Nepal fact sheet
Friday, 25 March 2011 07:35 | 
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- Bordered by China and India, Nepal is a landlocked country with a total land area of 147,181 sq.km.. (56,136 sq.mi.). A total land area of 147,181 sq.km.. (56,136 sq.mi.).
- As the world’s fifteenth most illiterate country, more than half of Nepal’s population cannot read or write. The male literacy rate is 65% while the female is a staggering 28%.
- A large refugee population exists in Nepal, including nearly 100,000 refugees from Bhutan.
- It is estimated that one in every three children is involved in some form of child labour.
- 20% of female commercial sex workers in Nepal are between the ages of 12 and 15 years.
- Organizations like Child Workers in Nepal estimate that there are more than 200,000 trafficked Nepalese women in India, and a further 5,000 to 7,000 are added to that number every year.
- More than half Nepal’s population live on less than a dollar a day.
- Government figures reveal that approximately half Nepal’s children experience stunted growth due to malnutrition, while 30,000 children under 5 die each year from diarrhoea.
- Nearly ten years of the Maoists’ war have left more than 10,000 Nepalese dead.
- According to one estimate, the number of children under 18 in Nepal’s Maoist insurgency makes up 25 to 30 percent of its total strength, and young girls are a significant presence in the ranks. Total rebel numbers are believed to be around 10,000
- It is estimated that 405 children under 18, including 115 girls, have been killed in the [Maoist] conflict so far.
- As well as being directly targeted by both sides of the conflict, it is estimated that hundreds more children have died from mines, bombs and improvised explosive devices used by both the CPN (Maoist) and the security forces.