Is it a democracy if even after a month of rape and murder of a 13-year-old girl, the perpetra­tor(s) cannot be apprehended?

 

Around 10 in the morning, Nir­mala Pant of Kanchanpur had gone to a friend’s to borrow a notebook and she never came back; her dead body was later found in a sugarcane field. I can­not fathom what Nirmala Pant’s mother must have felt when she came to know that her little girl had been so brutally raped and killed. Doesn’t the bereaved mother deserve justice?

 

If yes, why haven’t the criminals been arrested yet? It would have been suicidal for the society to keep quiet on such heinous crimes and there have rightly been protests. Yet the state seems minded to brutally suppress people’s voices rather than act against the culprits. Five people were injured and 14-year-old Shani Khuna of Bhimdattanagar was killed when police opened fire at a demonstration in Kanchanpur.

 

Perhaps to quell the protests the police presented a mentally retarded man as the main cul­prit. This makes you question: Is the government trying to pro­tect the criminals? If not, what explains the leniency? With such weak law enforcement, no won­der men feel emboldened to rape and kill women. This vicious cycle will end only when the state is seen as harshly punishing the rapists and murderers.

 

There are many Nirmalas among us, urging us to take a deep look at the Nepali society and the kind of values that we are passing on to our children. Every Nepali woman at a point in her life must have faced some sort of sexual harassment. When I was in class three, I remember being sexually assaulted in a public vehi­cle in Kathmandu. An old man’s hand going up my skirt in that microvan still sends chills down my spine. At that time, my moth­er, sensing my discomfort, had asked me, “What is wrong?” to which I had answered “Nothing”. I was too young to even under­stand that what was happening to me was wrong.

 

Now that I am old enough to understand, my question is “Why?” and “Until when?” How long will our girls and women continue to be subjected to this kind of deeply demeaning acts? Enough blaming a piece of cloth or females roaming around freely! If molestation and rape depends on what we wear, how do you justify an 8-month-old baby’s rape and killing?

 

Even now, when I commute to work I get catcalled. In those moments, I want to stop and question that man if that short moment of “fun” made him feel stronger. Does it fuel his masculin­ity? I have already done so a few times. The men often deny they did anything wrong. One even started to cry when I told him that I will haul him to police.

 

When Nirmala went to get the notebook from her friend, it was not her fault that she went out alone. Sexual harassment can happen even in your own home. I believe it is important to strongly impart on our daugh­ters that they should not keep quiet if they face sexual harass­ment of any kind, anywhere, whether at home, school or work. Whoever is involved in sexual harassment must be apprehend­ed and punished; if not it just serves as a positive reinforcement for those who are thinking of it. Those convicted of rape must be punished in such a way that they cannot perform sexually after that. Minor sexual offences like catcalling should not go unpunished either.