Gurjinder Kour
Women: from her , kings are born ,
From woman,woman is born;
Without women there would be no one at all
(Guru Granth Sahib)
The most prevalent form of violence against females worldwide is domestic violence. Domestic violence against females is a serious public health concern in every community and culture. It has drawn attention from the medical community because it has a negative and harmful impact on the mental, physical and social health of females.Domestic violence is most common in India. One of the reasons for it being so prevalent is the orthodox and idiotic mindset of the society that women are physically and emotionally weaker than the males. Though women today have proved themselves in almost every field of life affirming that they are no less than men, the reports of violence against them are much larger in number than against men. The possible reasons are many and are diversified over the length and breadth of the country. According to United Nation Population Fund Report, around two-third of married Indian women are victims of domestic violence and as many as 70 per cent of married women in India between the age of 15 and 49 are victims of beating, rape or forced sex. In India, more than 55 percent of the women suffer from domestic violence, especially in the states of Bihar, U.P., M.P. and other northern states.
The most common causes for women stalking and battering include dissatisfaction with the dowry and exploiting women for more of it, arguing with the partner, neglecting children, going out of home without telling the partner, not cooking properly or on time, not looking after in-laws etc. In some cases infertility in females also leads to their assault by the family members. The greed for dowry, desire for a male child and alcoholism of the spouse are major factors of domestic violence against women in rural areas. There have been gruesome reports of young brides being burnt alive or subjected to continuous harassment for not bringing home the amount of demanded dowry. The Tandoor Murder Case of Naina Sahni in New Delhi in the year 1995 is one such dreadful incident of a woman being killed and then burnt in a Tandoor by his husband.
-In urban areas there are many more factors which lead to differences in the beginning and later take the shape of domestic violence. These include – more income of a working woman than her partner, her absence in the house till late night, abusing and neglecting in-laws, being more forward socially etc
-Violence against young widows has also been on a rise in India. Most often they are cursed for their husband’s death and are deprived of proper food and clothing. They are not allowed or encouraged for remarriage in most of the homes, especially in rural areas. There have been cases of molestation and rape attempts of women by other family members in nuclear families or someone in the neighbourhood. They are brutally beaten and tortured for not conceiving a male child. Incidents like, ripping off a woman’s womb for killing the female foetus when she disagrees for abortion have also come to light especially in rural areas. Female foeticide and female infanticide continue to be a rising concern.
A common Indian house wife has a tendency to bear the harassment she is subjected to by her husband and the family. One reason could be to prevent the children from undergoing the hardships if she separates from the spouse. Also the traditional and orthodox mindset makes them bear the sufferings without any protest.
Other forms of physical abuse against women include slapping, punching, grabbing, burdening them with drudgery, public humiliation and the neglect of their health problems. Some of the other forms of psychological torment against them could be curtailment of their rights to self-expression and curbing the freedom to associate with the natal family and friends.
Domestic violence against women is highly prevalent in India and the women usually try to hide it. Particularly wife beating or physical mistreatment is a very common phenomenon in many Indian homes. The percentage of women who are exposed to violence by their husbands is 45 percent in India.(3) Despite this widespread prevalence, such violence is not customarily acknowledged and has remained invisible. Background conditions of females are found to play a significant role in domestic violence.
It is often difficult to conduct research on violence against females, since most females are reluctant to disclose information they consider confidential and intimate. For eliminating domestic violence against females, it is critical to understand the context of violence and social constructs, which support its perpetuation. There is little empirical data on prevalence of domestic violence and its determinants in India, which needs urgent attention. Particularly, it is important to understand this serious problem in a rural low socio-economic condition with poor educational and economic background of the females.
Remedies for Domestic Violence
What exactly do we want?
A very important question in wake of domestic violence remedies is that what exactly we are looking for in the process of minimising their occurrences. Is it so that we want to gather more information about such cases for just expressing our concern over this issue with more accuracy, having facts and figures at hand? Or instead of just raising our voices, we want to clean up the mess with sheer force and determination?
Fighting the ‘Domestic Violence’ Evil
Violence against women is the fastest-growing crime in India. Crime has been recorded against women in every three minutes in India. Every 60 minutes, two women are raped in this country. Every six hours, a young married woman is found beaten to death, burnt or driven to suicide.The response to the phenomenon of domestic violence is a typical combination of effort between law enforcement agencies, social service agencies, the courts and corrections/probation agencies. The role of all these has progressed over last few decades, and brought their activities in public view. Get your community educated! A good start to eradicating domestic violence from your community or neighbourhood is to start educating as many people as possible about domestic violence, its impact and how to intervene safely. This can be done in collaboration with your local domestic violence shelter or women’s organisation or police community outreach officers who can work with the community, local schools and local companies to organise and implement talks, townhall meetings and other group sessions to talk about this issue.
Get your community organised! There is safety and influence in numbers when intervening to stop an abuser or making your community a place where domestic violence will not be tolerated. So just as many neighbourhoods have neighbourhood watch to stop crime, start organising a network of folks who will commit to intervene in domestic violence situations, help victims leave their abusers safely and provide a communal support structure for survivors.
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Never be bullied into slience. Never allow yourself to be victim. Accept no ones definition of your life. Define yourself.
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