By Nayak Paudel
Kathmandu, Aug. 20: The Nepal Police data show that crimes against women and children in 2020/21 had increased worryingly when compared to the earlier fiscal year.
However, activists argue that many cases still remain unregistered owing to the victims’ fear of being treated as an outcast, which the police officers also admit.
Cases of polygamy, child marriage, rape, attempt to rape, unnatural sex, paedophile, witchcraft and domestic violence have increased while sexual abuse and human trafficking cases have decreased.
The data show 84 cases of child marriage in 2020/21 (31.25 per cent higher than 2019/20) and 279 cases of paedophile (20.25 per cent increment). Likewise, 14,232 cases of domestic violence were reported to the police in 2020/21 (21.24 per cent increment).

Likewise, 852 cases of polygamy, 735 of attempt to rape, 36 of unnatural sex, and 61 of witchcraft were reported in 2020/21.
“There has been a rise in reporting crimes against women and children to the police over the years. Victims have started coming forward with the help of social media and as a result of growing awareness,” said Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Basanta Bahadur Kunwar.

However, not all the victims come forward. Activists argue that it was because of lack of support mechanism to the victims and incapability to take legal action against the perpetrators at the earliest.
“The fast track court is not fast enough to give justice to rape victims. Once they get justice, there is no support for the victim, neither from the government nor the society and relatives in the upcoming days. This is why the victims fear to come forward and lodge a complaint,” said Lily Thapa, founding chairperson of Women for Human Rights.

Thapa, who is also a member of the National Human Rights Commission, stressed that the victims don’t receive support in reality like they do in social media from the people.
Moreover, cases against women and children show that the perpetrators were mostly family members, relatives, and neighbours.
Among the 2,815 accused of 2,534 rape cases in 2020/21 FY, 82.20 per cent i.e. 2,313 perpetrators were found to be family members and known individuals. Similarly, 11.18 per cent of the rape victims were aged less than 10 years and 53.24 per cent were aged between 11 and 18 years.

“Women and children face abuse from family members or someone they know as per the data, records and investigations. It disallows us to intervene effectively and calls for a different approach to mitigate it. Children must be taught about good and bad touches and should be supported when they come with complaint regarding any abuse,” said SSP Kunwar, who is also the central police spokesperson.
Moreover, police officers and activists argued that the society had a major role to help reduce crimes against women and children.

“If the victims are treated as heroes for coming forward, are not discriminated and judged, and perpetrators face severe legal action then there will be a rapid rise in the complaints reported to the police. However, it will also help reduce new cases of crimes against women and children,” said Thapa.