Harassment faced by females

Submitted by: Submitted To:

Department of Social Work

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The preparation of seminar paper on “Harassment faced by females during

Pandemics “Covid-19”” would not have been possible without the help and support
of some people. I would like to thank my colleagues for their friendship and
encouragement during the long birth of this seminar paper
 Table of content Page no.

1. Introduction 1

2. Problem statement 2

3. Research methods 3

4. Analysis and interpretation 4

5. Areas of social work intervention 5

6. Conclusion 6

7. Annex 7

8. Reference 8
Introduction

In this Covid-19 pandemic, there has been an increasing in violence worldwide. Daily wage
workers have suffered the worst resulting of the economic fallout from the coronavirus
pandemic in Nepal.

According to the ILO, approximately 5.7 million or 80.8 per cent of workers in Nepal work
in the informal economy. These workers have no social protection coverage so if they stop
working, they have no income. Also, lockdown measures have affected workers, like the
vegetable seller, suffered a dramatic drop in income. Deprived of their only means of
survival, many women have become even more financially weak and dependent on their
husbands as a result.

During the country’s first lockdown, between 24 March and 21 July 2020, there was a
drastic change in the daily lives of everyday people in Nepal. Everything but essential shops
was forced to close with a strictly enforced lockdown.

In this covid-19 many files have been reported at the police station as the violence has
increased drastically. During the pandemic, women and girls have been at higher risk of
various forms of domestic violence. The police work closely with social services and NGOs
to provide support to the victims and provide them with access to justice as, There were
176 cases of violence against women and girls in just 18 districts since the lockdown
began on 24 March up to 1 May,

The seminar paper is solely written by taking evidences from the interviews, news, articles
and experts who have been working in this particular issue of harassment in Nepal.

After going through the mini research i found out that the most affected group of people in
in Nepal are vulnerable group (child and women) who are mostly facing the problem of
sexual harassment.
Problem Statement

A problem statement is a concise description of the issues that need to be address

by a problem solving team and should be presented to them (or created by them)
before they try to solve the problem.

Ongoing covid-19 in Nepal has created many problems, among them one of the
major problems is harassment mainly on female.

Harassment can be described as unwanted touch, look, offensive words and

behaviors that makes uncomfortable. It is one of the main but neglected problems
for women and young girls. Though females were already facing the problem of
harassment since before, being a girl in the country is not easy in Nepal; the recent
pandemics also has increased the harassment victims with the double rate of
numbers. Downgrading economy, less education opportunity and low cultural
status, expose girls and women to forced harassment.

It is not difficult to imagine how covid-19 that has hit Nepal will escalate the already
vulnerable conditions for girls. The exploitation and abuse of girls will be easier now
that, along with basic services social protection mechanism are not functioning well.
This encourages such social problems and lives for girls and women will be difficult
in the future.

Girls those who have lost their family members or are in desperate need of shelter
and food, will be even more likely to be discriminated against, sexually abused and
trafficked.

This is a problem because as girls and women are already a vulnerable grouped
being, in this covid-19 they are mentally traumatized and harassment can create
even bigger problems which may cause mental problems and sometimes may be
suicide, there will be problem in socialization as they may be harassed by the person
residing in the same temporary settlement, loss of career and effect on relationship
of the victim.

And being a social worker, i can address this problem a bit and can put effort to
throw it out from the root level by cooperating with the organizations and experts
on women issue. Also with co-operating with a team we can conduct awareness
programs to give proper information about their own protection from such
harassment. And those who have been victims can be done counseling to help them
to overcome the trauma.
 Research Method

Methodology is an analysis of the principle or procedure of inquiry in a particular

field. It is also known as mini-research.

For the preparation of seminar paper I am using both primary and secondary data
on the present status of sexual harassment faced by females during pandemics
Covid-19; Sources of data collection are given below:

Primary data are:-

● Query on police station

Secondary data are:-

● News
● Articles
● Interview on the web by the professionals
● Visual data from the reliable organizations
Analysis and Interpretation

After doing several findings and reading i could conclude that many girls have been
facing the sexual harassment problem in Kathmandu (KTM). Due to poor security in
the community and lockdown for the longer months. Moreover, women and girls are
not given much priority though it has always been saying that they should be given
priority and they fall under the vulnerable groups. While taking the data from the
evidences the victims were not only young girls and women but even the differently
abled person.

While analyzing the conditions of harassment through various reliable data, I could
see that the lack of security in the community also have been causing the problem.
There are many significant conditions when the chance of harassment is high like,
when they are alone in the house or a particular place, when they come across to the
person with greater age then them and sometimes power of patriarchal society have
cause the problem. Also, when they would be in their own house the chances of
domestic harassment has been increased.

After research, I have come to a conclusion that, the most affected group are females
and differently abled people. Females are not safe in their own homes and are in
need of proper security, in the present context of Nepal. Government should be
made aware about the arising problem and consequences it can cause in coming
days.
 Areas of social work intervention

Whenever there emerges a social problem in a society, the professional social

workers and social work students should take their initiatives to tackle that crisis. In
case of the various issues related to the sexual harassment faced by young girls,
either the professional social workers or social work students can take following
intervention techniques to cope up with the problem in various levels:

Levels of social work intervention

➢ Micro level
1. Providing proper counseling to the victims of harassment
2. Making aware about the unflavored touch and look
3. Encourage the young girls to apply to self-defense to protect to themselves
4. Conducting awareness program focusing on young girls
5. To advocate about the harassment

➢ Mezzo level
1. Group counseling
2. Encourage them to report against the harassment
3. Awareness program
4. Conduct different activities in shelter to build rapport and encourage them in
activities to occupy their free time.

➢ Macro level
1. Awareness program through drama
2. Helping the government authorities to keep an accurate record of the
existing number of any harassment.
3. As most of the laws and provisions are out of date or they fail to include the
issues related to harassment and the victim rights, social worker should pressure
government to amend it from time to time.
4. To aware the police force and law makers about the consequence about the
harassment
5. Pressure the police force to implement the laws
Conclusion

In conclusion I can say that harassment is the main problem in covid-19 and many
girls and women are being affected. Moreover women are the vulnerable group of
the society so they are especially being affected since covid-19 because of the
lockdown and domestic violence, economic crisis and lack of security. Since Covid-
19 the rape cases and violence cases are increasing day by day. Thus, such arising
problem of sexual harassment should be eradicated from the root level in the
country. During the research I found out that the women and young girls are not
safe in their own homes and also found out that the harassment cases have
increased rapidly after the lockdown. And also the police and public are not aware
about the harassment because this is not seen as the problem in the society and we
don’t have the culture of expressing about simple harassment which is resulting in
rape case and trafficking.
Annex

Case study 1

A 21-year-old woman with intellectual disabilities, who is deaf and unable to speak,
was raped by an unknown person. When the pregnancy was detected at the OCMC,
the parents did not want to take her back to the village due to the ‘hateful
discrimination’ against the woman and the stigma they would face. The woman
stayed at the safe home until delivery. The baby died and after multiple family
counselling sessions the parents agreed to take the woman home.

Case study 2

Popular singer and songwriter Samriddhi Rai tweeted on twitter at 4:05am in the

morning of Thursday March 26; that a woman was beaten harshly by her husband
and the whole community could hear the crying of the women and as samriddhi
rai could not resist anymore she had tweeted.
 Reference:-

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Lzk2zb1haE8&feature=youtu.be

https://www.equaltimes.org/gender-based-violence-in-nepal-the#.YQvTeYgzaMo

[1] Ministry of Health, Nepal; New ERA; and ICF. 2017. Nepal Demographic and
Health Survey 2016. Kathmandu, Nepal: Ministry of Health, Nepal.

[2] Ministry of Health and Population and Nepal Health Sector Support Programme.
2019. Survivor perspectives on the nature, risks and response to Gender-based Violence in
Nepal and the Implications for One-stop Crisis Management Centre.