GS-PAPER-II-IAS MAINS - SOCIAL JUSTICE-India among countries where women face most violence by partner
Context:
Global estimates published by the World Health Organization indicate that about 1 in 3 (35%) women worldwide have experienced either physical and/or sexual intimate partner violence or non-partner sexual violence in their lifetime.
Issue:
- In India, there are a number of evil cultural traditions that account for violence against women. These include female infanticide and prenatal sex selection, early marriage, dowry-related violence, female genital mutilation (FGM), “honour” crime, and maltreatment of widows. Domestic violence, however, remains the most neglected.
- Violence against women, particularly intimate partner violence and sexual violence, is a major public health problem and a violation of women’s human rights.
- Healthcare professionals cautioned that violence can negatively affect a woman’s physical, mental, sexual, and reproductive health, and may increase the risk of acquiring HIV in some settings.
- WHO has warned that intimate partner violence cause serious short-and long-term problems for women and adversely affect their children besides leading to high social and economic costs for women, their families and societies.
- A recent Thomson Reuters survey has ranked India as the world’s most dangerous country for women, ahead of the war-torn Afghanistan and Syria.
- The 2016 National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) data shows that a woman in India was raped every 13 minutes and six women gang-raped every day.
- Not only that, every 69 minutes a bride was killed for dowry; 20 foetus and infants were murdered each month and about the same number of women attacked with acid every month.
WHO Global estimates:
- In countries like India, intimate partner violence is the highest at 37.7% in the WHO South-East Asia region.
- As per figures released by WHO, the violence ranges from 23.2% in high-income countries and 24.6% in the WHO Western Pacific region to 37% in the WHO Eastern Mediterranean region.
- Explaining how gender-based violence is perpetrated, the global health organisation said that men are more likely to perpetrate violence if they have low education, a history of child maltreatment, exposure to domestic violence against their mothers, harmful use of alcohol, unequal gender norms, including attitudes accepting of violence, and a sense of entitlement over women.
- Women are more likely to experience intimate partner violence if they have low education, exposure to mothers being abused by a partner, abuse during childhood, and attitudes accepting violence, male privilege and women’s subordinate status.
- WHO together with UN Women and other partners has developed a framework for prevention of violence against women called Respect which can be used by governments to counter this menace.
Laws in force:
- In 1983, domestic violence was recognised as a specific criminal offence by the introduction of section 498-A into the Indian Penal Code.
- The Government of India passed a Domestic Violence Bill, 2001, to protect the rights of women who are victims of violence of any kind occurring within the family.
- An act called Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act, 2005 also has been passed. This Act ensures the reporting of cases of domestic violence against women to a ‘Protection Officer’ who then prepares a Domestic Incident Report to the Magistrate.
Way forward:
- The response to the phenomenon of domestic violence must be a combined effort between law enforcement agencies, social service agencies, the courts and corrections/probation agencies.
- The role of non-governmental organizations in controlling the domestic violence and curbing its worse consequences is crucial.
- At present there is no single law in the Indian Constitution which can strictly deal with all the different forms of domestic violence. There is an urgent need for such a law in the country.
Q; What are the major reasons of domstic violece against women in India ? How can the domestic violence against women be reduced in India ? ( 250 Words )
Courtesy :
BYJU.com