Keep Children Out of Party Politics

Children everywhere must be kept away from party politics. Our country declared schools as Zones of Peace in 2011, ratified international commitments on child rights, and enacted laws that bars the political exploitation of minors. Those measures came after years of painful experience, when children were drawn into political movements, street protests, and even armed conflict. The latest controversy surrounding the Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP) has shown that the task of keeping minors away from politics still requires serious attention. The revelation that RSP's internal report identified 35,257 members under 18 years old has aroused genuine public worry. Then again, the party insists that the numbers were the outcome of a technical mistake and that birth dates were recorded as the Gregorian calendar rather than the Bikram Sambat one. A database error can happen, but when the reported number runs into tens of thousands across every province, the burden falls on the party to prove that no child was knowingly enrolled as a member. The issue extends far beyond one political party. Nepal's Constitution, the Political Parties Act, and the Children Act all prohibit the political exploitation of children or require party members to be adults. Nepal has also committed itself to protecting children under the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. These measures have been put in place mainly because when children are exploited as political tools, their schooling, overall growth, and liberty suffer seriously. Political parties in Nepal for quite some time have used children at rallies, carrying party flags, handing out campaign materials, and repeating the slogans that were developed by the adults.