their feet. Some of the carriers are bare foot.
Many women are frustrated as they haven’t been able to study.
Pollution, the right to health
The Nepalese throw their trash in the rivers or on the streets. The polluted water is drunk further down by children who will then suffer from diarrhoea. 45000 children die each year in Nepal from the consequences of diarrhoea. In 2006, there is much talk about cholera.
Deserted villages
Some areas are deserted by the inhabitants that have fled the conflict between Maoists and the Nepalese Royal army. They are now going back to their villages as long as the cease-fire is in place, and they are resuming their activities, in particular agricultural labour.
The right to education
Schools were the first victims of the conflict between Maoists and the Nepalese Royal army. Many were closed by force by the Maoists. Schoolteachers often had to flee to avoid paying the revolutionary tax imposed by the Maoists. Other schoolteachers were enrolled by force, with their pupils, in the revolutionary troops.
It’s an illustration of the difference between girls living in the countryside and those living in the urban areas. On the left side, in the countryside, girls have to cook for their family, and they don’t have time for their home works. This inequality also exist in other fields such as the access to information on sexuality or contraceptive methods. AIDS is also taboo in Nepal while it’s becoming a problem of the society.
Surendra
The painting shows the
various activities the kids and the parents have to do in the
countryside. At the bottom, you can see
the parents resting after their work. Their girl is cooking. Their
son is working in carrying things to help the family with his
earnings. The baskets or “khodos” that he carries can contain up to
60 kilos of material. The kids don’t go to school.
Parbati
On
this painting you can see the different activities the kids have to
do in the countryside. Working in the fields, top let, or makings
some works, bottom left, watching after the cattle on the right
side. Parents don’t send their kids to school.
Ajit
Two
young boys walking. One is going to school, dressed in his uniform
and with his school bag. (Some of them have to walk hours between
their home and school); the other young boy is working as a carrier
and don’t go to school. Thus everywhere two different realities are
crossing roads, in a same country. Ajit’s father is a carrier.
Sometimes adult have to carry up to 130 kilos.
Bishnu
Two young girls: one, the one going to school, is dancing, the other one, who is illiterate, dedicate her life to doing tasks in the house. The fact that many girls don’t have access to a scholar education is generating great troubles for them.