ABSTRACT
Nepali societies have been driven by feudalism for centuries, where the major challenges are faced by the poor, marginalized, women, and rural youth. The political violence of the last decades, as well as the transition established through the Comprehensive Peace Accord of 2006, and newly formed constitution of 2015, was unable to improve the security challenges of the aforementioned groups. There had been a deep lack of public trust in the police and in security, as well as in the social justice processes. The frequent violence in the area and security actions by police further distanced people away from the police and their services. People used to regard police as an imposing power; therefore, they felt insecure in the presence of police. To overcome this state of insecurity, a project was implemented in the central southern region of Nepal for a period of 26 months (2016–2018), where 20 arts-based interventions were carried out in four districts. The engagements lasted for three days and used the participatory (citizen-police) arts to educate the participants about their security and engender greater trust in security personnel. These interventions were beneficial in terms of improving relations between police, youth, and women, which further contributed to deconstructing the stereotypes associated with security and social justice in the communities.
