A total of 2,309 children in the district are left high and dry with no one to take care of them, a report prepared by the District Child Welfare Committee said.

According to the report, among the children are those who had lost their parents, gone missing, suffered sexual abuses, become victim of child marriage and Chhaupadi tradition (a tradition wherein women are banished from home during menstruation) and been forced into illegal drug trade.

The report said that of the children, 53 are currently taking shelter in various child care homes in the country with 44 of them in the child homes being run illegally.

Of them, 39 are taking shelter in Kathmandu-based Jyoti Ghar Nepal (JGN) illegally, three in Kathmandu-based Women and Children Upliftment Centre, one in Lalitpur-based Moonlight Child Home and one in Surkhet-based branch of the JGN, said Dambar Bahadur Rokaya, child welfare officer at the Women and Children Office, Jajarkot.

Chief District Officer Janardhan Gautam blamed the situation on poverty, domestic violence, death of parents, sexual abuses and divorce between parents among others.

He said that they are finding it hard to provide shelter, food and education to such children properly for want of budget.

Civil society leader Rajendra Bikram Shah accused the government of failing to protect such children.

Suchitra Sagar Shrestha, member at the Child Club Network, Jajarkot, said that although organisations working for the welfare of children, are keen only to provide education to helpless children, concern has been shown to provide them shelter and food.

Shah said that out of around 1,71,000 population in the district, more than 90,000 are children.