Dating violence ‘common’ in Kathmandu, says a survey

Yuwalaya, a youth-led organisation working with youth and adolescents of Nepal, has called on stakeholders to pay attention to dating violence as it has been found common in many of dating relationships among Nepali youth and adolescents.

Revealing its survey report on the occasion of International Youth Day, on Sunday, the organisation says, “Dating violence is excessively present in the Nepali society, especially in the urban setting, but very rarely seen and discussed by stakeholders including sociologists and anthropologists, NGO workers, rights activists, youth campaigners, and people in dating relationships themselves.”

“For the promotion of violence-free and healthy relationships, the issue has to be discussed by the stakeholders and understood by the participants of dating relationships. This research is a preliminary effort to sensitise people about the issue.”

According to the organisation, a survey it conducted in March 2018 about dating violence is the first organised attempt to study the issue in Nepal.

Major findings of the survey are:

• Almost half of youth and adolescents involved in dating relationships have experienced irritation by their partners when they are with their friends and families.
• The most common form of physical violence in dating has been found to be verbal insult (around 20 per cent) following by expressing anger by throwing physical things and pushing each other.
• Whereas over half of people involved in dating relationships do not want to speak if they face any form of sexual violence by their partners, more than 15 per cent have reported that they are forced to perform sexual acts including kissing by their partners.

The survey was conducted with the prime objective of identifying various forms of violence in dating relationship, conducted a survey among 155 adolescents and youth, including 85 girls and 70 boys, selected through a convenience sampling in Kathmandu Valley in March 2018.

Both boys and girls are used to victimising their partners and falling prey to multiple forms of dating violence. Whereas most forms of social and cultural relations in Nepal are apparently patriarchal, set up and controlled by men who tend to keep women in a lower position; dating relations as they exist in Nepal has a different trend.

The survey dealt with three specific aspects of dating violence: psychological violence, physical violence, and sexual violence.