A rights organisation in Nepal has taken the government to court over two regulations that allow the recruitment of minors for its police and army.

The Forum for Women, Law and Development (FWLD) has filed a case in Nepal's Supreme Court challenging two service acts.

The Boys' Recruitment Regulation is a 34-year-old act that allows the Royal Nepalese Army to recruit minors aged between 15 and 18. According to international norms, anyone under 18 is a minor.

The Police Boys' Recruitment Regulation, a 20-year-old act, allows boys as young as 13 to be recruited.

"The acts expose the double standard of the government," says Sabin Shrestha of FWLD who is pleading against the child recruitment policies.

"On the one hand, the Nepal government has enacted a Child Labour Act that prohibits recruiting anyone under 14 and prohibits anyone below 16 to be exposed to hazardous work. On the other hand, it is violating its own law by recruiting children for dangerous work."

Recently, the government came under fire from the UN Child Rights Commission that expressed concern over allegations of child recruitment for spying and other work in the police and army.

However, Nepal defended itself by saying it had stopped recruiting minors about five years ago and said the recruits were used as tea boys and cooks.

But Unicef officers say a child soldier is not necessarily one who carries arms. Anyone below 18 and found in barracks if he is not a member of a service man's family is a child soldier.

"The oaths they have to take during recruitment show their jobs could be hazardous," Shrestha adds. "The service oath says during an external aggression or internal trouble, they have to be ready to give blood and lay down their lives.

"Why should a tea boy be asked to take such an oath?" Once recruited when they are too young to understand what they are getting into the children are not allowed to quit.

"They can leave only when they retire, which is after 50," Shrestha says. "And then too, they can be pressed into service any time the state thinks it needs them."

The boys, who come from very poor and uneducated families, and sometimes have no families, are caught between the state and the Maoists. The underground rebels don't spare them if they are caught and even if they escape with their lives, the state regards them with suspicion.

There are reports of several children missing after going home on leave. The government further exploits them to the hilt when it comes to paying them.

The boys in the army are paid between Nepalese Rs.150-170 when according to the Labour Act formulated by the government itself, the minimum wage for a teen between 14-16 is Nepalese Rs.1,384 besides an additional allowance of Nepalese Rs.645.

The police pay is slightly better. They are entitled to half the pay of the junior most adult recruit, who gets about Nepalese Rs.2,200.

"Though better, even that is less than the legal minimum wage," Shrestha says.

The Supreme Court has asked the ministries of defence, home, law and social justice, and women, child and social welfare, as well as the army and police to explain the policy.