Elizabeth Imti
Ph.D Sociology, JNU, Delhi
Over the last two decades, gender based violence has emerged as one of the most public health problems facing women. An understanding of gender reality over the years reveals how violence has always been used as a means to subjugate women and to keep them in a position of subordination. For most women, the greatest of risk of physical, emotional and social violation will from a man they have known and trusted, often and intimate partner.
Violence or at least the fear of violence is a part of every woman’s life. Each woman knows someone who has been the victim of a violent episode if she herself has not been involved in one time or another. The problem of domestic violence is most daunting issues facing women today. Because its roots reach so deeply into the particular culture and beliefs of each society, no single solution can eliminate it globally.
A study of the World Health Organization (WHO) reveals that domestic violence by intimate partner is the most common form of violence in woman’s lives, much more than assault or rape by strangers or acquaintances. It says women abused were twice as likely to have poor health and physical and mental health, and the effects of the abuse are long lasting. Women need to learn that there is no cause for shame, and that if they are assaulted, they must take action-court action. As with rap and many other violent situation women tend to blame themselves, and take on a burden of guilt which is inappropriate. They must realize that to be victimized is not to be guilty.
Women abused by a partner face a similar legacy of health problems whether they live in a modern city in the industrialized world or a traditional village in a developing country.
In India, where the social, cultural and historical structures are different from the western framework, an issue like domestic violence has remained in the dark. The rigid, complex patriarchal system prevents both the sexes from giving attention to this special problem. It is common enough for a wife to get battered and emotionally traumatized by the husband, more often than not, she choose to suffer in silence.
In Indian culture, the sense of privacy of household is reinforced by old notions of the purdah inner house. The notion of this private area is very different from the notion of individual privacy. The legal machinery in India accepts this norm and perceives this as necessary to keep the family structures intact. Thus, any form of violence against the wife and the child is seen as disciplining them.
Domestic violence is especially destructive because it takes place within the most intimate will of relationship. The effect on children is particularly significant. Children who witness marital violence or prone to emotional and behavioral problems like anxiety, insecurity, depression, poor academic performance, low self esteem and hypochondria. They are physically and emotionally scared for life. Things are worst if the mother because of marital and economic compensation chooses to remain in the marriage. In most cases, helplessness and lack of support from the larger family or friends make it difficult for the victims to deal with the outside world.
Domestic violence is an assault on the very basis of all the values that go into the making of a community. Besides, the popular belief that domestic violence is usually inflicted on illiterate, economically dependent women is also false, although it is true that the percentage of educated and working women who are victims of this abuse is much lower.
Domestic violence destroys the safe environment of the family life in which children ideally develop. The message of love and protection which gives them emotional stability is shattered because the parents, who are their primary source of physical nourishment and emotional stability, are engaged in bewildering exchanges of violence.
Domestic violence is not an insignificant difficulty face by a small minority. It is a wide spread phenomenon of devastating effect on those who are victims. It is an experience which can scare those involved, both physically and emotionally for the rest of their lives. It is a social disease which the church has a responsibility combat. The victims are people to whom the church has a responsibility to bring healing.
Stooping violence against women and girls is not just a matter of punishing individual acts. The issue is changing the perception so deeply rooted hence often unconscious- that women are fundamentally of less value than men. The choice is to sow the seeds of change and stern the violence, which threatens every living being or to embark on the path of rapid destructions.
