Sunita Karki

The government had announced lockdown with certain exceptions on March 24, 2020 as a precautionary measure against COVID-19. However, the restriction could not prevent sexual abuse and exploitation (SAEC) against children. Nepal Police and the rights activists had warned that the lockdown period and consequent self-isolation could rather impel cases of gender-based violence, domestic violence and SAEC.

Sexual Assaults
A report showed that a 13-year-old girl was raped by a 20 year-old boy on March 29. Similarly, a 17-year-old girl was gang raped by a group of nine men in Sunsari on 26 April. An 8-year-old girl was raped by a 14-year-old boy in Rupandehi on May 10. According to the reports the accused shoved the handle of a shovel into the victim's genital by tying her legs up after the rape.
A 61-year-old father was arrested on 28 May on charge of raping his 16-year-old daughter on multiple occasions.
During the lockdown period a man in Kathmandu was arrested on charge of sexually assaulting 12- and 14-year old girls from the neighborhood. The victims were being raped for a year and were threatened not to tell about the incident to anyone.
Reports show 75 cases of sexual abuse in March, 33 in April, 69 in June were recorded. According to the police, 75 per cent of the rape cases registered during the lockdown period had been perpetrated against girls below 18 years of age. Likewise, more than 50 per cent of girls who suffered sexual abuse, including rape, suffered at the hands of persons known to them, including family, relatives, and neighbours.
Over the last few years, sexual abuse of minors has been one of the most common crimes, which remained the same even during the lockdown, yet it has not been properly analysed or recorded.

News On Sexual Abuse
During the lockdown, from March 24 to end of June, 186 cases of SAEC were recorded/published in different social media platforms, Nepal Police (Women, Children and Senior Citizen Service Directorate), Insec-online, WOREC Nepal, Nepal Monitor and daily newspapers.
Out of all the cases that came to light, more than 15 cases were denied to be registered at first and were arranged to be settled within the village or families. The informal settlement of cases is not uncommon in the Nepali society where rural committees, or ward chairperson, play a vital role in decision making to settle heinous crimes like rape.
Out of 186 cases of sexual misconduct, 145 were rape cases, 11 were rape attempts, and 30 were cases of sexual abuse. Although the cases registered are 186, the total number of survivours is 199; in some cases, more than one child was abused.
Out of 145 rape cases, 19 were gang rapes while 14 cases were incestuous. The Incidents of 13 incestuous rapes, repetitively perpetrated by fathers, two by brothers and one by an uncle were reported. As noted earlier, the risk of being raped by someone known by the victims is four times greater than the risk of being raped by a stranger.
In 107 cases the accused were known to the survivors' and stranger’s involvement was only in five cases. The second highest group of accused is from neighbours, which is 58.
The survivors are often minors, who are at high risk of being exploited. Sixty -one children aged 14-15 were abused which is 31 per cent of the total cases. In the meantime, 47 survivors were below the age of 14, 43 below 18 and 45 below 10 years of age.
While talking about cases of child sexual abuse, it is also important to talk about the involvement of minors as accused. In Nepal, the minimum age of criminal responsibility is 10. A total of 19 minors (mostly above 13-year-old) were found to be perpetrators. SAEC in most of the cases was done by the acquaintances due to which occurrence of such crimes was frequent even when the movement of people was restricted and controlled.

Combating Abuses
The government of Nepal has ratified the legal instruments to combat SAEC, including the United Nation Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC 1989) and its two Optional Protocols.
Nepal is also a party to international and regional commitments addressing SAEC such as the Sustainable Development Goals and the South Asia Initiative to End Violence against Children (SAIEVAC), a child rights apex body under the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC).
At the domestic level, the right to protection from all forms of SAEC is guaranteed by the Constitution of Nepal, 2072 (part-3, article 39), which is further elaborated by Children’s Act, 2075 and Criminal Code, 2074. All of these, including Local Government Operation Act, 2074, have prescribed obligation of government to protect children from all forms of sexual abuse irrespective of circumstances and are subjected to special protection during emergency situations.
At regional level, SAARC has announced measures to coordinate responses to the pandemic, but children’s rights are only partly featured.
The government of Nepal has not made any particular policy or guidelines to ensure child protection during the COVID crisis. The Ministry of Women, Children and Senior Citizens (MoWCSC) has tried to take some initiatives but is yet to introduce effective measures to protect children in vulnerable situation.
Similarly, Supreme Court of Nepal, on June 9, whilst giving verdict on a writ petition filed by Advocate Roshani Paudel and others issued an interim order to protect the best interest of women and children and urged the government to take necessary measures to prevent domestic violence and violence against women and children.
The MoWCSC also sent a request letter to the Secretary of the Ministry of Home Affairs, regarding the need to address the incidents of sexual violence effectively on June 11 by emphasizing on the duty of all the concerned authorities to be sensitive and to prioritise the cases of child rights violation and abuse in all circumstances. Responding to the request letter, the central government urged the province and local governments to activate child protection mechanism and ensure proper response to SAEC, including managing child-friendly quarantine, through different directives and recommendations.
Child Helpline Nepal 1098 and Child Search and Rescue 104, provided by CWIN and National Centre for Children at Risk, are useful tools to connect with and assist the children at risk or victims of SAEC promptly. However, in Nepal the aim of providing support through such helpline is difficult. Nation-wide lockdown and closure of schools worsened the situation as children are being abused by their own families.

Worsening Situation
The situation worsens when the village or ward heads and the villagers settle the case, often with monetary benefits or by marrying off the survivors, with the accused.
Strict laws, directives orders, policies, and national agendas lose their importance if not implemented. Their effectiveness can also be challenged as they have failed to reduce the heinous crimes like SAEC even at times of strict restriction on movement.
The risk continues even after the end of lockdown therefore it is high time that we talked about the reforms in child protection programmes, policies, and the role of citizens. Right to protection from all forms of sexual abuse and exploitation is a fundamental right of children guaranteed by the constitution; hence, the state must safeguard it.

(Karki is an advocate and rights activist)