Kathmandu, May 25

A media monitoring report prepared by Sancharika Samuha states that 17 girls and women were murdered in a month between April 13 and May 13.

A press statement issued by Sancharika Samuha today said it monitored 15 national dailies, including The Himalayan Times, during the period and found 53 news reports on the murder of 17 girls and women.

It said most of the murder victims were above the age of 40 years and five of them were murdered by their husband over domestic dispute.

It further said that cases of violence against women were segregated into 13 categories rape, sexual harassment/torture, domestic violence, dowry-related violence, trafficking in persons, murder, polygamy, witch accusation, and traditional, religious, economic, health and political rights violations.

According to the report, the dailies covered 15 incidents related to rape where most of the victims were aged between 11 and 15 years. Among the victims, four were raped by their own father.

Likewise, the newspapers covered five cases of sexual harassment, 32 cases of human trafficking, seven cases of economic rights violation, two cases of political rights violation, three cases of domestic violence, five cases of health rights violation, two cases of polygamy and three cases of dowry related violence.

However, no case related to witchcraft accusation was reported.

The statement by Sancharika Samuha reads that the trend was satisfactory in terms of placement of VAW-related news in the daily newspapers. “Although most of the news appeared in the inner pages, news related to the serious cases of VAW were carried on the front page,” it said.