‘’To my beloved one”, this phrase is seen in most of the notes or greeting cards given by a guy to a girl. ‘Beloved’, the one who receives love, and not the one who gives love shows the passiveness of girls. From the very beginning of the history of mankind, women are always put behind, under the shadow of a man; sometimes in the name of biology and sometimes sociology. Women are from many ways being used and abused, one of whose best and frequently occurring example is women sexual harassment. Unwelcome sexual advantages, requests for sexual favors, and other verbal or physical conduct of sexual nature constitute sexual harassment. When this conduct explicitly or implicitly affects an individual, unreasonably interferers with an individual’s work performance, mental peace or creates an intimidating hostile or offensive work environment. Sexual harassment can also be any unwanted comment, gesture, unwanted attention, demands or a pattern of joke or insults that affects your job, work or school environment.
As 48.4% of the women face various degrees of sexual harassment it is one of the major problems of today’s time, the solutions must be discussed and implemented. There are few laws in Nepal against women sexual harassment, but none of those are working out seriously or we can say practically. The laws and rules against women sexual violence should be made strict and should be implemented rather than just making a law book. The issue is one of the major problems of our society which has feared women even to trust their own father. The laws made on the issue are not practically used that is why we can observe day by day an incident of women sexual harassment and the guilty not being punished according the crime. Due to the lack of a stringent law to penalise the guilty, cases of violence are increasing and impunity is on the rise. Patriarchal social system, lack of awareness, men’s control over financial matters, lack of employment and training and absence of women at the policy level are some of the factors that have caused a spurt in cases of domestic violence against women. Efforts were made in the past to introduce law on domestic, to no avail. Following pressure from NGOs and civil society, the then government registered Bill on Domestic Violence (Crime and Punishment) in the Parliament on February 22, 2002. However, with the Upper House dissolved on May 22, 2002, the effort got a blow. The existing legal provisions do not recognize using any verbal or similar abuses against women as a crime. Public prosecutors register cases of harassment only when a woman is physically assaulted, from which we can see that our own law is encouraging the crime and criminals. Because of the ignorance toward the laws from the government, the crime is in rise. The absence of a specific law dealing with sexual harassment adversely affects women's physical and economic well being, thereby limiting their economic productivity and social development.
The issue of sexual harassment was a taboo until recently, but it is gaining recognition. From being limited to a social issue it is becoming a broader legal and human rights issue. Building awareness on women, their families, and communities is a way to create an environment where gender-based violence is not tolerated. The following measures can be adopted in order to curb the evil to some extent:
1. Changing people's attitude and mentality towards women will take a long time, at least a generation and perhaps longer. Raising awareness of the issue of violence against women, and educating boys and men to view women as valuable partners in life, in the development of a society and in the attainment of peace are just as important as taking legal steps to protect women's human rights. Thus there must be government policy regarding compulsory teaching in schools about the importance of women in society.
2. The Government of Nepal should draft and pass the bill on sexual violence against women with broader sense and definitions.
3. The case of sexual violence should be filed by women police only and there should not be any delay on response.
4. Appointment of female Domestic violence prevention officers in every district.
5. To curb the social evil like rape, the government of Nepal should draft a bill regarding the biggest punishment for rape.
6. Since punishment is not only the solution to control this social evil, hence public awareness is more important. It is recommended that government should organize the programs of public awareness regarding the sexual violence against women.
7. The effectiveness of NGO and INGO is well known in public sector, it is recommended that government must encourage the involvement of such organizations for effective implementation and observation of such violence in the society.
8. The only method to know the situation of sexual violence against women is through research. Once the problem is known, then only we can think of remedies. Therefore research work must be done by government through research institutes to know the exact condition of violence.
The ultimate thing to be done in order to control the crime is encouraging women to come up with the problem and not fear. Social scientists state that almost all girls as they grow into womanhood are taught fear. Fear is the form in which the female internalizes both chivalry and the double standard. Her fear results in a passive rather than active response to male aggression. She may become paralyzed with fear, restrict her behavior (i.e., not to go out alone, not to do anything without her partner’s permission), try to appease her attacker, and worry about how she can prevent a future attack. The passive women are taught to regard themselves as helpless, unable to act, unable even to perceive, in no way self –sufficient. In order to confront violence in our patriarchal society, women must use their own strength as an energy source for reform. In all societies, to a greater or lesser degree, women are subjected to physical, sexual and psychological abuse that cuts across lines of income, class and culture. Violence against women is proving to be an effective weapon in the hands of man through which they can exploit women and establish their supremacy.
In conclusion, violence eradication is not a simple and one day work. So, joint efforts are needed. A grass root effort at awareness generation is of utmost importance to nip the problem at the bud. Mass media- both audio-visual and print materials are playing very crucial role to keep the public informed about the enormity and proportion of this shameful and dehumanizing problem. Government of Nepal has identified gender equality and women’s empowerment as major policy, has also encouraged the government to get rid of all forms of bias against women and to work in close teamwork with civil societies. Abusive demands for sexual favors and targeted verbal harassment should be addressed at all levels -- legal, educational and in personnel offices. Research shows that sexual harassment is most likely where women are few in number. Where women make up a good portion of the work force (including at high-level positions), sexual harassment decreases. The most potent remedy to sexual harassment is to increase the number of women in the work-place -- a real advance for women rather than the window dressing that image-banning provides. Finally, a focus on sexual material diverts attention from the underlying causes of harassment. Gender-based harassment (whether it uses sexual or nonsexual language) is typically a power play by men who feel threatened by women's progress toward equality or even by their presence. It is the deeply-rooted social causes of such hostility that policy makers need to address.
References
Dr. Upadhaya, Nirajan. (2001, December 22). “A psychological outlook on Domestic violence on women”. The Rising Nepal, Kathmandu.
Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada, (2008, February 29)” Israel: Protection available to female victims of sexual harassment in the workplace, including legal mechanisms; whether there are any reports of police refusing to process complaints of sexual harassment from immigrant women who are from the former Soviet Union”.
Chepange, bd. Bore. (2005, April 9). “Nari ko Katha”. Nari, 16-18.
Interview taken in KU Girls Hostel.
great work di ... had not gone through it bt while searching for materials regarding my topic in dissertation got an opportunity to read yr blog ... carry on .. bst wishes for yr success
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