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How can we prevent sexual violence in Nepal?

While the new government formation is on its way, we have witnessed protests across the country against sexual violence against women as our media reports the death of a minor girl who may have been a victim of sexual violence.

Hope our Nepal Police will investigate fully and not do a half-baked investigation like in the Nirmala Pant rape and murder case. Pant was a 13- year old student and many believe that the culprits were related to the political leaders in the region and the police did not do their job right then. We are all still waiting for justice for Nirmala while this new incident regarding another minor girl has made the front page news recently and has angered the general public once again.

But will only protesting against sexual or gender-based violence do the job? The previous governments were not really interested in doing much. It is about time we get rid of the statute of limitations when it comes to reporting rape and sexual violence. I think the current laws allow like two years to file a report and three if the victim is a minor. What happens if you don't file a report within the given time frame? Then the courts will say, it is a closed case and the victims will never get any justice.

Hope the new RSP government will do the needful and get rid of such limitations. And especially when it comes to minors, we have to really come with strict laws and that doesn't mean adult victims will not get justice but it is time, we take rape and sexual violence against women or anybody as a major crime and not some ten-year stint at the prison.

It is about time, we introduced caning like in Singapore, twelve lashes and a minimum of twenty years in prison and that too with hard labor and provide compensation to the victims as well even if it takes the culprits' 3 generations to pay the compensation. I know compensation alone cannot make the sufferings of the victims go away but it is about time, maybe, if castration should also be included in some form as a punishment for those who have committed such crimes.

It is about time we equipped our investigative agencies with modern technologies and not all foreign help is bad. Hope the new government will seek help from the FBI in the US or the professional investigative government agencies in Asian countries to have like DNA testing and develop and provide the resources to have better forensic labs across the country. I think every crime should be investigated and evidence-based instead of the usual, grab some suspects, beat them to death and in some cases, falsely accuse them and make them the culprits and send them to prison while the real culprits roam around freely.

I think the US Embassy did provide us with some software for matching DNA profiles like six months ago. We are not in the 60s or the 90s. We need to use all kinds of new technologies to make sure that no innocent ones are jailed for any crimes but the real culprits are sent to prison based on DNA-evidence and not some old school beat-the-person till he or she confesses and close the case to pacify the public.

Some people argue that we need more classes on sex education in our schools. Some say we need to open red light districts so that sex workers can minimize their health risks, pay taxes and work in a dignified environment. We have all kinds of experts.

In my opinion, there will always be these kind of evil folks, who think that they can sexually abuse anyone and get away with it and they think murdering the victims will help them to avoid the justice system and they can get away with it. We cannot prevent heinous crimes in our society but we can minimize it and work towards punishing the culprits very harshly that it will deter such acts in the future.

And it is not only about rape and murder, any gender-based violence, be it physical or verbal, should also not be tolerated, and violators must be punished. We have to make sure that our women and other genders do not face harassment in our public vehicles or even on our streets. Sexualized comments, groping and stalking or any forms of harassment, should not be taken lightly but we should change our laws to make sure that such acts will lead to harsh punishments and not some light talk by the police and letting go.

Harsh prison sentences, a government-based database of such offenders online for public access, and hefty fines will likely deter or minimize such acts in the near future. Hope the new RSP government will make this its top priority. Going after corrupt ones since 1991 can wait for 100 days. Get rid of the statute of limitations, ensure harsh punishment for the culprits and make changes to the current laws to make the safety of our women and other genders the first priority in the House.

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