6 comments so far
remember the crap about “adikkira kaithaan anaikkum”? shudder.. I agree with you - the figure must be lower than it really is - how humiliating it must be for a woman - educated (since you say education is one of the ways to curb this, think of how often we read reports on well educated women suffering this), employed or otherwise to admit that her husband beats her. and unless it gets really “violent” one slap here and there is hardly construed as violence in this society…
So the results of the latest National Family Health Survey … whlich states that 37% of women in India face domestic violence … does not really come as a surprise to me.
Actually, I am surprised that this number is as high as it is - 1 in every 3 women in India facing domestic violence. Wow!
I am not sure this even counts non-physical abuse - anyone aware of studies on quantifying that?
Charu,
when you go down to the villages the ‘poor’ ‘uneducated’ ‘rural’ woman is far better at standing on her two feet and taking a stand than the ‘educated’ ‘professional’ ‘urban’ woman. i have seen and shot cases in marathwada where the women have come together to form support groups and self help groups that enables them to combat both poverty and violence. And, they are a lot more honest about the fact that they get hit and hit regularly.
But, in cities amongst the ‘educated’ the levels of hypocrisy are extremely high. a friend - a senior management person in a leading media company - was beaten up. you could see the marks for the next few days. and she was in this ‘what will i do’ ‘where will i go’ and ‘what will people say’ mode.
i have close relative in an abusive marriage. And,everyone makes excuses for it. every f***ing person. and she says it is her dharma to stick by her man. and she is a phd. in woman’s studies. the irony of the situation.
i also think that it has a great deal to do with upbringing. my brothers will never hit their wives or daughters, because they saw my father set an example. my father never hit his wife, because in his family it was a no no. my grandfather who married when he was 25 and his wife was 11 - was not violent towards women because he was brought up by his mother - his father died early - and grew up respecting women.
It doesn’t take too much to stop it at the family level- just a bit of socialisation. However, at the national level it is a different matter.
I really hope that soaps will take a stand as far as this is concerned. Given that most of our leading ladies are ‘abused’ and most of our ‘heroes’ will possibly be convicted under the prevention of domestic violence act, it may be a good idea to show it in action.
I dont know if education has any relationship to how much abuse a wife tolerates. In western countries where everyone is educated, domestic violence is nearly the same proportion or even worse (I heard that it was nearly 40% in Europe).
Please keep deleting my comments.
The suicide rate of men vs women is 64 to 36.
The figure of 37.2 is not based on yearly data, but a summation over a period of 34 years. The per year data is less than 10%.
[...] Gargi on domestic violence. “All men who love their wives hit them” said Mrs. R to me - a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away. As I tried to pick up my jaw that had hit the floor, I argued that my father had never hit my mother …. Mrs.R sagely told me… “then he must not love her”. [...]