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Abstract
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Violence against Women (VAW) is one of the most pervasive of human rights violations, denying women and girl's equality, security, dignity, self-worth, and their right to enjoy fundamental freedoms. Violence against women is present in every country, cutting across boundaries of culture, class, education, income, ethnicity and age. Violence against women is actually violence against mothers, sisters, wives, daughters and daughter-in-laws. According to UNICEF there exist six kinds of violence against women and girls in South Asia, mainly (i) sexual abuse, (ii) incest and rape by family members and other, (iii) recruitment by family members into prostitution, (iv) neglect by family members, even to the point of death, (v) feticide and infanticide, (vi) dowry demand and wife abuse.
Most perpetrators of domestic violence escape persecution under the Nepali criminal justice system. Many cases are found where perpetrators of domestic violence escape persecution due to ineffective criminal law of Nepal. Population Briefs, a newsletter of the Population Council, reports a high level of physical abuse in homes among pregnant women in Nepal. The maternal mortality study conducted by Family Health3, revealed the higher suicide rate among women of reproductive age group. Fifty eight percent of women who suffered domestic violence confirmed daily abuse4. Similarly, a survey among the health professionals revealed that domestic violence has been reported to result in high maternal death, preterm birth and high prenatal mortality, abortion, miscarriage and impact on long term health of women. In addition to causing injury, violence increases women's long-term risk of a number of other health problems, including chronic pain, physical disability, drug and alcohol abuse, and depression. Backache, problem in vision and poor subjective health were common physical health problems.
Trafficking of girls/women is another gross violation of the human right and a serious form of VAW. The trafficking of girls/women from Nepal into India and Middle East takes place mainly for the purpose of prostitution. Trafficking in women and girls is easy along the 1,740 mile-long open border between India and Nepal. At least 26 districts of Nepal are considered as areas that have high occurrence of trafficking, and the Ministry of Women, Children, and Social Welfare provided small grants to task forces in those high-risk districts to raise awareness and mobilize communities against trafficking. Similarly, NGOs cite a growing internal child sex tourism problem, with an estimated 5,000 to 7,000 girls trafficked from rural areas to Kathmandu for commercial sexual exploitation6. Maiti Nepal is a National led NGO working on rescue of victims of trafficking at the border between Nepal and India and from the brothels in India as well. Such victims of abuse and rescued women from the brothels are being provided shelter in a rehabilitation centre operated by them. Most of those women are suffering from HIV infection and are shunned by own families
Domestic VAW are underreported in our country, and the reasons behind underreporting are to save family prestige, and privacy, fear of husband and mother in-law, love and affection with husband and family members, fear of breaking family relation, fear of social traditional and socio-cultural values, fear of further beating, physically assault, marginalization, uncertainty of justice, lack of faith in justice and support of other. Men use threats of abandonment, seeking sexual gratification elsewhere, remarriage and quarrel to force sex upon wives early in marriage. As a result, for most present generation women, married life means depression, mental torture, self immolation; bride burning for dowry demand.
Wife battering is covered by Domestic Violence Act entitled "Legislation to Control and Manage Domestic Violence 2009" in Nepal. |