GANDAKI:  With Jaimini Municipality in Baglung being officially declared a child-friendly local governance municipality, the total number of child-friendly municipalities in Gandaki Province has reached five.

According to the Child-Friendly Local Governance “National Strategy, Child-Friendly Implementation Procedures-2011” and the “Child-Friendly Local Governance Implementation Guidelines-2021,” a municipality or rural municipality can be declared child-friendly after fulfilling 51 specific indicators.

Bishnu Prasad Chaube, a national facilitator for the nutrition-friendly campaign, shared that the government aims to make all local levels child-friendly by the year 2030.

To achieve this status, a local level must meet a total of 51 indicators. This includes 36 indicators related to service delivery—broken down into 14 for child survival, 10 for child protection, and 6 each for child development and child participation—alongside 15 indicators dedicated to institutional development.

Following the declaration of child-friendly local governance, the respective local bodies are also simultaneously declared free of child labor, child marriage, and street children.