In one chilly winter in 2002, Victim A was on her way to her maternal uncle’s house when a squad of the then Royal Nepal Army arrested her.

The army labelled her as a Maoist cadre. She was 14, a school student, and had no links with the Maoist insurgents.

The country was in a state of emergency when the security forces enjoyed free hands in arresting and torturing whoever they suspected was a Maoist.

She was kept in the army barracks for three and a half years. “I was raped countless times in the army barracks. I don’t want to remember those days. They were the darkest of my days that completely ruined my life,” she said.

The army sent her to police custody after knowing that she was pregnant.

She delivered a child with handcuffs in a hospital.

Today, everyone, including her child, asks who the father is.

“I have no answer,” said Victim A.

Those three and half years left her completely traumatised.

But the problem didn’t end even after she was freed. The patriarchal society further victimised her by questioning her character.

Over two decades after the incident, she is living with mental distress and other health-related complexities. Having been raped multiple times, she has complications in her reproductive system too.

Victim A’s is a representative case.

Hundreds of women were raped and faced serious sexual violence during the decade-long Maoist insurgency that ended in 2006. Both the state security forces and the Maoist combatants were involved in the heinous crimes.

When Victim B was in school, a boy liked her.

He wanted to marry her. However, she had no such feelings towards him and married another man.

Her school friend later joined the Maoists. A few years later, in 2003, the Maoist guerilla fighter abducted Victim B. Her husband, too, was abducted.

She was held captive and raped multiple times. “I was in a postnatal period when the incident happened,” said Victim B.

Proper medical treatment for the victims of rape and sexual violence was hard to receive at that time for two reasons: social stigma and the fear of security forces and the Maoists.

As a result, victims had to live with pain and trauma.

Even today, society's perception towards such victims hasn’t changed completely.

Devi Khadka, coordinator of the National Association of Conflict Rape Victims, two decades on, they are still fighting to be recognised as victims.

As the majority of victims of rape and sexual violence had been left without treatment for years, the association has started organising closed health camps.

Khadka, a Maoist leader who is also a rape victim, said husbands of many raped women are still unaware of their wives' past. “In such cases, providing treatment is a very sensitive job. It can reveal their past and could end their conjugal lives,” she said.

Health screening of 300 women victims, however, from three provinces has been completed so far despite several risks associated with the issue.

Of them, 127 had a follow-up.

As per the medical report, after the second round of checkups, 11 percent have had their uterus removed, while 6.22 percent need immediate surgery to remove the uterus.

An overwhelming 70 percent of the 127 have one or multiple reproductive health-related complications. The health conditions of five of them are at hazardous levels and need further tests and regular treatment.

A study by the association shows 40.16 percent of them were raped cruelly for days and months by groups or individuals and even had to go through an abortion.

“Except a few, all the victims have some kinds of mental health problems, in addition to other physical illnesses,” said Khadka. The medical reports suggest the victims have developed Post-traumatic Stress Disorder and Rape Traumatic Stress and they need regular medication and counselling.

Thousands of people were victimised at the hands of state security forces and the Maoist fighters in the decade of violence.

Most criminal incidents—of rape, killing or enforced disappearance— happened during the emergency imposed by the then Sher Bahadur Deuba-led government in 2001.

Most of the sufferers were from the marginalised communities.

Though it’s been more than 17 years since the state transited into the peace process with the signing of the Comprehensive Peace Accord in 2006, the plights of the majority of the victims remain unheard.

While other victims have received some sort of relief packages, the state has never recognised the victims of rape.

Having faced complete negligence from the state, the association, which is a loose network of such victims, was constituted in May 2002, to advocate for rights and to exert pressure on the government for justice.

The association is currently focusing on providing treatment. It has been lobbying for relief packages from the state. Health camps are soon being held in four other provinces.

“The economic condition of most of the victims is poor. We are demanding a guarantee of relief and reparation with the registration of the complaints at the transitional justice commissions,” said Khadka. “Whether there will be prosecution depends on evidence. That is another step towards justice.”

Filing complaints against the perpetrators hasn’t been easy for such women victims because of social stigma.

Records at the Truth and Reconciliation Commission show that among 63,700 cases it received, 314 are related to rape or sexual violence from the insurgency.

In 2018, a study team comprising Manchala Jha and Madhabi Bhatta, then members of the commission, was formed to suggest relief and reparations for such victims.

Although they submitted their report recommending immediate counselling, treatment and interim relief for the victims, that never materialised.

The association currently has 500 members while 2,500 others are in regular touch with them. An estimated 85 percent of the women were victimised by the state security forces.

Khadka said other than supporting the victims, they are demanding immediate amendment to the Enforced Disappearances Enquiry, Truth and Reconciliation Commission Act to ensure justice. The victims have welcomed a provision in the bill that ensures reparation as a right and the allocation of three months for them to register complaints.

“We believe that amending the Act will at least open the door for relief and reparation,” she said.

The amendment bill is under consideration of the Law, Justice and Human Rights Committee of the House of Representatives. Despite months-long negotiations, the ruling and the opposition parties are yet to find a meeting point.

Even though the government and the ruling parties have been claiming that the bill will be endorsed from the ongoing session of the federal parliament, it is not sure when it will be tabled.

Successive governments haven’t just ignored the call from the victims, they have also ignored the decisions of the United Nations Human Rights Committee.

Deciding on four cases of insurgency-era sexual violence, the UN committee called on Nepal to investigate, prosecute and punish the men involved in the rape and to provide the victims with full reparation, including reimbursement of the medical expenses incurred. However, nothing has happened so far.

Issuing a report on the status of implementation of the UN’s recommendation, the Human Rights and Justice Centre, a non-government organisation advocating rights, said no investigation has been carried out to identify and prosecute the perpetrators and none of these victims has received compensation or rehabilitation such as medical treatment or psychological support, as well as social and legal services, as per the recommendation.

“Those were the dark days, which still haunt me. He [the Maoist fighter] destroyed my life—completely. He satisfied his ego,” said Victim B. The victims vowed to speak up louder against the rape.

The state, however, is oblivious to their suffering.