A meeting of parliamentarians from the South Asian countries began here on Thursday to discuss about the overall status of region's children and share initiatives they have taken for the welfare of children at their home countries.

The meeting organised by the UNICEF Regional Office for South Asian and UNICEF Nepal Office is supported by the Women, Children, Senior Citizens and Social Committee under the Legislature-Parliament.

Lawmakers from Nepal, India and Bangladesh including others looking after the child issues are present in the meeting, according to Committee President Ranju Kumari Jha.

Child mortality remains as the common and one of the major problems of the South Asian countries. Nepal is in the 63rd position of the world report on the child mortality rate (under-5 mortality).

UNICEF South Asian regional director Jean Gough said there is no condition to invest sufficiently in health, education and social security sectors in the South Asia as most of the countries in the region collect minimum tax in comparing to the gross domestic product.

He suggested lawmakers that they could make positive influence on programmes, policies and budget meant for child sector for better results.

Still many South Asian school-age children are out of school. The number of such children exceeds 30 million and which is also the common problem of South Asian countries, according to President Jha. RSS