Ward number 3 of Modi Rural Municipality of Parbat was declared a Child-Friendly Local Government (CFLG) Ward in 2023. The ward, consisting of 507 households with 1,512 children, has a major population of Dalit community. The ward now has a child protection mechanism in place. The local government has published a ward-level status report, endorsed a child-friendly budget plan, and provisioned tiffin for all children studying at schools in the territory. Child clubs actively partake in all concerned meetings and contribute to child-friendly planning as provisioned.
A few years ago, the situation for children in Ward number 3 of Modi Rural Municipality was direly different. Child labor, child marriages, and a general neglect of children’s well-being were rampant issues. Neither the local government nor the community and families paid much attention to the children and their needs at that time.
In 2018, GNI Nepal entered the village with a specific focus on children. As part of its intervention, GNI Nepal strengthened the child protection mechanism at the community level and supported the local government in capacitating the elects and staff to prioritize children’s interests. The local government’s focus on children continued to increase, as demonstrated by its efforts to be a child-friendly local government.
Such achievement has been possible only because of the joint effort of child clubs, schools, health posts, community leaders, and groups like FCHVs, which were capacitated and mobilized under various interventions of GNI Nepal. Melina BK, president of the child club of Himalaya Secondary School, says, “I feel proud to be the leader of the child club, which supported the ward in its process of becoming a child-friendly local government.”
Besides, the local government also took ownership of the initiative and prioritized child protection by collaborating with GNI Nepal for awareness raising, carrying out activities to meet the standard indicators, reinforcing child-friendly behavior at institutional and community levels, and allotting the budget to function as a child-friendly local government.
Devendra Chhetri, Ward Chairperson, shares, “Meeting all standards and indicators, our ward has become the child-friendly local government, and our plans and policies focus on children’s development. We are grateful to GNI Nepal for joining us on this journey and look forward to continued support from the organization”. While accompanying the local government in its pursuit, GNI Nepal aided in areas like strategic planning, child- friendly infrastructure, capacity building collecting, analyzing, and publishing indicator-based data.
Chairperson of Modi Rural Municipality, Ms. Hiradevi Sharma, shares, “Replicating the learning of Ward -3, we will also convert the remaining six wards into child-friendly units, and we have proceeded with necessary preparation”.