Cases of online abuse against women and girls have spiked in recent years. However, the legal and policy initiatives to address it do not seem to delve deep enough into the grave and changing dynamics of online violence in Nepal, or how this perpetuates gender-based violence in the offline world.

The development in internet and communication technologies has connected people in a way that was unimaginable a few decades ago. On one hand, this has opened endless opportunities to exchange ideas, share information and stay in touch with loved ones; on the other, it has given birth to new dangers that humans have never faced before. One such danger is the rise in online violence. As found by , women and girls are the main victims of trolling, abuse and hate speech everywhere in the world.

This scenario is not different in Nepal, where the rates of digital adoption are high. With increasing internet and social media users, we are witnessing , which can take the form of physical threats, stalking, sex trolling, sexual harassment, and Zoom bombing. In January 2022, there were around (with Facebook being the primary reported platform) and social media penetration has .

Virtual victims – the physical and emotional effects.

Between 2016 and 2020, were reported to the Cyber Bureau of Nepal. The prevalence is estimated to be much higher than reported. We spoke with around 80 adolescent girls and boys about their experience of online abuse as part of our recent research study for a gender equality project, funded by Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO). We were surprised to find that quite a few adolescent girls that we spoke to either had experienced sexual harassment on different social media platforms themselves, or knew someone who had. While only few boys mentioned experiencing or knowing someone (either boy or a girl) who have experienced this.

"I have experienced online sexual abuse. At one time I was even asked to share a picture of my breasts. This incident made me feel uncomfortable," one of girls told us during a focus group discussion.

Regardless of the nature (online or offline), violence takes a toll on the physical and mental health of survivors. Violence against women and girls still remains a culturally accepted practice, deeply rooted in harmful gender stereotypes and attitudes stemming from the continued acceptance of patriarchal societal norms.

As digital technologies play an increasingly central role in our everyday lives, some research suggests that women are often blackmailed by their partners or former partners, especially when couples in relationships share their passwords.  is mostly conducted through photoshopping women’s images, where men misuse women’s pictures to create new accounts to trick other men.

Silencing girls’ voices.

In a society like ours, where women and girls are expected to act in a particular way, our research found they tried to cover up any sort of violence, as they feel they will get blamed for sharing their personal life on social media sites. They fear that sharing such incidents can have a devastating impact on their mental health, reputations, relationships, access to education and employment, or even expose them to physical violence. Most of the time, women are questioned about their online behaviours, and a huge burden is placed on them to accept that they were at fault for putting themselves in a vulnerable position.

From our conversations with adolescent girls during our research study, we found that often they did not share these incidents with anyone, not even with their friends. As a solution, they simply ignored and avoided the perpetrators by blocking or unfriending them on their social media platforms. We discovered that these girls feared the consequences of sharing with their families and friends. They did not trust their friends to keep their secrets, and they thought they would be blamed for the incident if they shared it with their family members. This is also why many cases of violence against women and girls go unreported in Nepal.

"No. There is no way we will share such things with others because people we share such things (cyberviolence incidents) will not keep it to themselves. I have experienced a similar scenario previously, where I shared something with one of my friends, and she shared it with others too. So, we cannot trust anyone to keep our secrets," says a girl from our focus group discussion.

As part of our research, we also spoke with government officials, women rights activists and representatives from non-governmental organisations working on women and girls' rights. Many of the participants raised concerns such as the increasing use of social media to connect to the potential victims of human trafficking. Previously, traffickers used to travel to villages to connect with their potential victims. But these days they can connect and befriend potential victims through a simple friend request on social media platforms, liking or commenting on a post, before they meet in person.

What have we learned?

The key takeaway from our recent study was that adolescent girls using social media platforms are more at risk of experiencing online sexual abuse than boys, and for us, this highlights that their safeguarding should be a priority. We also identified an urgent need to engage with adolescent girls, and their friends and families, to help break through the barriers and fears associated with sharing their experiences.

Similarly, it is also very important to understand that internet platforms – while insecure - are not the only cause of such violence. Low levels of digital literacy contribute to the issue, and not least, the bad behaviour of people who hide behind online profiles and misuse these platforms. At last year’s UN Generation Equality Forum in Paris, four of the world’s largest tech companies – Facebook, Google, and – made bold commitments to tackle the abuse of women on their platforms and improve women’s safety.

Our findings point to the need to inform and empower women and girls in Nepal about the safe use of internet and digital media platforms, so that they can protect themselves from potential harm online.

Moving forward with holistic action

Considering the severe impact of online violence, Nepalese laws already have some provisions aiming at control of such activities. When a complaint is registered, Nepalese police are required to immediately search for the alleged perpetrator by tracking their IP address. Then, depending on the severity of the case, they either make the two parties compromise to resolve the issue, or file a case. However, there are many loopholes in the system. We feel that both legal changes and understanding the root causes are required to address this violence.

Actions must go beyond calling for improvements to the platforms’ own Community Standards, and their reporting systems and policies on removing content that breaks the rules. We also recognise this is an uphill struggle, particularly in non-English languages where the bots are not trained to recognise local languages, slang and dialects, and often end up removing legitimate content instead.

But we know that media and communication is in a unique position to challenge social norms and help address the root causes of why these cases go undiscussed and therefore unreported. In India, Myanmar, Tanzania, Zambia – using media and communication - we’ve seen positive changes for women and girls by engaging, informing, and sparking conversations on taboo topics both online and offline.

Our innovative Sexual and Reproductive Health Rights project in Myanmar called Ma Shet Ne (Don’t be shy!) was designed to help open discussions and break down barriers. We found that sharing interviews with female celebrities who spoke openly about the issues they had faced, and equal representation in content, helped to challenge the gender divide that had previously stopped women speaking out. Audiences were significantly more confident than non-audiences to talk about relationships and sexual health offline with medical professionals, friends and partners – a key achievement.

In Nepal, we recognise that creating safer environments like this, where women and adolescent girls can confidently share their experiences with friends and families without fearing the consequences, is vital. So far, we have supported local radio stations to produce digital content on various gender-based violence issues through training, editorial guidance and support to build the capacity of our local partner stations. But much more needs to be done.

Addressing online violence requires collective efforts. Broad-based, multi-sectoral partnerships need to be established to reach out to families and communities at scale. It is also important to bring systematic changes in mentality where it requires social institutions such as education, media, religion, the judiciary and political systems to be gender sensitive. With the advancement of digitalisation, it is crucial that women and girls are well informed. Sharing positive stories of those who have used formal support mechanisms and found help - and not suffered social discrimination as a result - is necessary to enable this shift.

We believe that collective efforts including stronger cybersecurity, media to support gender equality, changing attitudes and changes to legalisation all need to happen to address this problem.

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These projects have not only worked, but they’ve shown sustainability. By with the state governments in Bihar, Odisha and Uttar Pradesh, we’ve trained 263,000 health workers so far on Mobile Kunji and about 260,000 people have completed the Mobile Academy course.

Mobile Academy is now active in 13 states and we recently transitioned responsibility for the service to the Indian Government to continue its vital work long into the future.

Third, create relatable and accurate content to help to build trust

In Bangladesh we learnt that community health workers were struggling to communicate effectively about sexual health to young women and men, which limited the impact of their advice.

So we developed a smartphone app. It shows Dr Natasha, a real doctor, talking about some of the key sexual, reproductive, and maternal and child health issues their clients were facing. By using appropriate language tailored to their audiences, we made sure the content was relatable, accessible, and engaging – which mattered especially in areas with low literacy levels.

Our research showed us that health workers felt more trusted by their clients and were more successful in persuading them to adopt healthier practices, such as attending antenatal care visits. As one of the health workers described, “Most of my clients were not interested in listening to my suggestions before using the job aid. But now they are convinced as they see there is symmetry between Dr Natasha’s information and my own”.

We found the app also helped to give them credibility to dispel myths around issues such as contraception and family planning.

Fourth, go beyond training on health topics and train on how to communicate

Community health workers cover a wide variety of health issues on their visits. Our research often reveals the benefits of refreshing or deepening their knowledge, but also of them gaining new skills on how to communicate within a family setting. We found in remote parts of Ethiopia, communicating with the men in the family is often overlooked because family health is still seen as a woman’s responsibility.

So we ran training for Health Extension Workers which focused on how to create safer feeding and playing spaces for children under three, during which participants learned how to communicate effectively with, and actively involve, both women and men in the families.

We found role play really helped during training because it encouraged Health Extension Workers to practise how to have compelling two-way conversations.

And finally, break down the barriers between communities and health workers

Mistrust and suspicion between communities and health workers is common in many of the places we work. Through our research, we often hear about these difficulties and then aim to create safe spaces for communities and health workers to come together, get to know each other, and discuss often sensitive issues.

In Nigeria we facilitate discussions around polio vaccinations and routine immunisation as part of our community drama radio recordings which are performed in front of a live audience. And, working with different partners, we accompany women during antenatal care check-ups to record what happens. By sharing real-life experiences in our radio programmes, it helps to build understanding and trust in health services amongst the public. 

In Tanzania, we trained and worked with radio partners to facilitate lively community events that were recorded and broadcast in weekly radio shows to audiences across the country. The events were designed to build understanding about maternal and newborn health issues and encourage interaction with health workers. By facilitating conversations, we found people gained understanding and confidence to access health services. We also saw increased male engagement in maternal and newborn health care.

Looking forward

In summary, we’ve learnt to not only help build the skills and confidence of community health workers, but also to help improve engagement between them and members of their communities. Through creative communication and human centred design, it is possible to create more effective tools fit for the difficult environments health workers operate in. And in doing so, we’re able to help health workers and communities work better together.

Informed by our experience, 成人论坛 Media Action plans to continue this important work towards the , to build stronger health systems for people around the world.

 

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Emebet Wuhib-Mutungi and Genevieve Hutchinson 
Senior Health Advisors for 成人论坛 Media Action
On Twitter: @ewuhib / @genevieveh77

 

The projects featured in this blog were carried out in conjunction with: national government ministries and departments of health, DFID, UNICEF, The Gates Foundation, UNFPA, Options, Abt Associates, Viamo, Care International, the Grameen Foundation and our media partners.

2. How free do people feel to speak their minds?

We asked people in three Asian countries (, , ), four African countries (, , , ) and the  whether they could 'say what they think'. A majority felt at least somewhat free to speak their minds in all but one of the countries: .

But across the eight countries in our , we found that many people don’t feel they can criticise those in charge. Around a third of , , Bangladeshis and ‘feel people like them are free to talk negatively about the government in public’; in and this drops to under one in four.

Nepal is the only place we looked at where a majority (65%) feel at least those in charge. Nigerians are the next most comfortable with openly complaining about their leaders, say they could – though only half that number felt very liberated to do so.

3. Who are the keenest voters?

In six countries, we also asked whether people had voted in the last general election: Bangladesh, Myanmar, Palestine, Sierra Leone, Tanzania and Nigeria.

came out top, with 90% reporting having voted in the last general election, closely followed by at 87% and at 86%. (A quick note – we conducted our Burmese survey in 2016, after the of Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy in 2015.)

Turnout was lowest in and the , where 42% and 45% respectively said they’d cast a ballot in the last national election.

Of course, people don’t just get involved with public life through voting. Meetings, protests, and various forms of communication are all types of political participation. The previewed below shows that while only a small proportion of people have been in touch with government officials, nearly two thirds have teamed up with others in their community to solve a problem.   

4. How do people feel about those who are different to them?               

Historically, Kenya has been the site of . Yet even against this background, well over 80% of Kenyans and think it's important to and (see below).  

In a country with over 100 ethnic groups, believe that peace relies on mutual respect between people from different ethnic, religious and social groups. Similarly in Nigeria – which has wrestled with religious divides – nine tenths of the population believe that people from different backgrounds have ‘’.

However, a large majority of both and feel that some differences between groups are ‘just too difficult to overcome’.

5. How are people adapting to environmental change?

Building on our project – which examined 33,500 people’s everyday experiences of climate change – we’ve more recently asked Tanzanians and Bangladeshis about how they’re coping with changes to the world around them.

In the drought-ridden areas of Dodoma and Morogoro in Tanzania, more people think has decreased than increased over the past ten years. as to whether rainfall is higher or lower than it was a decade ago.

Getting their information predominantly , Tanzanians are making some – though not a lot – of in light of the environmental challenges they face. Popular responses include  and .

In Bangladesh, , and are all commonly seen to have increased in the past decade. for getting information about water, food, energy and extreme weather, considerably more so than the radio, newspaper, friends and family.

of the population have changed how they live in response to environmental changes; is the most common way of shaking things up. 

In addition to all of the data, the portal also hosts a number of other resources:

For extra guidance on navigating the portal, take a look at our ‘’ section, as well as our ‘’ and ‘’ videos. 

Those interested in how we collected the data should refer to the methodologies and questionnaires available on the right-hand sidebar of each of the thematic pages (, , ).   

The portal is also home to reports which summarise and analyse data available on the portal. For example, we've produced a exploring how to better connect with the least politically engaged Kenyans. This is just a flavour of what’s to come, similar reports analysing our governance data in other countries will follow in the coming months.

On each thematic page, there are reports and tools to support practitioners to use media for development. For example, we’ve featured the communication toolkit from our project, which includes a on how to talk about climate change in an accessible and engaging way, as well as (with ) for co-creating a communication strategy with partners and your target audience.

 is 成人论坛 Media Action's Head of Research Programmes, overseeing research across Africa, Asia and the Middle East.