According to the last National Family Health Survey, more than a third of Indian women have experienced some form of abuse by their husbands - pushing, slapping, punching, kicking, choking or burning. Activists say the actual figures are much higher, but in spite of there being more awareness and gender-sensitive laws, few women are willing to talk openly about the violence they endure at the hands of those who purport to love them.
The high levels of gender violence which persist in India are thought to be mainly due to deeply-rooted, age-old discriminatory beliefs. Despite the country's impressive economic growth and exposure to "Western liberalism", women are still largely seen as objects. Most of the victims are uneducated women from disadvantaged social backgrounds - reinforcing the general perception that domestic violence is more pervasive in groups of lower socio-economic status.
Source: BBC News / Wikipedia
Although physical and sexual violence against women exist throughout the world, the degree to which it is acceptable in India is unfathomable. The Health Survey found that 51% of Indian men and 54% of Indian women find it justifiable for a man to beat his wife. Moreover, the silence that surrounds this abuse helps perpetuate its acceptability - not the understandable silence of women who are afraid, but the silence of family, friends, neighbours and even passers-by who choose to turn a blind eye.
So-called "honour killings" and "stove burnings" are often rooted in a culture where a woman's worth is linked to her family's reputation and a tradition of hefty dowries. In 1995, Time Magazine reported that dowry deaths in India increased from around 400 a year in the early 1980s to around 5,800 a year by the middle of the 1990s. Setting fire to a wife who has failed to pay her full dowry and then blaming her death to “a kitchen fire” has been recognized as an important public health problem in India.
The high levels of gender violence which persist in India are thought to be mainly due to deeply-rooted, age-old discriminatory beliefs. Despite the country's impressive economic growth and exposure to "Western liberalism", women are still largely seen as objects. Most of the victims are uneducated women from disadvantaged social backgrounds - reinforcing the general perception that domestic violence is more pervasive in groups of lower socio-economic status.Yet professional women in India also face such abuse, but rarely speak of it. Some married women are afraid of being accused of "breaking up the family" and are expected to put up with the abuse and maintain their silence, while single women worry about being seen as "weak" as they strive to break through in male-dominated professions.
On one hand, tradition, poverty, illiteracy, lack of enforcement of gender-sensitive laws, and few opportunities for women to empower themselves have allowed violence against them to go unchecked. On the other, lack of proper education implicitly condones and perpetuates these crimes. It is therefore apparent that the deep transformation of cultural beliefs that will give women their own voice and dignity can only be brought about by persistent and innovative education processes that start with children, and that such processes should be accessible to all children, regardless of their social status.
Source: BBC News / Wikipedia
