Nepal, Jan. 25 -- Nearly three years ago, when Pooja was desperately trying to finish her thesis for her Master's degree before the deadline, Krishna Bahadur Bhattachan, a lecturer at Tribhuvan University offered to advise her on Saturdays-the only day she could get off her full-time work at an NGO-at his home in Dhobighat. Pooja was elated at first, but that's when Bhattachan started touching her, grazing his fingers along her back and pressing against her thighs while seated on the sofa in his living room, she recalled in an interview.

"I looked up to him like my guardian, so I initially ignored it when he sat too close to me or hugged me," the 27-year-old student from Kirtipur said. After the first few weeks of Bhattachan's unwanted s...