NWC bats for rights mechanism

KATHMANDU: National Women’s Commission (NWC) has announced to bring forth a mechanism to monitor women’s rights and dig into issues regarding domestic violence in rural areas before Tihar.

Ritu Raj Bhandari, acting secretary of NWC, said the commission was limited only at the centre and was unable to monitor the issues in the rural areas. “The visits to the field after incidents were not fruitful,” she added.

Meanwhile, she informed that the commission was working in coordination with local NGOs and INGOs in 20 districts from in the mountains, hills and the Tarai. NWC, at present works with presently with 32 organisations in the grassroots. NWC has also urged the coordinating partners to help in socio-psycho counselling and providing legal aid to women victims of domestic violence. A budget amounting to Rs 1.6 million had been allocated for the mechanism, she added.

“NWC has not recorded that many cases of domestic violence after enactment of domestic violence act,” she said. We are facing difficulties while implementing but that can be done away with through regulations related to the act, she shared. She, however, lamented people were not acting responsibly and registering cases with them. She also came down on the police accusing them of not being interested in registering the case citing inability to remove the courts within 30 days.