by It is often measured through the lens of domestic or family violence. But intimate partner violence involves much more.
It can include physical, psychological, sexual or economic harm to vulnerable people of any gender, by their current or former partners. It often goes beyond interpersonal relationships. It can harm and affect several people at the same time for generations.
However, in India, researchers often assume that intimate partner violence is primarily violence by husbands against wives in their marital home.
Around the world, women and girls bear a disproportionate burden of intimate partner violence. Violence against single girls in family homes by brothers, fathers, uncles and cousins is common, although it is often repressed and legitimized as the natural behavior of violent men.
Violence against people of the opposite sex in their intimate relationships has not received the attention it deserves due to the prohibitions and exclusive focus of the law on marriage and its violent experience for women in India.
The experience of intimacy in marriage for girls and women in India is often defined by their secondary status and unequal power relations between the sexes, the age hierarchy and ritual status of the bride and groom’s families, and the hierarchies of castes.
There is an expanded report on Helplessness and vulnerability of girls in childhood. It happens because of cultural practices like the son. priorities sexual selection, discrimination and lack of investment in education and other family resources for girls.
This occurs alongside uncontrolled practices that leave girls and women vulnerable and disenfranchised, such as child marriages, early marriages, forced marriages, honor killings, dowry and caste hypergamy.
The magnitude of the problem remains hidden: naming and defining the crime itself is a controversial process.
According to some records, approx. 30 percent Married women in India between the ages of 18 and 49 face domestic violence. About 3 percent report physical abuse during pregnancy.
Many government policies on women’s health focus on the reproductive rights of young mothers. However, contrary to the assumptions of family- and goddess-centered Indian culture, intimate violence remains a silent and widespread crime that most girls and women experience but do not report or do not have the opportunity to report to the public. police against the patriarchal family and their male relatives. They don’t have to give. About 87 percent The number of married women who are victims of violence do not seek help or intervention.
It is difficult to get a true picture of the magnitude of intimate partner violence because data on domestic violence is based on police reports or health data from India. But, in fact, it exists for girls and women throughout their entire lives: before birth, in childhood, in adolescence, in the reproductive phase of adulthood and in old age.
Responding effectively requires a comprehensive plan and increasing awareness and capacity among employees, non-governmental organizations, hospitals, police, justice and civil society.
How does Indian law respond?
Feminist movements in India have united around violence against women since the late 1970s. A series of protective, punitive and reformist laws in criminal law and procedure, especially 498A of the Penal Code between 1980-1989.
In the 1980s, support groups, feminist counseling cells, shelters and legal aid cells arrived to respond to women facing dowry-related family violence. In 2005, a more diversified approach to marital violence against women by husbands or partners was introduced through the enactment of civil law.
Recently, they called for changes to the civil rights protection against domestic violence, so that it applies not only to married people and people in cohabiting relationships, but also to other adults who live together. Defense attorneys also say this law should apply not only to male offenders, but also to female offenders and child abusers.
Legal changes implemented faced difficulties such as difficulty in appointing protection officers, registering service providers and notifying good shelters and health facilities.
Although the law guarantees the right of residence of the victim and recognizes economic violence with financial assistance provisions, the exponential increase in domestic violence during the Covid-19 pandemic has led to another review of a better policy that provides more security to different people with this disease. Domestic violence.
The Indian National Commission for Women has created a WhatsApp number for victims to report violence and has coordinated with victims, police and other authorities to ensure swift justice and increased response.
In addition to many reforms in the law. Initiatives are ongoing. in India to train judges, police and other officials of social welfare units for sensitive and effective intervention.
Women police stations, police advisory cells and women vigilance committees have been created and strengthened to increase gender sensitivity in police departments in various states and districts, but these are often tokenistic and suffer from lack of institutional support and priorities. , budgets and qualified personnel.
Public health response
Government programs to increase women’s access to healthcare, education, employment, inheritance and property rights all focus on primary prevention strategies.
India’s National Rural and Urban Health Mission engages in creative strategies to empower communities to access their health needs.
Health workers respond to the mental health and palliative care needs of women, address alcohol and drug addiction problems in communities and the amicable resolution of family conflicts through counseling, while promoting behavioral changes through of public health campaigns.
Intimate partner violence poses a significant public health risk, and health and social care professionals may lack the capacity or budget for preventative and corrective interventions.
Increase awareness and knowledge.
Various educational and training programs continue to provide women with the opportunity to develop legal knowledge, analyze their oppression, and use microcredit and livelihood training for their economic empowerment. These processes allow survivors to escape violent and abusive relationships.
The Indian government has also introduced schemes to prioritize girls’ education and encouraged families to delay marriage with cash transfers and cash rewards, recognizing the role of secondary education in preventing and protecting women from couple violence.
National helplines for women help them to seek help at their doorsteps and escape from violent situations. Law enforcement agencies need training to change male legal interpretations and attitudes, and other target groups require regular training in the use of media, such as television, radio, street theater, etc.
Best practices for responding to intimate partner violence require an appreciation of the diverse needs of victims and the provision of quality, easily accessible support to victims and survivors.
The more interventions are delivered at scale, the more they can be measured and documented. Success stories can be replicated. More systematic data collection on intimate partner violence could help prioritize resource allocation.
But most importantly, men should be targeted by zero violence campaigns and all genders should be protected from intimate violence.
Mitra’s bite in Berg He is a professor at the Center for the Study of Developing Societies, School of Development Studies, Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai, India.
Originally published in Creative commons by 360 information™.
