Kathmandu (Pahichan) September 5 – Of late, the incidents of rapes have gone up. Women are being raped by rapists and there are calls to ensure severe punishment to the rapists. Some people are demanding death penalty to rapists and there are debates from various angles in this issue.

Police is yet to arrest the people involved in the raping Nirmala Pant of Kanchanpur districts. There has not been proper investigation yet on Pant’s case. In some cases, there are the protections of rapists. At the same time, there are also the cases where female are involved in raping the male but they are not property reported.

In Nepal, there are the cases where women are raping the women, and male are raping male.  However, those cases have not reached in court demanding justice. Our society does not recognize the sexual intercourse of homosexual, such intercourse are regarded unnatural so such cases are not made public.

 Though, there violence in such relationship, they have not been reported in police or court. Such cases of sexual violence are rampant in various parts of the country such as Thamel, Ratna Park, Lazimpat, Gaushala among others.

 Many males are being raped every day but they are not being publicized. It is a known fact that only transgender do not go in Thamel. But, many people speak in a way that it is a place only for transgender. State-owned newspaper Gorkhapatra published news stating that there is no entry of transgender in Thamel. Every year, LGBTI communities celebrate Gaijatra festival here.

The constitution of Nepal promulgated in 2015 has clearly mentioned about the rights of transgender. As per the constitutional provisions, all laws relating to constitution amendment should be completed within three years.

Government is registering several bills in Parliament to implement fundamental sections of constitution. The recently implemented civil and criminal codes do not speak about marriage between male and male, and between female and female. The law has not said that it is natural.

Due to the lack of clear legal provisions, members of this community are reluctant to share their plights. They are compelled to conceal their plights due to the negative attitude of society. In the initial days, people who wrote and advocated for the rights of this community were taken as a member of this community. That is why there is not an independent views and position concerning this community.

The people who raise the concerns of this community should not be taken as a member of minority group even if there are not LGBTI friendly policy, laws and other programs. We should not be indifferent to the plights of this community. The rape case in this community is very high which needs to be settled without any delay. The state should be serious about the violence against this community.