Nepal Launches Campaign Against Domestic Violence

In a bid to ensure a safer and happier environment in Nepal, the country’s Home Affairs Minister Ram Bahadur Thapa has announced a ‘campaign against Domestic Violence’.

Speaking about the initiative that will involve participation of both the government and people, the Minister said the movement would begin at ‘people-level’ to counter the crime.

We will launch the campaign against crime and domestic violence as a movement,” he said.

Furthering his stance, the Minister said that there are 36,000 schools and 7,000 ward offices across Nepal and that the hundreds and thousands of Nepali youth would be wrapped into the cause #AgainstDomesticViolence.

Citing the example of various achievements in the past, Thapa said that the ‘Prosperous Nepal, Happy Nepali’ campaign has brought about significant transformation in various aspects including, reduced extortion cases, IED explosions, monopoly and smuggling, among others.

“Incidents related to monopoly and corrupt practices have reduced. The goons are mostly underground. There has been a qualitative increase in revenue as a result of checking on smuggling,” said the Home Minister.

The alarming rise in the number of domestic violence incidents has resulted in this campaign by the Nepal Government.

Earlier in September 2018, Burns Violence Survivors-Nepal (BVS-N) Executive Director, Pratiksha Giri  revealed some alarming facts on domestic violence and she urged the government to take stringent action against the same.

“The psychological and emotional impacts of domestic violence are far from told and if the government doesn’t immediately regulate and record the sale and distribution of acid, the days are bleak,” says Pratiksha Giri, Executive Director, BVS-N.

Domestic Violence Statistics in Nepal

• According to Burns Violence Survivors-Nepal (BVS-N) data, a total of 251 cases have been reported in Nepal since 2010
• In 2017, a total of 12, 225 cases of domestic violence were registered with Nepal Police which increased drastically from 1,800 cases in 2013
• The Nepal National Women Commission’s 24/7 toll-free helpline number and their online Case Management System registered 47,968 calls between November 2017 and August 2018
• Through the online case management system, BVS-N was able to record cases based on typology which include 36 percent emotional abuse, 30 economic abuse, 24 percent physical abuse and 10 percent sexual abuse cases
• The data also records that Kathmandu Valley was witness to the highest incidents of domestic violence measured at 60 percent, which includes married women between the age-groups of 26 and 40 years as the most affected

We hope that the Nepal Government is successful in this venture as it has been in the case of stalling other crimes and social evils. But this will only be possible with support from its people, as always.

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