KATHMANDU, NOVEMBER 2

On October 21, during the third day of Dashain, police rescued an eight-year-old girl from near her rented room at Manakamana Chowk of Mahalaxmi Municipality and saved her from being a possible victim of rape.

She was abducted and taken to a rented room by a 30-year-old man Raju Karki, who had been observing the girl’s activities for a few days with the motive of ‘raping the girl’. The man had taken the girl on his bicycle at least six kilometres away from the place she used to live in.

Luckily, neighbours who had seen her being abducted, informed police, who later rescued the girl, before the man victimised her.

But many such girls were not lucky, as nearly seven girls were raped each day during festival.

This year, a total of 104 girls and women were raped during Dashain which is twice the number of girls raped during Dashain last year. A total of 50 girls were raped last year during Dashain, while 70 girls were raped during Dashain of 2018.

Prior to Dashain, a total of 1,229 rape cases were recorded during the lockdown from March 24 to September-end.

Despite vehement protests against rape and sexual assault, girls and women continue to become victims of such heinous crimes.

Mohana Aansari, commissioner of National Human Right Commission, said the reasons behind the rising number of such crimes during festivities could be consumption of alcohol and changed notion of celebrations.

“It is sad that men tend to show off their masculinity during festivities, which has resulted in the rise of such crimes,” she said.

Aansari further said that although rape is one of the most common kind of heinous crimes, the process of delivering justice to the victim was not discouraging such crime. She said, “Most of rape cases take place inside houses and perpetrators are often close family members or friends.” She further stressed, “If we could only put such perpetrators behind bars while respecting the privacy and dignity of victims, such crimes would go down within no time.”

Senior Superintendent of Police Kuber Kadayat, spokesperson for Nepal Police, said that controlling crimes like rape was not possible with the sole efforts of security agencies as it was the outcome of our own mindset. “Unlike other crimes, controlling rape is a very difficult task as it is guided by a personal mindset even when they are not violent or dangerous characters. Also the fact that more than 80 per cent of rape cases occur inside the house and the perpetrators are often the victim’s close relatives.”