The center for information technology and development CITAD has lamented the increasing rate of gender based violence in Kano.
Zainab Aminu the gender program officer stated this while addressing newsmen at the Headquarters of the centre on the reported cases of Gender based violence in the month of December 2021.
According to Zainab Aminu said data shows that GBV is been perpetrated against both male and female gender with a higher number of female victims within all age ranges in both rural, urban and suburban communities with prevalence in Urban communities.
The Gender Program officer said the cases highly reported is Sexual Harassment and perpetrators are mostly male.
She pointed out that observation have shown that the most of the perpetrators have no relation to the victims. Although in some cases reported, the perpetrators are either family members, teachers/lecturers, student peers of the victims.
In comparison with the data obtained in previous months, there was an increase in the reported cases from that of previous months.
Zainab Aminu further itemized the following issues on GBV
• Rape cases reported in December neither decline nor increased in percentage.
• Online harassment in December has an increase of 25% from the previous month.
• Sexual blackmail case still remains 1 reported case.
• In the case of Sexual Harassment, 18 cases were reported in December which depicts a 25% increase.
• For sexual abuse, we had 6 cases in December with a 25% increase.
• We observed 6 reported cases of wife battering in the month of December which also depicts a 25% increase in reported cases compared to the previous month.
This shows that there is still need for actions to be taken in term of Gender Based Violence in the state in order to eliminate/curb GBV noted Zainab.
Zainab Aminu called on government to implement the following.
HISANEF empowers community, supports new mothers
➢ We reiterate our previous call to the Kano State Government and House of Assembly to domesticate the Child Rights Act and VAPP Act at the state level if implemented, will contribute in curbing this menace. The state government should not only adopt laws to protect women and girls, but also establish Referral Centers and Forensic Centers for victims.
➢ Religious and Traditional leaders both at state and local levels should continue to intensify efforts in creating awareness against GBV and encouraging individuals to voice out when they observe any such violence. Media houses should also continue to use their platforms in creating awareness against GBV and be reporting punishments given to perpetrators.
➢ Recommendation for media: to contribution in enlightening people and giving space to people to report cases of abuse.
CITAD further made the following appeal.
A major observation is that communities are still reluctant to report cases of GBV. While we continue to monitor, we can only reach a small part of the state. We are not able to reach and cover the whole state. For this reason, we will like to appeal to parents, relatives and others to always report cases to the various to either directly to us or to other sister NGOs as well as to government agencies such as NOA, NAPTIP or Hisbah. GBV strives when we all keep quiet. We cannot win the battle against it unless every perpetrator is brought to the books. Keeping salient is not protecting the victims who suffer while the perpetrators take this silence as a stamp of acceptability.
