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This also marks a new beginning at the start of a new decade for Nepal, so that it can move forward to a more stable, peaceful future.

A group of young Nepali men and women will leave their military lives behind and return to civilian life after a discharge ceremony in the main Maoist army cantonment in Sindhuli in the central region of the country today.

This is the first group of young people disqualified from the Maoist army as children or late recruits who will now be discharged.

“Today marks the first step in the return to civilian life for thousands of Nepalis who have been living in cantonments since 2006. This ceremony is an important milestone in the ongoing peace process and will, we hope, speed up other steps laid out in the Comprehensive Peace Agreement,” said United Nations Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator Robert Piper.

These young people are among 4,008 individuals – including some 500 below 18 years old — due to be released over the next 40 days The rehabilitation process will now give these young people the opportunity to gain new skills – returning to school or learning a trade – provided by the Government of Nepal with the support of the United Nations.

The discharge, which is scheduled to be completed in seven cantonments across the country by mid February 2010, is part of an Action Plan signed in December 2009 by the Government of Nepal, the Unified Communist Party of Nepal – Maoist (UCPN-M) and the United Nations. When it is verified that the UCPN-M has fully complied with the plan, the party can be considered for removal from the list of parties that recruit and use children, which is included in the annual UN Secretary-General’s report on Children and Armed Conflict.

Before Thursday’s ceremony at the cantonment these young people completed a discharge process carried out by various United Nations agencies. They were briefed about rehabilitation options given civilian clothing and identity cards. In the coming months, a United Nations team will contact those discharged to monitor and assess how they are adjusting to civilian life. Nearly 3,000 of those disqualified were minors on 25 May 2006 at the time of the ceasefire. Today, about one dozen are under 16 years of age and roughly 500 are under 18. About a third are female.

“The release of these young people sends out a symbolic message for the New Year,” said UNICEF Nepal Representative Gillian Mellsop. “Not only can these young people now finally get on with their lives, but this also marks a new beginning at the start of a new decade for Nepal, so that it can move forward to a more stable, peaceful future.”

By Parth Guragain

But this thing had a negative impact on our fellow travelers…

Lot of the time what we do is we preach others. That is we say what you so do, what you should follow and so on .But never we care that what we are doing and always try to justify our self. There was a particular incidence that occurred while I was coming home from Pakistan few months ago. We were four friends in a compartment of a train and there was a family along with us in the same compartment. As such they were very friendly but there was one thing that was bothering one of my friend.

The head of the family was a man; his habit was to eat each and every things that entered inside the compartment of train that was brought by the vendors. But the bad part of it was he was throwing these plastic wrappers here and there due to which the compartment was getting dirtier and dirtier with the journey. Three of us were doing the same thing, we were throwing these waste here and there. But one of my friend all of sudden what he did was he brought a polythene bag and started collecting all the dirt. We were shocked and also ashamed. After that we realized our mistakes and started collecting all the waste that we made.

But this thing had a negative impact on our fellow travelers that is this family. That is they started commenting regarding us I could understand what they were saying but didn’t paid attention to it. As the journey progressed they were felling somewhat ashamed of themselves. They started collecting their waste. So their habit was somewhat changed by the deeds of my friend who didn’t even preached a word. When we reached Gorakhpur, India the head of the family that is this Gentleman caught hand of my friend and said I will teach my son to be a good human then only to become a successful man. This was the best part of that journey and I also learned a lot from this act of my friend. So it is always easier to preach others but we should try to imply it our self first and show to the others.