By A Staff Reporter

Kathmandu, Nov. 2: The government has been preparing to observe 2019 as the ‘Campaign Year Against Gender-Based Violence’ with an aim of making Nepal a gender-based violence free nation.
The government has decided to organise special state level events from 4th November to November 25 to mark the campaign in the presence of state ministers of the respective provinces.
According to the decision made by the Council of Ministers on 20th May to mark the fiscal year 2019-20 as campaign year against gender-based violence, the Ministry of Women Children and Senior Citizens (MoWCSC) has been coming up with the implementation action plan to make the campaign successful.
Prior to this, in response to a letter from the MoWCSC, the Ministry of Federal Affairs and General Administration had already issued a circular to all 753 local levels, requesting them to incorporate activities related to the campaign into their policies and programmes for fiscal year 2019-20.
To make the campaign successful, the MoWCSC has been holding multi-sectoral dialogues to prepare final action plan so that it could address the problems and challenges to promote gender equality and women empowerment.
The Main Organising Committee has been formed to monitor the implementation of the Action Plan under the chairmanship of the Minister for Women Children and Senior Citizens (MoWCSC) Tham Maya Thapa. The committee has membership of different government agencies, non-government organisations, rights based organisations and Federation of Nepalese Journalists.
The committee will be responsible for organizing various awareness raising programmes throughout the country, will issue directives to concerned authorities to implement the action plan and will work in coordination of the state and local level committees to end all forms of gender based violence.
The ministry has unveiled its plan to form the campaign year against gender-based violence, 2019 organising and action plan implementation committee in each provinces, under the chairmanship of state level social development ministers.
Addressing the meeting with the representatives of multi-sectoral organisations here on Friday, Minister Thapa said the ministry has been seeking the multi-sectoral response to prevent and address issues related to GBV.
Informing that the final draft of the action plan has been already prepare, Minister Thapa said the government has plan to take the campaign in all 753 local units, wards, villages and every households of the country. She added that the action plan was focused on prosecution, protection and prevention.
Minister Thapa also urged all concerned bodies to support to make the campaign successful.
The action plan will be valid only till the fiscal year 2019/20, said Minister Thapa adding that after completing this campaign, the government would come up with the new programmes to eradicate gender based violence and promote gender equality in the country.
From this year, the National Day
of Women Rights has been marked across the country. The government decided to observe Jestha 16 of the Nepali calendar as Women Rights Day.