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| 56 pc Indian women justify wife-beating Annapurna Jha New Delhi UPI Even though women rights activists have been demanding stringent legislation to prevent domestic violence, most women in the country accept wife-beating and even justify it under certain conditions, according to the Second National Family Health Survey. About 56 per cent women accept at least one reason as justification for wife-beating, attesting the social norm that gives the husband the right to use force to discipline wives who are perceived to be violating traditional gender norms. While 40 per cent of 90,000 women interviewed for the survey felt that neglecting the house or children justified wife-beating, 37 per cent said the husband was right when he beat his wife for going out without telling him. Other commonly accepted justifications included the wife showing disrespect for in-laws (34 per cent) and husband suspecting his wife for unfaithfulness (33 per cent). However, the less accepted reasons included the wife not cooking food properly (25 per cent) and the natal family not giving expected money, jewellery or other items. Though there was no sharp difference by age or marital duration in women's attitude towards wife-beating, a significant difference of opinion surfaced between urban and rural women attitudes. Not only higher proportion of rural women (60 per cent) than urban women (47 per cent) agreed with one reason justifying wife-beating, but the former were more likely to agree with any of these specific reasons. However, education brought a sharp difference in women's attitude towards wife-beating. Sixty-two per cent illiterate women agreed with at least one reason justifying the beating, while 51-56 per cent literate women who had not completed high school and 37 per cent who had completed high school felt it was justified. Sikh and Jain women (27-39 per cent) were less likely to agree with any reason justifying wife-beating than Hindu or Muslims (both 57 per cent), Christian (65 per cent) or Buddhist (74 per cent). A possible explanation for this difference was spread of education in the former and most residing in urban areas. The survey showed that the proportion of women who justified wife-beating declined sharply as the standard of living went up as 59 to 62 per cent women from low or medium standards of living supported it, while only 41 per cent women with high standards of living agreed with it. However, the presumption that working women were less likely to justify domestic violence, both tolerance and acceptance of which was a significant barrier to the empowerment of women with far-reaching consequences for their health and the health of their children and adoption of small family norm, did not hold true in India as most were agricultural labourers with low educational attainment. On domestic violence, the survey said that since the topic was sensitive many women were reluctant to report it. Therefore, the result may underestimate the extent of menace as a culture of silence surrounds domestic violence due to fear and difference in perceptions among women about what constitutes it. Twentyone per cent women in India have experienced violence since the age of 15, of whom 19 per cent have been physically beaten up or mistreated by husbands, while two per cent said that they were beaten up in-laws. This implied that among women who reported beatings, nine out of 10 have been beaten up by husbands, one out of seven by others and one out of 12 by in-laws. Women married for less than five years were less likely to have been beaten (14 per cent) than women who married longer (21 to 23 per cent) or who were not married (27 per cent). Urban women (17 per cent) were less likely to experience violence and illiterate women (26 per cent) are three times likely to experience violence as women who have at least completed high school (9 per cent). The prevalence of domestic violence decreases substantially as the standard of living increases. About 29 percent women with low standards of living have experienced violence, compared to 20 per cent of those belonging to the medium level and 10 per cent to the higher strata. Not bearing a child or son were major causes of violence, the survey revealed. |
