IT'S ALL ABOUT HOW MUCH YOU GIVE

VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN: HOW FAR HAVE WE COME? “We are determined to prevent and eliminate all forms of violence against women and girls.” With  this declaration  at the 1995 United Nations Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing, the international community committed to once and for all end violence against women. Over two decades later, on  the International Day to End Violence Against Women , how far have we come? Not far enough. In a historic speech at that conference 20 years ago, Hillary Clinton denounced the violence women and girls were subjected to: “It is a violation of human rights when babies are denied food, or drowned, or suffocated, or their spines broken, simply because they are born girls, or when women and girls are sold into slavery or prostitution for human greed … It is a violation of human rights when thousands of women are raped in their own communities and when thousands of women are subjected to rape as a tactic or prize of war.” She c...

REASON EXPOSED PART 3 Underlying causes Poverty:  General economic causes of family violence are increasing landlessness, pauperization, unemployment which has increased tension in poor households and give rise to desertion, divorce and violence [ 7 ]. Kabeer [ 18 ] also states “Violence, including systematic and random is a part of the condition of poverty is associated with relative powerlessness, and the poor are least able to defend themselves or to remove themselves from threatening situations.” Lack of resource, especially food in the poor rural households and women’s failure to accomplish traditional gender roles lead to gender violence. Child marriage:  Child marriage continues to be widespread despite the existence of the Child Marriage Restraint Act since 1983. A girl child is regarded as a burden to the poor parents. In the marriage market, the younger the bride, lesser the dowry demand. Parents’ fear for their daughters’ 

REASON EXPOSED PART 2 Intermediary causes of violence Dowry:  Despite the Dowry Prohibition Act (1980) dowry transactions continue to become a socially legitimate part of marriage negotiations. Maleka Begum in her book Dowry says that dowry is a major factor in violence, starting from verbal abuse, battering, torture and ending in death. Lack of Education:  Lack of education makes women more vulnerable. Statistics shows that a year of schooling is associated with prevalence of violence; no statement could be made how and why education has a role in reducing violence . Greater years of schooling may provide women with an opportunity to gain knowledge and information which they lack and as a result, they become less vulnerable. When Khan [ 14 ] was trying to assess the impact of education, he found that although education did not give them power to change the traditional division of labor within household, the most educated women had more equal power relationship with t...

REASON EXPOSED The social and economic status of women can be a dire result of violence. Gender violence represents an expression of human behaviors and it is rooted in society. Traditional attitudes by which women are regarded as subordinate to men involving violence, such as family violence and abuse, forced marriage, dowry death, acid attack and female circumcision. Such prejudices may justify gender-based violence as a form of protection of women [ 9 ]. The effect of such violence on physical and mental integrity of women is to deprive them of an equal enjoyment and knowledge of human right and fundamental freedom. The immediate causes of violence vary from any type of violence; there are different causes for different types of violence. However, causes can be categorized as immediate, intermediary and underlying as discussed below: Immediate causes of violence Acid assault:  Male ego and problems in dealing with rejection is another important cause of acid throwing. R...

FIGHT AGAINST WHAT Types of Violence Violence against women is rampant in many countries of the world. Such violence is a human rights’ violation, which may be typed in a number of ways: Custodial violence The imbalance of power is a result of prisoners’ dependence on correctional officers’ and guards’ ability is manifest in physical force and abuse. Because incarcerated women are not visible to the public eye, little is done when the punishment of imprisonment is compounded with rape, sexual assault, and shackling during child-birth. There is a psychological care available to inmates. Though crimes in prison such as rape are prevalent, few perpetrators of violence inmates are held accountable [ 3 ]. Acid burning and dowry death Women’s subjugation pervasive in political, civil, social, cultural, and economic spheres in many countries of the world. A woman who turns down a suitor along with her in-laws becomes a victim of a violent form of revenge: acid burning. Acid is ...

Defining Violence against Women and Girls Violence against women and girls is one of the most systematic and widespread human rights violations. It is rooted in gendered social structures rather than individual and random acts; it cuts across age, socio-economic, educational and geographic boundaries; affects all societies; and is a major obstacle to ending gender inequality and discrimination globally. (UN General Assembly, 2006) The United Nations defines violence against women as “any act of gender-based violence that results in, or is likely to result in, physical, sexual or psychological harm or suffering to women, including threats of such acts, coercion or arbitrary deprivation of liberty, whether occurring in public or in private life” (General Assembly Resolution 48/104  Declaration on the Elimination of Violence against Women , 1993 ). The terms ‘gender-based violence’ and ‘violence against women’ are frequently used interchangeably in literature and by advoc...

Ending violence against women Violence against women and girls is a grave violation of human rights. Its impact ranges from immediate to long-term multiple physical, sexual and mental consequences for women and girls, including death. It negatively affects women’s general well-being and prevents women from fully participating in society. Violence not only has negative consequences for women but also their families, the community and the country at large. It has tremendous costs, from greater health care and legal expenses and losses in productivity, impacting national budgets and overall development. Decades of mobilizing by civil society and women’s movements have put ending gender-based violence high on national and international agendas. An unprecedented number of countries have laws against domestic violence, sexual assault and other forms of violence. Challenges remain however in implementing these laws, limiting women and girls’ access to safety and justice. Not enough i...

TINA'S STORY  I was in my late twenties when I met my ex at the church I attended. We married a year later. He slapped me across the face one time when we were engaged as he didn’t like the meal that I cooked. I was dumbfounded but accepted his apologies and excuse of having had a hard day at work. The abuse started a week after we were married and escalated very quickly. Six months into the marriage I asked him for a divorce. He said that if I divorced him he would kill me and kill my parents. I confided in the minister of the church as to what was going on. The minister tried counselling us, but my husband was telling the priest one thing and doing another. I earned more than him and had to cover all the household expenses. He would also make demands for money from me. If I said no to sex he would force himself on me. He would give me 15 minutes to get home from work. If I were later he would accuse me of being unfaithful. One time I was late, and an argument br...

 NEHA'S STORY  My partner has been physically and emotionally abusing me for about twelve months. It’s started with pushing and shoving and taking my keys when I wanted to leave. He was very insecure about past relationships and jealous of people he thought were a threat. We would have evenings where he’d been drinking and start accusing me of being a ‘whore’ amongst other names. It would go on for hours until he would fall asleep. The next day it was always the same, he was sorry and he didn’t know why he said it and did the things he did. I believed him at first but after the third time I knew it was a mistake and I had to get out. The final straw was the worst behavior, hours of verbal abuse and name calling and then he became violent when I tried to call someone. That night it dawned on me things will never change. I had to put myself first and do what was right for me. How could I let myself be hurt this way? How I coped I believed he wanted to change....

POONAM'S STORY  I lived in a violent marriage for years. I was very naive at first and really didn't know people like him existed. He would kick me, slap me, push me, trip me over, throw things at me, stand on my feet, yell abuse, call me names like ‘social cripple’, the list goes on and on, but he never punched me. In fact he would say to people that he could'nt stand ‘wife bashers’. He would tell me that he didn’t want the children to play with so and so children because they were a bad influence. He tried to isolate us from all those who loved us and new people we met would go through character assasinations by him. Life was continous hell, fear and horror and he always blamed the children or me for his violence. Things got a lot worse towards the end. He would threaten to run us all off the road in the car and kill us. The violence became a daily occurance if not several episodes a day. How I coped Basically i coped by trying to keep him happy so he...

      RICHA'S STORY  My journey to hell and back began twelve years ago. I met him when he moved in next door to me. We became friends and later he moved in with me and we became an item. He had me hook, line and sinker, a real charmer. He was a rebel, and life became fast and exciting. Parties, dancing, drinking and then more drinking. I didn’t see it coming. We out with some of his mates and he had been drinking all day, and then his old girlfriend arrived. I was upset because he sat on her knee and kissed her, so I went to sit in the car. He came bellowing over, so I locked the door. He put his fist through the passenger window then dragged me through it. After receiving a punch in the head, one of his friends drove me home. At home I tended to my sore head, scrapes and bruises, but what hurt most was that it happened at all. The next day when he arrived at the flat he was full of remorse – things would be different, he wouldn’t drink and he would never hur...

TRUE STORIES: TAKE THE LESSONS SHIKHA'S STORY I had been seeing this guy for just over three months. We both drank a lot. One night, he got really mad at me and he called me a lot of names, and then pushed me against the wall. I got really scared but he said he was sorry and he’d never do it again. Another night, he wanted to make love and I asked him to put on a condom. He said he didn’t have one. I asked him to stop, and he wouldn’t. And he said that it didn’t matter, not to worry about it. At first, I sort of laughed cause i thought he was joking, but then I realized he was serious and I got scared. I told him to stop but he wouldn’t, and I pushed him away but he pushed me back and pinned me down with his body. He was very strong. He raped me. How I coped I had been abused as a child, and I had told him about it. I was very depressed already, and I had been cutting myself. Things got really bad after the rape. I tried to kill myself. I think I just wante...

                                                  For the women with purpose and motive VIOLENCE AND ALL Violence against women is a manifestation of unequal power relation between male and female leading to discrimination against women by men and to the prevention of the full-advancement of women [ 1 ]. The intentional use of physical force, threatened or actual, against oneself, another person, or a group or community, either results in or has a high likelihood of resulting in injury, death, psychological harm, mal-development or deprivation [ 2 ]. Violence against women is a global issue. Women are neglected, trapped within cultural framework, molded by dogmatic thoughts of the patriarchal system. As a result, violence against women is viewed as a normal phenomenon in the light of male attitudes. Still now, women, in Bangladesh, suffer from violence,...

Although the scheme is working way hard to reach its motive but the infrastructure needs to be improved of all the rescue rooms provided to the women.

                         STRUGGLES: HIDDEN AND VISIBLE The real challenges lie in operationalising these crisis centers, staffing these centers and training personnel deputed in these centers. It was felt that detail operational guidelines must be laid down, staff recruited and trained adequately not only in skill but also perspective and attitudes before they are assigned to run these centers. These centers should not be restricted only to district headquarters and cities but to panchayats as well. Accountability mechanisms and punishment for lapses must be clearly fixed before the centers start operating. Further, centers must be equipped to provide shelter to the survivors.  The role envisaged for OSC's are one of primarily providing in the first instance medical examination and lodging FIR and later on also supporting the survivors with trauma counseling and fighting the judicial battle for justice and convi...

One Stop Crisis Centre – a step forward in this campaign against gender based violence The popular TV show Satyamev Jayate, in its first episode titled Fighting Rape, screened on the 2nd of March 2014, has once again brought public’s attention back on the issue of violence against women and girls.  In this show, various aspects of gender based violence were talked about and the speakers critically looked at the existing response mechanisms available to the survivor.  Of the many things that the speakers had put forth on the show, the mention of One Stop Crisis Centre (OSCC), which went to the government as part of Justice Usha Mehra Commission’s report in the aftermath of Nirbhaya incident, was also widely discussed .  This centre, accoarding to the report, must offer free medical, legal and case related support to the survivor at one place, rather than her having to run between each of these institutions separately. In February 2013, a report that appeared...