South Asia One Billion Rising (OBR), a movement against violence against women, for the year 2017 was launched in Kathmandu on Monday by feminist activist and social scientist Kamala Bhasin.

OBR is an annual event held across world on February 14 since its launch in 2013 to bring call to action based on staggering statistic that one in three women on the planet will be beaten or raped during her lifetime.

“With the world population at seven billion, this adds up to more than one billion women and girls suffering violence and we must all unite and fight against it. This is a campaign to speak against exploitation and fight for freedom by building solidarity,” said Bhasin at the launch.

This year, in addition to all the issues taken up earlier, OBR will focus on eliminating all forms of exploitation of women and mother nature and on protecting the rights of women workers who regularly face social and economic injustices and oppression that enable violence against them.

The 2017 campaign is being launching around the world throughout September. 

Justice Sapana Pradha nMalla and Convention on Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) member from Nepal Bandana Rana were also felicitated on the occasion. Similarly, Sangat grant award were given to Women for Women Forum, a non government organisation working for the rights of women working in entertainment sector. The individual category of the award was given to Badri Pun and Nirmala Kumari Gupta.

Wasfia Nazreen from Bangladesh and Jayanthi Kuru-Utumpala from Sri Lanka, both feminist activists and mountaineers, were also bestowed with Meeto Memorial Award for

Young South Asians for celebrating social commitment at the programme.