Are women completely safe anywhere on this earth? Obviously not! Crimes against women have been spiraling at an alarming rate over the years. What is worse is that violence against female gender seems to be agglomerating like an ugly cesspool, and hence, undergoing the worst kind of putrefaction. Be it a public place or work place, women are targeted everywhere. So, are they safe at home?
No, they aren’t! Women are not even safe at home! The most intriguing fact is that the members of the fairer sex are expected to observe certain protocols taking their own safety into consideration. Nevertheless, they are subject to all kinds of violence at home.
Key Facts:
The recent global survey states that nearly 35 percent of women suffer from physical, verbal, or sexual violence at home worldwide. The United Nations has categorized any kind of threat, coercion, or arbitrary deprivation of liberty as violation of women’s integrity. Everyday 1 out of 3 women suffers from some kind of domestic abuse. She could be, either a homemaker, or a working professional. Her social status does not matter at all.
According to WHO, about 38 percent of women are victimized by their husbands, or live-in male partners. Sometimes, even young girls are silent victims of physical, mental, or sexual abuses at the hands of their male relatives. Reasons associated with domestic abuse are low income level, illiteracy, stress, frustration, gender inequality, attitude issues, alcoholism and drug abuse.
Violence has negative impact on physical and mental health, reproductive and sexual health; consequently resulting in HIV cases and short life spans. Many times, domestic abuse also culminates to suicides and homicides.
Why do women suffer from domestic violence:
- Orthodox Mindset: Today’s women have proved that they can perform equally well as their male counterparts. They pursue higher education at reputed varsities so as to get placed in the corporates. Many women, however, still suffer from physical, verbal, and mental abuses at the hands of their husbands, or their intimate partners. This is because these men disparage their female partners as physically and emotionally weak individuals. Respecting their women partners goes against their ego. This kind of idiotic mindset is highly prevalent in developing and under developing countries.
- Dowry Issues: In countries like India, dowry is the factor, which plummets violence against women after marriage, irrespective of their education and economic status. Whether they are working women or home makers, they are subject to all kinds of torture, unless their parents satiate the greedy appetite of their in-laws. In some cases, violence also ends up in homicide.
- Low Level of Education: If women are married off without being educated, they are treated like subservient members of their families, thereby doing all kinds of menial jobs. Under such circumstances, the family members never miss an opportunity to make them feel low by humiliating them in every possible way. Surprising, some family elders indoctrinate their male members to exhibit their prowess by abusing their wives. In certain backward places, people are generally illiterate, and do not understand the significance of sustaining their women folks’ dignity.
- Alcoholism and Drug Abuse: Social problems like frustration, stress, and lay-offs among men are on the rise, thereby coercing them to alcoholism and drugs. Researches show that most of these men are unemployed, who in turn, vent their frustration on women. Physical abuses, molestations, and rapes occur in cases where women do not acquiesce to men’s sexual demands. Also, frustrated men folks accuse their female partners of fornication without proofs, and hence, resort to violence.
What should be done to stop domestic violence:
Nearly 300 women suffer from sexual abuse at home everyday, and many cases of wife battering, and wife bashing remain unrecorded. Do we really need stentorians to stage loud meetings, and protests every time a case is reported, or a victim dies? Certainly not!
We need to resolve this issue at the grass root level. To start with, education, which is the bottom line to the entire problem needs prime focus. Boys and girls alike should be educated about the importance of human dignity. Boys should be taught to respect their mothers, sisters, and other women of their acquaintance right from the beginning. This is the critical stage when children should imbibe norms, and values about gender equality.
UN Women, in coherence with the World Association of Girls Guides and Girls Scouts (WAGGGS) has designed a co-educational curriculum for young people, which enables them to understand the root cause of gender violence in their own communities, and prevent them thereof. This group also trains its members in ways to support the victims, and alleviate their miseries.
This should be cited as an example in countries where women are subject to gender discrimination. Young people in these nations should organize their peers in groups, participate in educational campaigns, and moot their cause at the national level.
Young volunteers should set up camps for boys, and men to change their perception towards women. They could do so by distributing educational pamphlets, and by transforming their attitudes towards gender stereotypes.
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