End Gender-Based Violence in Public Spaces

20 Apr 2021

Kimmey Mallik was 16 years old when she was groped while attending a crowded chariot procession festival on Krishna Ashtami in Biratnagar.

While Mallik had become used to facing harassment on the streets and the public bus—mostly catcalls, uncomfortable stares and sexually suggestive comments—but when a man suddenly grabbed her from behind, she said, “I froze.”

“For a second, I was shocked, but I was brave enough to confront the perpetrator in front of everyone,” said Mallik, who is pursuing her bachelor’s degree in social science (BSW) in Biratnagar.

Though she confronted the perpetrator, who groped her while attending a crowded chariot procession festival two years ago, 16 years old Kimmey Mallik says that the whole episode still haunts her to this day.

 

Although it has been two years since that disturbing episode took place, Mallik said that she still feels overwhelmed recalling it. “I feel that I will never participate in any crowded festivals,” said 18-years-old Mallik.

Mallik is one of the many girls and women dealing with various types of sexual violence in public spaces, from unwanted sexual remarks and touching. It happens on streets, public transportation, schools and workplaces, in public sanitation facilities, water and food distribution sites and parks.

To address women and girls’ safety in public spaces and mobility across community settings, WOREC, with the support of the FORD Foundation, has initiated a program under the Violence Against Women (VAW) Campaign in Morang, Udayapur and Dang districts.

As a part of the program, around six Focus Group Discussion (FGD) sessions were conducted with the CBOs, youths and local government representatives in Morang districts from 5th April to 7th April, where the longstanding problems of sexual violence in public spaces were raised and discussed based on the participants’ own experiences.

Participants in the FGD sessions stated that most girls and women are reluctant to confront their attackers or report to the police due to the victim-blaming culture, which is deeply embedded in our society.

Speaking at the focus group discussion session in her college, Mahendra Morang Campus, 18-year-old Nabina Bastola, a first-year BSW student, said that although she frequently faces harassments on the public bus, she has neither confronted her attackers nor shared her experiences with her parents or family members.

Nabina Bastola says that she has faced harassments while travelling by bus or walking alone on the streets but she has neither confronted her attackers nor shared her experiences with her parents due to the 'victim blaming' culture in the society

 

“Talking about sexual harassment is considered taboo in our society, so I don’t dare to tell my parents. Even if I had reported about those incidents, I feel that they would have blamed me instead by scrutinizing the dress that I was wearing during the episode,” said Bastola.

In 2020, WOREC collected 600 cases of violence against women and girls in public spaces, out of which 170 cases were documented through national newspapers. Activists in Nepal believe that these numbers are just the tip of the iceberg since they estimate that many sexual harassment incidents in public space go unreported each year due to the fear of ‘victim-blaming’.

Bastola further said that her parents forbid her from going outside the home in the evening to prevent violence from happening.

However, the participants in the FGD sessions pointed out that instead of providing a safe environment for women to walk alone at night, society put a barrier on their mobility in the name of protecting them. “This reality reduces women’s and girls’ freedom of movement while negatively impacting their wellbeing,” said Dipak Dhamala, BSW student and the participant in the FDG session.

Dipak Dhamala, a BSW student from Biratnagar, feels that violence against girls and women in public places has reduced women's and girls' freedom of movement while negatively impacting their wellbeing.

 

In the FGD session held among the members of Nari Utthan Federation in Sunwarshi Municipality Ward number 5, Aasha Kumari Godhi, secretary of the Federation, pointed on how our culture is plagued by notions that normalizes sexual violence. “I feel that sexual harassment in the public spaces has been normalized within our society. As a result, many girls and women don’t realize that the thing which society has been normalizing is harassment,” said Godhi.

Aasha Kumari Godhi, secretary of Nari Utthan Federation in Sunwarshi Municipality-5, believes that people don't realize that verbal abuses, uncomfortable stares, and random guys passing comments in public spaces are sexual harassments against women and girls since such hideous behaviours have been normalized within the society.
 

Godhi further stated that there should be awareness programs to make both men and women realize how it is unacceptable to harass girls and women in public domains sexually.

In recent time, although violence against women in private spaces is widely recognized as human rights violence, the government has still failed to acknowledge violence against girls and women in public areas. As a result, there is a significant gap in legislation on sexual harassment in public places, meaning there are no serious repercussions for the perpetrators to hold them accountable.

The participants in the focus group discussion acknowledged that patriarchy and toxic masculinity are the reasons behind the harassment culture and that everyone should work towards breaking the patriarchal mindsets of people to fight against sexual violence against girls and women in public spaces.

Laxmi Bhandari, deputy mayor of Urlabari Municipality-4, Morang says that government should come up with policies to intervene in the harmful practices surrounding violence against girls and women in public spaces and 'victim-blaming' culture.

 

“Issues related to violence against women in the public spaces is stemmed from patriarchy where men traditionally hold authority over women. Thus, we must also have sessions with men and boys to make them realize that such behaviour is problematic at the core,” said Laxmi Bhandari, deputy mayor of Urlabari Municipality Ward number 4, Morang, who also attended FGD with the people’s representatives in Urlabari Municipality.

 

The participants in the FGD sessions highlighted the need for strategic planning and policies to intervene in the harmful practices surrounding violence against girls and women in public spaces and ‘victim-blaming’ culture. Similarly, the awareness programs should also be implemented to make everyone realize how no person has the right to cross their boundaries and to ensure Right Over One’s Own Body.

The issues raised in the FGD sessions will be incorporated by WOREC to develop a comprehensive resource manual of GBVAW and girls in public space.