Around 75 percent street boys in Kathmandu who are forced to resides in open sky theater were victims of sexual abuse, a report said on Thursday.

The report made public by Child Workers in Nepal Concerned Centre (CWIN) of Kathmandu and Save the Children said 74.8 percent of the respondents (all boys) living in the streets in the capital city of Nepal between 10-18 age brackets revealed that they knew at least three of their friends who had non-consensual sex.

According to CWIN, there are approximately 4,000 street children in the country, over 1,000 of them lives in dilapidated condition in Kathmandu in the year of 2012.

The report added that 46 percent of the victims were abused by their own friends, mostly of their same age group. The other abusers are foreign nationals, police personnel, third genders, drug addicts, women and strangers.

Abusers use force, bribery or violence to coerce the boys to partake in sexual activity, the report said. It also said " homosexual sex" is prevalent among the kids where 20.6 percent of the boys had sex for the first time with street boys of the same age or younger.

CWIN prepared the report after interviewing 110 street boys in seven areas of the capital namely Gaushala, Chabahil, New Road/ Basantapur, New Bus Park, Jamal/Durbar Marg, Thamel and Kalanki.



Talking to Xinhua, Sumnima Tuladhar, CWIN's Executive Coordinator and Secretary Thursday said a sense of powerlessness and prevalence of desensitization in relation to sexual abuse within the community are the reasons for these boys falling victims to the abuse.

"They need to be given education around what constitutes sexual abuse and their rights in relation to it," said Tuladhar.

A child protection team leader of Save the Children, Tara Kandel at a report publication function said commonly, the cases of sexual abuse and rape are linked with women and girl children only. "There should be strict laws for abuse against boys too," said Kandel said.

The draft Civil Code of Nepal, defines sexual abuse and rape cases as something to do with women and girls only.

Deputy Inspector General and chief of the Human Rights Cell under the Nepal Police Headquarters, Keshav Adhikari said there very few street boys lodged complain of their abuses. He said if they are abused by someone of their own age, it is taken as juvenile delinquency and action is taken accordingly.

DIG Adhikari, however, said if they are abused by adults, there is no particular law based on which we can take action against the perpetrators."