WOREC Nepal in coordination with National Women Commission had lunch the "Anbeshi" Year Book 2070. This year book analyses 1703 cases collected from July 2012 to June 2013 by WOREC Nepal, Women Human Rights Defenders (WHRDs) and from different sources .
Executive Summary
Introduction
Violence against women (VAW) has received a growing global attention in recent months following severe incidents of rape in India. Similarly, the highly publicized cases of rape, murder and disappearance of women in Nepal have rightly sparked off protests against the ever increasing issue of VAW. The extensive and sustained public protests that followed indicate that VAW has been an invisible agenda of decision makers so far. While VAW is not a new issue, this renewed awareness has provoked a worldwide conversation about ways of creating a world where women and girls can live without fear of violence.
WOREC Nepal has attempted to shed light on the issue with the regular periodical of ‘Anbeshi’ which is devoted to Violence against Women (VAW) in Nepal. The organization has been publishing Anbeshi since 2008 to bring attention to the ever-increasing cases of VAW in Nepal. As a year book of WOREC Nepal, it attempts to bring together cases collected and compiled from different sources, including WOREC’s own documentation from all its districts; cases reported in the media; cases documented by other NGOs; and cases that came to Women’s Development Offices throughout Nepal. Similarly, the broader objective is to explore and identify intersections and locations of different power structures. As VAW is sustained by silence, WOREC Nepal attempts to make the voices of women heard and puts every effort into enabling women to speak out against gender-based violence and supports them by counseling them in the safe-houses. The organization also acts as a pressure group for the effective implementation of national laws on violence .Unless these laws get properly implemented they will fail to provide adequate safeguards against gender-based violence and breed impunity. Through its effort the organization has been trying to address/break the culture of silence around gender based violence.
The previous issues of Anbeshi have highlighted that one of the major challenges for developing effective solutions to violence against women has been the absence of data and evidence regarding the nature and implications of the problems of VAW at the national level. Although laws are introduced and conventions signed, stark gaps and delays in legal process remain as a huge barrier for survivors to access justice. Another factor which was indicated was that despite progress on laws, attitudes are a significant barrier to change.
By ratifying different Convention and providing equality clause in the Constitution, the State has recognized the existence of discrimination and inequality and the requirement to enact different measures. Thus, WOREC Nepal has been trying to use the state obligation under convention as an advocacy tool to achieve the principles of equality and justice to women survivors of violence. Therefore, the objective of Anbeshi is to map out the scenario of Violence against Women in Nepal to make evident the hidden problems and the associated factors of VAW and urge for a concerted action at all level. The need for advocacy against VAW is the urgency at the moment due to the ever-increasing cases of VAW. As such, Governments should introduce a combination of measures including the implementation and enforcement of non discriminatory laws, public awareness with safe and secure environment for women and girls. It is expected that the analysis will be useful in identifying key areas and different facets of VAW to effectively formulate measures to address its various components to ensure justice to survivors and constant check for its occurrence.
This year’s report also presents compelling evidence of the pervasiveness of VAW in Nepal and insists for its recognition as an extremely high priority issues at the local, national and international level. This publication specifically focuses on the 1703 cases collected from July 2012 to June 2013 by WOREC Nepal. Likewise, analysis of 587 cases collected from different media publications is presented.
As before, the publication again provides a host of evidence to show that women suffer from various forms of violence and suggests that a collective effort is needed at various levels. The extent of violence is difficult to ascertain due to different overriding concerns but mostly the analysis points out that it lies in the historically unequal power relations and discrimination against women in its various forms and manifestations. Although the data collected for this accounts to 1703.This figure represent only a small proportion of the cases of VAW that women face in reality. This year there were 1703 cases of VAW collected from various sources but such figures understate the problem and do not provide the overall extent of the problem.
It is high time that the State shows its responsibility to prevent violence against women and ensures safety and security. The present need is to focus on ensuring women’s human rights and accountability to women and girls in an effective way to ensure justice from their own perspectives.
1. VAW and Five Development Regions
As mentioned earlier, this publication analyses 1703 cases collected from July 2012 to June 2013 by WOREC Nepal by the Women Human Rights Defenders (WHRDs). The highest percentage of VAW was reported from the Eastern development region accounting for 58%, followed by the Central development region with 15%, Mid western development region with 12%, Far Western development region with 10% and Western with 5% of the total cases.
Similarly, according to the media 154 (26.2%) of the cases of VAW for this year are from Eastern development region, 61(10.4%) from Mid western development, 95(16.2%) from Western development region, 39(6.6%) from Far Western development region Central Development region 226(38.5%) and 12(2%) from unknown region.
2. Types of VAW
a. Domestic Violence
Domestic Violence accounted for 61% (1040) of the total cases (1703) of violence. Husbands accounted for 79% of all perpetrators followed by family members (21%). While domestic violence does not leave any age group untouched, it appears to be concentrated on women in the age group 26-35 accounting for 40%. Similarly, literate women account for 81% of cases domestic violence.
b. Social Violence
The second most frequent type of violence was social violence. A total of 297 cases or 17% of the total VAW was under this category. 74% of social violence was perpetrated by neighbors, 16% by family members and 10 % was reported by husband. Literate women accounted for 67% and illiterate 33% of cases of social violence.
c. Rape
There were a total of 224 (11%) of cases of rape. This data included 155 cases of rape, 20 cases of gang rape, 35 cases of attempted rape and 14 cases of marital rape. In most of the cases, the perpetrators were the neighbors or people women knew the most (50%) consisting of 113 cases. The data again contradicts the general supposition that rape is mostly committed by strangers.
The most affected were below 16 years of age accounting for 46%. Rape among literate group is higher (84%) than among illiterate group (16%) and looking specifically we find that 30% women raped had primary education.
d. Sexual Violence
Sexual violence accounted for 52 cases (3%) of the total cases of VAW. 58% of sexual violence was committed by friends /intimate friends, 19% were neighbors, 15% were strangers/no relation and 8% were family members. Sexual violence among literate group is higher than among illiterate group .The data for this year shows that the literate group consisted of 92% while illiterate group consisted of 8%. The most affected are in the 16-25 age group accounting for 72%, followed by the 26-35 age group accounting for 16%.
e. Murder
A total of 29 cases of murder were collected and analyzed. Similarly, there were 21 cases of attempted murder. The perpetrators were mostly husbands accounting for 54%, family members 24%, neighbors 10%, unidentified 10% and 2% strangers/no relation. The data for this year shows that 83% of murdered women were literate whereas 17 % were illiterate. The highest percentage of murder is found among women in the age groups 26-35 accounting to 46% followed by age group 17-25 accounting to 38% , 36 to 35 accounting to 12% and below 16 and above 56 years of age accounting to 2 % each.
f. Trafficking
There were 14 cases of human trafficking/transportation on women. 50% of the traffickers are unidentified.21% of women were trafficked by people who were unrelated to them (strangers, people recently introduced or agents), 18% by neighbors, 7% by husbands and 4% by intimate friends. 93% of the trafficked women were literate and 7% were illiterate. The age group 17-25 was at high risk of trafficking accounting for 43%, followed by age group 26-35 accounting for 29%, below 16 years accounting for 21% and 36-45 age group accounting for 7% of the total cases.
g. Suicide and Others
This year there were 9 cases of suicide and 17 cases under ‘others’ which were reported from different regions. The category ‘others’ include cases of abduction, abandonment etc. However, it is important to note that though they are less frequent in number than other forms of VAW, these issues should not be ignored.
3. Age Groups and VAW
VAW did not leave any age group untouched. VAW appeared to be concentrated mostly among women in the age group 17-25. Almost 36 % were in this age group.34 % were in the 26-35 age group, followed by 13 % in 36-45 age group, 8 % in the age group below 16, 5% in the age group 46-55 and 3% in the age group above 56.
4. Education and VAW
Literate women (80%) constitute the highest category of VAW survivors and illiterate constitute (20%). Among the literate women 28 % could just read and write, 25% had secondary education, 15%had taken adult literacy classes, 14% had primary education, 14 % had higher secondary education and 4% had education above higher secondary.
5. Marital Status and VAW
The highest percentage of all reported cases of violence is found among married women accounting for 78.9%. The group of unmarried women is next (15.6%), followed by separated women (2.3%) and widow (2.1%). As mentioned earlier married women accounted for 93% percent of domestic violence and the husbands are found to be the most frequent perpetrators. This is one of the reasons of married women being the highest risk groups of VAW.
6. Occupation and VAW
The majority of women reported agriculture as their occupation (35.3%), followed by household work (23.1%). Likewise, (9.2%) reported themselves as students (8.7%) were involved in labour work, (5.3%) were involved in business,(1.9) were housemaids, (1.7%) worked in entertainment sector (0.9%) were teachers, (0.8%) reported they did not work, (0.8%) worked in non government service,(0.8%) were tailors,(0.4%) were involved in foreign employment,(0.4%) in social work,(0.2%) in government service ,(0.1%) reported were army/police and (0.5% ) are put under ‘others’ and consist of categories that are unidentified and different from categories that are identified.
7. Impacts of VAW
Four different types of impacts were identified for this study: social, economic, physical, and mental. The mental impact (60%) on women is the highest under all categories of VAW, followed by physical impact (19%), social impact (16%), and economic impact (5%).
8. Ethnicity and VAW
The highest numbers of cases were reported by the Hill Janjati (19%) and Chhetri (19%) each. Similarly, (15%) of cases were reported by Terai Janjati, (11%) was reported by Brahmin, (11%) by Terai non-Dalit , another (11%) by Hill Dalits, (9%) by Terai Dalit , (2%) by Indigenous group ,(2%) by Muslim groups and (1 %) by others.
9. Relationship between the survivors and perpetrators
Husbands (51%), neighbors (21%) and family members (17%) were the major sources of violence. Likewise, (3%) were strangers, (3%) intimate friend/boyfriends, (2%) friends and (1%) were unidentified.
Thus, VAW can be discussed as any act of gender-based violence that results in, or is likely to result in, physical, sexual or psychological harm or suffering to women, including threats of such acts, coercion or arbitrary deprivation of liberty, whether occurring in public or in private life. VAW manifests at every level of society, from interpersonal and familial relationships, through communities including State and beyond to the international level in its various forms. Women are denied autonomy and subjected to the inhuman punishments for transgressing the norms.
Attempt has been made to understand the different dimensions of VAW through the available data. As acknowledged before VAW needs thorough and deep understanding of the socially and culturally constructed categories of differences and discriminations. Analysis based on race, gender, ethnicity, religion, class, sexual orientation and disability can shed light on systematic inequality and help to raise further questions on the power structures, social processes and social representations and ideologies that perpetuate these inequalities.
Unequal power relations and related social norms are the root cause of VAW manifesting differently in different socio-cultural and political contexts. Legal reforms are important but are insufficient to prevent VAW. It must be complemented by transformational changes at all levels. Hence, change in social norms (beliefs, attitudes and behaviors) through engagement of the different norm setters can be a step further for significant social change, including the change in power relations between women and men. It has been seen that devaluing woman, undermining her autonomy and silencing her protests are some of the manifestations of VAW. Nevertheless, women’s diversity and experiences should be recognized to offer a broader picture of VAW that takes into consideration different aspects of class and other factors of power and powerlessness.
It is clear from the above discussion that multiple and intersecting factors contribute to VAW and as such, a multi-faceted approach is required. Likewise a conducive and enabling environment should be created to address the ‘culture of silence’ around violence and issues regarding impunity.