Kathmandu, Aug. 24 -- The sight of students going to school is painful to Rabindra. Not because he is envious of them, but because he regrets not being one of them.

Rabindra, 17, was a sharp student, always coming first or second in his class. Everything was perfect until grade seven. But during enrollment in grade 8, the school administration asked him to produce a birth registration certificate. He couldn't and the school refused to admit him.

"Once I wanted to be a pilot," he says. "Now I am a helper in my mother's panipuri stall. The state has ruined my life."

Rabindra's father, Bhanu, fled his home in his youth, from Parsa to Kathmandu, in search of a better life. He started staying in the Pashupatinath area, where he worked for a...