| Total
Child Labour |
NATIONAL STATISTICS
* For the year 2000, the ILO projects that
there will be 124,000 economically active children between the ages
of 10-14, representing 51.05% of this age group. Of these children,
389,000 are girls and 69,000 are boys.
(ILO, International Labour Office - Bureau of Statistics, Economically Active Population 1950-2010, STAT Working Paper, ILO 1997)
* In 1995, there
were 115,000 economically active children, 343,000 girls and 64,000
boys between the ages of 10-14, representing 55.10% of this age
group. (ILO, International Labour Office - Bureau of Statistics, Economically Active Population 1950-2010, STAT Working Paper, ILO 1997)
|
| Child
Slavery |
GENERAL NOTES
AND OBSERVATIONS
* No laws are in force.
No cases have been reported. (US Dept of State, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices - 1999, 25 February 2000)
|
| Child
Trafficking |
GENERAL NOTES
AND OBSERVATIONS
* Reports indicate
trafficking of children into Pakistan from Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal
and Sri Lanka. (US
Dept of Labor, Prostitution of Children, 1996)
|
| Child
Prostitution and
Pornography |
- |
| Children
in Crime |
- |
| Child
Soldiers |
GOVERNMENT
FORCE STATISTICS
* In the government armed
forces, which had a total strength of 11,000, 5% or around 550, were children
below 18 years. (Rädda
Barnen, Childwar database, citing UN, Graca Machel, Case Study on Bhutan,
1994-1995)
* Child soldiers below
the age of 18 formed approximately 10%, or around 200, of the Militias,
the government paramilitary. (Rädda
Barnen, Childwar database, citing UN, Graca Machel, Case Study on Bhutan,
1994-1995)
* Reports stated that
one detachment of 200 soldiers contained 3 soldiers under 15 years, and
that another 400 contained 15 who were under 16 years. (Rädda
Barnen, Childwar database, citing UN, Graca Machel, Case Study on Bhutan,
1994-1995)
*
NGO sources claim that up to 30% of militia recruits in the early 1990s
were school and village children. (CSUCS,
Asia Report, July 2000)
RECRUITMENT
LAWS AND REGULATIONS
*
The Royal Bhutan Army is an all-volunteer force and the minimum age for
recruitment is 18 years. The practice of conscription was stopped a decade
ago. (CSUCS,
Asia Report, July 2000, citing Mission of Bhutan to the UN, September 2000)
NOTES ON GOVERNMENT FORCES
* A case study on Bhutan conducted for the Machel
Study in 1995 provided testimonies indicating that detachments of
the Royal Bhutan Army contained young boys, some not more than 15
years of age. Testimony from former soldiers now living in the refugee
camps in Nepal suggested a pattern of forced underage recruitment
at that time. (CSUCS,
Global Report on Child Soldiers - 2001, 12 June 2001 citing Radda
Barnen Child War database quoting the Machel case study, http://www.rb.se)
*
In September 2000 the Government of Bhutan stated that "the
question of the use of children as combatants … does not arise"
due to the absence of "a war like situation" in Bhutan.
(CSUCS,
Global Report on Child Soldiers - 2001, 12 June 2001 citing statement
by Permanent Mission of Bhutan to the United Nations in Geneva,
September 2000)
*
According to one source, children who failed their school examinations
were compelled to join the armed forces; families with more than
three sons were also required to send at least one for military
service. (CSUCS,
Asia Report, July 2000
citing Mission of Bhutan to the UN, September 2000)
* A system of Village
Defence Committees is used for local patrolling in the border region. An
Amnesty International delegation heard that children under 18 are regularly
used for such duties. (CSUCS,
Asia Report, July 2000)
|
| Domestic
Child Servants |
- |
Other
Hazardous
Child Labour |
SPECIFIC
SECTORS
* Construction - A
UNICEF study suggested that children as young as 11 are sometimes employed
with road-building teams.
(US Dept of State, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices - 1999, 25 February 2000)
|
|
