CeLRRd Organizes Street Dramas Meant for Mitigating GBV

July 07, 2015

Domestic Violence is highly prevalent in Nepal especially in Terai region. As per the Nepal Demographic and Health Survey (NDHS) 2011, almost one-third (32%) of ever-married women have suffered from spousal or partner abuse at some point in time, whether physical, emotional, or sexual and it is most common in the Terai zone, where 35% of ever-married women report having experienced physical or sexual violence by their husbands.

Wife battering is quite common. Mostly, husbands under the influence of alcohol beat their wives and children even over trifle issues. As per the NDHS 2011, more than 70% of women whose husbands get drunk very often report physical or sexual violence compared to only 20% of women whose husbands do not drink alcohol. Son preferences at the time of birth of children, dowry system, and polygyny are among major reasons that lead to physical assault, verbal abuse, denial of access to resources and psychological torture. And even the reports of rape and sexual harassment have been increasing in every community.

With the view to contribute to minimize these problems by creating awareness against GBV/DV and promoting victims’ rights, CeLRRd conducted Street Dramas between June 2014 and March 2015. A total of 30 events of such dramas were conducted in 15 VDCs and 5 municipalities of Morang and Udayapur districts. The dramas depicted the distressing stories of women undergoing forms of violence perpetrated against them. The dramas illustrated the dimensions of GBV and its consequences through the performance and also contributed to promote victims’ right and procedure of formal and non-formal justice mechanisms.

The drama was performed by theatrical group – Arohan Gurukul in Morang district while by local people in Udayapur Prior to staging the dramas, dialogue sessions were held among community stakeholders representing VDCs/Municipalities, CBOs, women and youth networks/groups, community mediation center, school, political parties, who had their versions on the GBV issues of the concerned community.

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