Strength TogetHER- Session 2

13th April,2022.

With support of the WOW team, British council we expanded our Strength TogetHER sessions in Karmahawa School, Lumbini with a group of 35 girls which was divided into groups of 13 and 22 girls from grade 11 and 12 respectively. On 13th April, we started our session on the topic “It doesn’t feel safe being a girl” which was moderated by Ms. Sadikshya Maharjan. 

Ms. Sadikshya is a free spirited person with her own insecurities and on a journey of self-acceptance. She completed her BA.LLB from National Law College. She aspires to be a part of the change, and help everyone. For the same she had worked as a Research Fellow for UNDP- Parliament Support Project and had also participated in Asia Pacific Youth Internet Governance Forum 2021. 

In the beginning of the session, Ms. Sadikshya shared her experience with her School’s Nepali teacher who used to touch the students in a bad way. She explained that sometimes we are not aware about the things we have to go through as society has tagged it as normal but, we should know that it’s not a normal thing to be touched by a teacher or any other men, women, family or relatives. 

With this, we asked the participants to share their stories. One of the participants said that it was difficult to walk alone on the roads as they were frequently teased by men who stayed in groups on the roadsides. To which our moderator noted that it is important to take a step and stop those people who tease as not saying anything would encourage them to do corresponding things that might lead to rape cases in the future. 

She also added that it is not okay to tease or make fun of boys when they are alone or when girls are in a group. It is equally important to respect boys. Ms. Sadikshya also pointed that Nepal has law for cases related to bullying, and teasing, and has a rule where the real name of the victims of rape cases will not be disclosed to the court of law. 

There are also helplines like 104 and 1048 that allow one to make an anonymous report about abuse to the police. 

Finally, with these understandings and information we ended the session learning that we should be able to take a stand for ourselves, and always speak against people humiliating or teasing us  as this is what will help someone from being a victim to bigger crime in the future.