Free self-defense classes provide aid to visually impaired women

There are times when Sarita Lamichane is navigating the chaotic streets of Katmandu and someone will offer to help her through the heavy traffic. She is blind, and rush hour for her is no easy thing. But sometimes, those helpers will grope her the first chance they get.

It will not, she vows, ever happen again. She is part of a group of visually impaired women - some partially blind, some totally blind - who have completed a self-defense class designed for women like them.

"If somebody tries to misbehave with me, he is going to have a very bad time," said Lamichane, 30.

Offered for free by a local company that normally trains security guards, the intensive two-week class addressed issues that include assessing the body language of passers-by and using everyday objects as weapons. Two groups of women have completed the class so far.

Women's security has become a major issue in this Himalayan nation over the past couple of years, spillover from a deadly 2012 gang rape on a bus in India's capital in a case that was closely followed in Nepal.

While officials have no statistics on how often visually impaired women are victimized, the women in the classes said they are regularly targeted, particularly by men who grope them on the streets.