Problem that won’t go away easily

Violence against women is pervasive in many forms among all social groups all over the world but its most common form is intimate partner violence (IPV), committed by people close to, in close contact with, or known to, women. It is not just domestic violence, which mostly occurs within the family, mainly perpetrated by spouses. Anyone who is in a formal or informal relationship with women may inflict violence on them and that is termed as IPV. It includes physical, sexual and emotional violence and even wrong conduct and behaviour towards women, and occurs among all groups. A World Health Organisation (WHO) study has shown that IPV is very common in all countries. Two years ago, it had estimated that one in every three women had experienced violence from an intimate partner. It has found the problem serious enough to warrant special attention and has recently released a framework, titled RESPECT, to help policymakers deal with the problem better.

The framework attributes IPV to mainly four reasons. Societal factors like discriminatory or inadequate laws, community-related problems like poverty and illiteracy, interpersonal matters like unequal relationships, and individual reasons like childhood experiences of violence within the family contribute to IPV in different forms and degrees. The framework treats intimate partner violence as a public health and human rights issue and makes a number of recommendations for governments and other authorities to implement. These include empowerment of women, provision of services like those related to heath, police and legal matters, reduction of poverty, creation of better and safe environments, changes in attitudes related to gender, strengthening of relationship skills, etc. These may sound too general, but policies and actions based on these guidelines are needed to counter the problem which has deep roots in society. The WHO has emphasised that these strategies should not be silos but must be implemented together to reduce violence.

The framework and the recommendations have a special relevance for India, which is considered the most unsafe country for women. India leads in all types of crimes against women. Though there are laws that deal with such crimes and specially with domestic violence, women still face dangers and threats of violence almost every day in most parts of the country. Oppression of and violence against women is regarded as a norm in the mostly patriarchal society and changes in attitudes are very slow. The law is not helpful in many cases, and in many instances, cases are not registered or not prosecuted well. Concerns like those expressed in the WHO framework should prompt governments and societies to take the problem of violence against women more seriously.