Last March 7, a seven-year-old girl from Kailali was raped at school. She was raped in the classroom by a boy studying in the same school. After the school vacation, she came home in a bloody state and when asked by her mother, she said that she was forced by a teenager studying in her own school.
The mother of the victim girl approached the school teachers, management committee and the police and knocked on the door of justice. But the perpetrator was from his own village and the future of the accused was going to be ruined, so they tried to fix the incident in the village by making various temptations. Later on, the girl was kept in a safe place on the initiative of various organizations, but the legal process has been progressed, but there is still confusion about getting justice .
A few months ago, an incident of attempted rape of two female students by a teacher in another school in Kailali came to light. In this case too, after discussions between the school and the parents, an agreement was reached between the two parties. Although the school management committee's statement, the explanation given by the accused teacher and the management committee's statement asking for a re-explanation came out in the local media, this incident has not yet gone through the legal process .
With these two representative incidents, it seems that the school, which should be the safest place for students, has become unsafe. This situation has become more worrying especially for girls. Gauri Choudhary, a women's rights activist, says that the situation of sexual abuse by a responsible person like a teacher and the fact that the judicial process cannot proceed even when such heinous crimes are committed in the school premises is a very serious matter.
Women's Rehabilitation Center (OREC)'s data for the last three months shows that sexual abuse and rape cases are increasing in Kailali. Incidents of heinous crimes such as rape in the community are often secretly arranged in the village. There is a tendency to suppress in various ways even if some incidents that are not found come before the police.
According to Orec's data, 34 incidents of gender-based violence have occurred in Kailali from January to March. Among them, 38 percent and 13 cases are of sexual violence. Especially among sexual violence cases, 54 percent (7 cases) are marital rape. There are 3 cases of rape, 2 cases of gang rape and 1 case of attempted rape. During this period, 14 cases of domestic violence, 5 cases of social violence and 2 women were killed.
Looking at the age group of victims of violence, women between the ages of 25 and 35 are the most victims. The number of which is 29 percent. Similarly, 26 percent of the 16 to 25 age group, 16 percent of the 35 to 45 age group, 13 over 45 years of age and 16 percent of girls under 16 years of age are victims of violence.
After the incident of sexual violence, instead of adopting the legal process to give justice to the victims, it seems that the practice is to end it through settlement in the community. Sapna Thapa, coordinator of Orak's Sudorpaschim Province, says that this trend has a direct impact on girls' and women's self-empowerment, education and the activism of public life. She said that if justice is not delivered to the victims, there is a danger that more women and girls will fall into the cycle of violence in the future.
Gender-based violence is not an individual incident, but a long-term solution is not possible until it is addressed as a structural problem, says Gauri Chaudhary, a human rights activist. Chaudhary argues that patriarchal thinking, mentality of control over women and legal weakness are the main roots of such problems. Chowdhury says that the state, community, school and judicial system should work together to create a safe, responsible and girl-friendly environment.
He believes that sexual education should be included in the curriculum from the elementary level, development of a teaching system based on gender equality and ensuring an affected-friendly judicial process will stop incidents of violence against women. DSP Rajkumar Singh of District Police Kailali says that some of the incidents are arranged in the village, so the police do not get information about all of them.
He said that the police are conducting various programs to prevent sexual violence in public places. According to him, it is necessary for teenagers to be aware of themselves to avoid such incidents. He said that most of the incidents may not have come out because only the complaints that come before the police are accessible to the police.
