Four months ago, a case of a nine-year-old girl being raped by her own maternal grandfather was brought to the notice of the National Women’s Commission (NWC).

The incident came to a mysterious end after local women refused to file the case at local police post.

According to NWC member Manu Humagain, the incident is just an example of cases that go unregistered.

The same situation was reflected by police at a seminar last week while talking about cases of gender-based violence. “I fear a large number of such cases go unreported in our society due to patriarchal structure, fear of social stigma,” said SSP Krishna Gautam.

A case of an attempted rape of a 12-year old Dalit girl from Mirkot in Gorkha by an upper class Chhetri boy in early twenties was resolved by the so-called community leaders.

The girl’s mother, a single parent, refrained from lodging a formal complaint because she was not ready to go through the lengthy legal process where chances of compensation, as per her, are “slim” and also because of pressure from within her community where she would have to spend the rest of her life. Rights experts claim that the justice system is not strong enough to attract victims to look for legal solution.

“Perpetrators usually get away paying a small fine. Existing laws are insufficient to work on curbing violence against women,” said Babita Basent, president of the Media Advocacy Group.

There has been a constant rise on reported cases of violence against women in the past four years. For instance, a total of 677 rape cases were reported in 2012, while the number jumped to 989 in 2014. Similarly, cases of polygamy in 2012 was 350 while the number of such cases reached 518 in 2014. Rights activists said the surge in the number of reported cases of violence against women was the result of increasing awareness.

255 registered in a year

BHAKTAPUR: The number of reported cases of violence against women has nearly doubled in the district this year, the Metropolitan Police Circle in Bhaktapur said.

According to police, 255 such cases were reported in the district in the past fiscal year in comparison to 153 registered complaints the previous year. The Circle had received just 81 such cases two years ago. “It is because women are more aware of their rights due to effective campaigning on violence against women last year,” Superintendent of Police Kiran Bajracharya said.

Of the 255 complaints, 156 were mediated by police while the remaining sent to the court. SP Bajracharya said they also set up five help desks under the Women Children Service Center in the district.