KATHMANDU,Aug 24: Parliamentarians extended their support to a resolution motion against Violence Against Women (VAW) presented at the House of Representatives

Speaker Krishna Bahadur Mahara presented the motion in the lower house session today. Earlier, 22 lawmakers had signed on the document and registered it at the parliament secretariat on July 5. 

The motion has sought an end to all forms of physical, mental, sexual and psychological and other sorts of violence against women as Nepal is a signatory to the Convention on All Sorts of Violence against Women (CEDAW) and other international treaties.

The proposal demanded a direction to the government to come up with a public awareness campaign against physical assaults on women for not bringing dowry as per the expectations, superstitions, and other sorts of exploitations as well as include curriculum aimed at bringing social justice and equity, by including these issues in the school texts books. 

Various lawmakers expressed concerns on increasing violence against women, especially rape, in the country as they urged for tougher punishments to culprits and an end to political protection.

Lawmaker Sashi Shrestha said the media needed to play an important role to bring such incidents into public attention.  Shanta Chaudhary, another parliamentarian said that the government was not serious into increasing incidents of rapes in the country. "We need to debate more seriously," she said and stressed on collective efforts in all tiers of the government to end any form of violence against women.

Two male parliamentarians, Mahesh Kumar Das and Surya Prasad Thapa appreciated the resolution movement and said that it had come at right time. Both parliamentarians said they were committed to end violence against women. "I believe the resolution will help to curb violences by helping to spread awareness while making the government accountable for the same," Das said.   

Similarly, Surya Prasad Thapa suggested that the country would need to redefine VAW and add more components that led to violence. He argued that there were few factors that resulted in women becoming victims of violece; poor education system (which resulted in poor awareness), wage disparity and misuse of communication technology. 

Lawmakers Binda Pandey, Pushpa Bhusal, Rekha Sharma, Krishna Bhakta Pokhrel, Niru Pal, Maina Kumari Bhandari, Parbati Kumari Bishankhe, Bina Kumari Sherestha, Laxmi Kumari Chaudhary, Nawraj Rawat, Tulsi Thapa and Amrita Thapa were those making initiations to register the document at the Secretariat. 

 
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