While hundreds of people in Kathmandu have been staging sit-ins every day for the past 13 days in front of the prime minister´s residence at Baluwatar in the protest dubbed "Occupy Baluwatar Movement", women´s rights activists in Dharan organized a demonstration outside the Area Administration Office for two hours on Monday. [break]
Activists associated with some two dozen social organizations in Dharan have been staging protests since last week outside the office demanding government action against the perpetrators of violence against women. Due to the protest, service delivery at the office including work related to citizenship certificates and passports among other things remained halted from 10 am to 12 pm on Monday.
"We are here to pressure the authorities to initiate action to curb violence against women. Our demand is that the government should create safe and secure environment where women don´t have to suffer from violence of all sorts," said an activist participating in the demonstration.
She shared that there should be a law to punish also the police personnel who ignore complaints of violence against women.
Also, the protestors demanded high-level investigation into the cases involving rape of Sita Rai allegedly by police personnel, disappearance of Chhori Maiya Maharjan and deaths of housemaid Saraswati Subedi, Bindu Thakur and Siba Hasmi, punishment for the guilty and compensation for the victimized families.
Meanwhile, women activists in Mahendranagar also staged demonstrations for an hour in front of Kanchanpur District Administration Office on Sunday.
Bharati Singh, chief of the group called Women Human Rights Defenders shared that they will continue the protest for a week. "We should be united to fight all forms of atrocities against women," said Singh.
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