KATHMANDU: A report prepared by Sancharika Samuha after monitoring as many as 14 national dailies of the country, has shown that 28 girls and women were raped in last one month.

Three of them were gang rape incidents.

According to a press statement issued today, the media monitoring conducted from May 14 to June 14 reported the grave situation of women in the nation.

Among the rape victims, four victims belonged to the age group 0-5 and six belonged to the age group 6-9.

Similarly, eight of the victims were of age group 10-19 and seven of them were of age group 20-55.

The age of three victims were not mentioned, stated the press statement.

Among the perpetrators on rape cases, three persons were family members, two neighbours, two police personnel and a government employee, a shaman and an employer. The alleged perpetrators in the rape cases were aged between 12 and 72.

The monitoring has found that the Central Development Region has highest cases of rape (eight) among the development regions while Gorkha topped the district chart with four cases.

During the same period, 19 women were murdered.

The organisation had studied contents of Kantipur, Nagarik, Annapurna Post, Naya Patrika, Gorkhapatra, Himalaya Times, Rajdhani, Nepal Samacharpatra, Commander Post, Sourya Daily, The Kathmandu Post, The Himalayan Times, Republica and The Rising Nepal.

The study had categorised cases of violence against women (VAW) into 7 groups, including rape, murder, health rights violation, domestic violence, sexual harassment/torture, dowry-related violence and witch accusation.

Bimala Tumkhewa, Secretary of Sanchar Samuha, meanwhile said the daily newspapers' coverage of VAW cases was satisfactory.

"Although most of the news stories appeared in inside pages, the 14 news stories related to the serious cases of VAW appeared on the front page," she added.

The Samuha, a forum of women journalists and communicators, has been monitoring the print media for more than a decade with a view to analysing their trend on the coverage of VAW and recommending ways to reduce VAW cases.