KATHMANDU, MARCH 20

On March 10, two adults entered an empty house in Morang and kidnapped a 15-month-old girl from her bed. The two men Ajay Chaudhary, 25, and Mithun Chaudhary, 28, took the toddler to an isolated place and raped her.

The severely injured child, who was rescued by their parents a few hours later, was rushed to the nearby hospital.

But, she succumbed to internal bleeding and pain as died the next day.

On March 13, two separate cases of rape were recorded inside the valley.

Manish Bidari , 21, was arrested for raping a 13-year-old girl in Kathmandu and Chakra Bahadur Raut, 38, was arrested for raping a 15-year-old girl in Lalitpur. A day earlier, a man was arrested from Pokhara on the charge of raping his sister's daughter, who was just 13.

In the first seven month of the current fiscal year, almost 1,300 rapes were registered with the police. Out of the total registered cases, almost 40 per cent were girls below 18 years old. A total of 125 girls below 10 years of age and nearly 510 girls between 11 and 16 years of age were raped during the time.

In the previous fiscal year, a total of 2,144 girls and women were raped, of which over 35 per cent were minors.

Rape cases could not be curbed despite harsher punishment. Infants, toddlers and minors continue to become victims. But in most of the cases, people seem to blame the girls for such incident as rape.

For instance, on February 27, District Police Office, Tanahun, arrested actor Paul Shah (Purna Bikram Shah) after receiving a complaint from a 15-yearold girl about being raped multiple times. But, many people took to social media and said that it was the girl who lured the accused Shah into physical relationship and that Shah should be released with respect. Many blamed the girl's parents for letting her work late evenings and far from their house.

Some celebrities and co-workers of Shah including female actors even shouted slogans from public function and concert stadium about Shah being innocent before the final verdict.

Many people are still unaware that having physical relationship with minor girls (girls below 18 years) will be counted as rape. The law stipulates life imprisonment for raping girls below 10 years of age, 18 to 20 years imprisonment for raping girl between girls between 10 and 14 years of age, 12 to 14 years of imprisonment for raping girls between 14 and 16 years of age. If the victim is between 16 and 18 years of age, the rapist can get a 10-14 years jail term and 10-12 years in jail if the victim is above 18 years.

Moreover, people guilty of forcing reconciliation between rape victims and perpetrators could end up in jail for three years and be fined up to Rs 30,000. If cops, court officials or any other public servants are found guilty of this crime, they will be sent to jail for six additional months.

A version of this article appears in the print on March 21, 2022, of The Himalayan Times