Nepal

Kathmandu, August 28

Metropolitan Police Range, Kathmandu, has intensified action against people involved in ‘illicit behaviour and prostitution of late.

In the last one month (from mid-July to mid-August) police arrested 121 persons involved in illegal sex trade.

Of the total arrested, 25 were transgender, according to police. Police had arrested them from Durbar Marg, Sorhakhutte, Balaju and Kalimati.

Superintendent of Police at MPR Ashok Singh said most of the sex workers were arrested from the road sides in Durbar Marg and Sorhakhutte while they were looking for clients.

Similarly, others were arrested from various restaurants and inns located in Raniban and Balaju area.

SP Singh said, &We arrested them after confirming that they were involved in sex trade which is not legal in the country.& They were released shortly after convincing them not to indulge in such activities in future, according to Singh.

However, women activists objected to the police crackdown on sex workers saying every one was free to choose their profession. They also said many women were forced into sex trade due to poor economic condition.

All sex workers were kept in police custody for social offence under Section 118 of the Criminal Code Act which bars people from indulging in any kind of indecent behaviour in public places. Section 119 of the act bars people from promoting sex trade and Section 120 bars people from renting out their houses, land, or vehicles for the purpose.

The act, however, has not mentioned anywhere that sex trade is illegal and it is a punishable crime, claim activists. Advocate and woman rights activist Meera Dhungana said that laws in the country had neither termed sex trade legal nor illegal.

&Making sex trade legal will have many negative impacts in a closed society like ours. Similarly making it illegal could render many people unemployed,& she said. She also said that the police crackdown on sex workers was wrong and was a violation of their human rights.

Similarly, Pinky Gurung, president of Blue Diamond Society, said police action against sex workers, especially the third gender people, was guided by personal prejudice rather than legal provisions. &Until and unless the government and its bodies understand that third gender people are forced to engage in such profession due to lack of citizenship and recognition, our community will continue to face these problems,& Gurung added.

Advocate and President of Collective Campaign for Peace Badri Prasad Bhusal said since sex trade was taken as an act of human trafficking under Human Trafficking Transportation (Control) Act and police action against sex workers could be justified.

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Kathmandu, August 27

Working journalists, persons from media fraternity and stakeholders have stressed the need to create women-friendly environment and infrastructure in media houses.

Speaking at a programme organised by Freedom Forum, many speakers underscored the need to make media houses women-friendly.

As per the Freedom Forumreport, of the major news with bylines of nine national dailies, only nine per cent of such bylines were of female journalists in 2017 and 2018. Such bylines had increased to 12 per cent in the first six months of 2019.

Participants in the programme also said that media houses should formulate written guidelines and adopt media ethics to increase the number of female journalists.

Many female journalists at the programme said that despite their professional expertise, lack of trust in women journalists hadhindered their professional growth. Chairperson of Working Women Journalist Amika Rajkhala said, &Many female journalists, despite being capable and having years of experience,are limited to the social beat as theyare not trusted to cover major news stories.&

Similarly, Nanu Khadka of Freedom Forum said news rooms in Nepali media houses lacked breastfeeding rooms for lactating women journalists and women-friendly washrooms. Other female journalists said lack of women-friendly environment in newsrooms had kept women from pursuing their career in journalism.

However, Editor of The Himalayan Times Prakash Rimal said no news beat could be categorised as mainstream as every news beat had its own importance.

He also said there might be many women journalists working in senior posts, so research work should include these women too.

Chairperson of Freedom Forum Hari Binod Adhikari, expressing solidarity with female journalists, said that there should be equal participation of male and female journalists in media houses.

According to the Department of Information, of the 3,363 journalists registered with it, only around 16 per cent of them (534) are female journalists, and 2,829 of them are men.

Similarly, of the 460 registered editors only 48 (around 12 per cent) of them are female editors.

Of the 292 freelance reporters registered with the DoI only seven of themare female and of the 140 registered photo journalists, only four are female photo journalists.

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KATHMANDU: Police today made public a man arrested for swindling foreign job aspirants out of Rs 1.5 million.

The arrested has been identified as Harka Bahadur Tamang (34) of Rasnalu area in Gokulganga Rural Municipality-3 in Ramechhap district, currently residing in Jorpati of Gokarneshwar Municipality of Kathmandu district.

This image shows Harka Bahadur Tamang (34) of Rasnalu area in Gokulganga Rural Municipality-3, currently residing in Jorpati of Gokarneshwar Municipality of Kathmandu district. Tamang was arrested for swindling as many as five foreign job aspirants out of Rs 1.5 million. Photo: MCD, Teku

Tamang allegedly swindled Umesh Kumar Tamang, a resident of Thulodumma area in Pauwadungma Rural Municipality-6 of Bhojpur district out of Rs 300,000 by offering a security guard post in a job in Turkmenistan. Tamang had promised a monthly salary of US dollar 12,000 together with additional offer of free food and accommodation.

Acting on the report lodged with Metropolitan Crime Division, Teku that Tamang went out of contact after swindling the foreign job aspirant, a team of security personnel deployed from MCD tracked him in Jorpati area, on Tuesday, according to Superintendent of Police (SP) Sushil Singh Rathaur at MCD.

The preliminary investigation showed that the arrestee had also swindled four others out of Rs 300,000 each.

Meanwhile, the MCD has issued warning to the general public to beware of such fraudulent scam.

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KATHMANDU: The national flag carrier — Nepal Airlines Corporation (NAC) — will conduct its first direct flight to Japan in the wee hours tomorrow morning.

The Airbus A330-200 will be taking off at 2:30 am on Thursday from Tribhuwan International Airport. The approximately six and a half hours flight will land in Osaka, Japan.

The Corporation has planned three flights a week to Japan on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays.

Earlier, NAC flights to Japan used to transit in Shanghai, China.

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