A Research Paper On Violence Against Women

Introduction

United Nations defines 'Human Rights' as rights inherent to all human beings, regardless of race, sex, nationality, ethnicity, language, religion, or any other status. Human rights include the right to life and liberty, freedom from slavery and torture, freedom of opinion and expression, the right to work and education, and many more where everyone is entitled to them, without discrimination.

However, when these rights are violated, we refer to it as the ‘Violation of Rights.’ UN further defines ‘violation against women’ as “any act of gender-based violence that results in, or is likely to result in, physical, sexual or mental harm or suffering to women, including threats of such acts, coercion or arbitrary deprivation of liberty, whether occurring in public or in private life” (Harbishettar and Math, 2014).

Forms of violence

Psychological/Emotional abuse: Violence against women isn’t always physical, as violence can also take form in terms of mental or psychological abuse. Most of the time, women don’t even realize when such abuse takes place. Psychological abuse can be defined as when a person attempts to frighten, control, humiliate, isolate, or threaten women with injury or death to serve their needs. It can be done by anyone, by a parent, family, friend, or someone else. This kind of abuse further includes eve-teasing, online harassment, slut-shaming, etc. which further impacts the victim’s well-being.

Financial Abuse: Financial or economic abuse refers to forcibly controlling another person’s money or other assets. It can also include stealing cash, not allowing a victim to take part in any financial decisions, or preventing a victim from having a job. For instance, it was not until 2005 where Hindu women had the right to be a joint heir to the ancestral property by birth. Apart from that, women are many times excluded from contributing to the financial decisions of their house as opposed to male figures, who are generally the head of the family.

Sexual assault/Sexual Violence: Sexual Assault/Violence includes rape, sexual assault with implements, being forced to watch or engage in pornography, enforced prostitution, human trafficking, etc. Research has demonstrated that violence against women often involves a continuum of violence from psychological, economic, and emotional abuse through physical and sexual violence. According to government data, nearly four women are raped every hour in this country. Unfortunately, most of the cases are not reported due to shame, inefficient administration, etc.

Other forms of violence: There exist several other kinds of violence against women such as crimes committed in the name of 'honour', femicide, prenatal sex selection, female infanticide, economic abuse, political violence, elder abuse, dowry-related violence, acid-throwing, etc. Furthermore, women belonging to the minority groups, migrants, undocumented working groups, etc. are more vulnerable to such acts of violence and may experience multiple forms of violent acts as the groups that they belong to already face discrimination and social exclusion.

Causes

Gender Disparity: It is one of the deep-rooted causes of violence against women that put women at risk of several forms of violence. Gender disparity is a product of the discriminatory gender norms and gender stereotypes that results in structural inequality. The continuation of the stereotypical gender roles has resulted in the creation of a mindset that disfavours women. For example, marriage and motherhood are considered as the two primary roles, and that women who are unmarried, separated, or divorced give them a status of social stigma.

Psychiatric Morbidity: It refers to the incidence of both physical and psychological deterioration as a result of a mental or psychological condition, generally caused due to the consumption of alcohol. The regular consumption of alcohol by the husband has been strongly associated with the poor mental health of women. Alcohol operates as a situational factor, increasing the likelihood of violence by reducing inhibitions, clouding judgment, and impairing an individual's ability to interpret cues.

Patriarchy & Family factors: Patriarchy has been the main cause of violence against women. Where women have a higher economic status than their husbands and are seen as having sufficient power to change traditional gender roles, the risk for violence is high. Exposure to harsh physical discipline during childhood and witnessing the father beating the mother during childhood is a predictor of victimization and perpetration of violence against his wife in adulthood.

Traditional and cultural practices: Deep-rooted traditional and cultural practices are also one of the important causes of violence against women in India. Some of the examples of these practices are; Female genital mutilation which can lead to death, infertility, and long-term psychological trauma combined with increased physical suffering, Acid attacks have emerged as a cheap and readily accessible weapon to disfigure and sometimes kill women and girls for reasons as varied as family feuds, inability to meet dowry demands, and rejection of marriage proposals, etc., and killing women to uphold the honour of the family.

Judiciary and law enforcement machinery: An insensitive, inefficient, corrupt, and unaccountable judicial system and law enforcement machinery fails to deter against various forms of crimes. As a result, many of the crimes committed against women are often not registered due to the power dynamics and politics that exist in the society, therefore resulting in under-reporting of these crimes and inaccurate data collection on this issue.

Consequences

Health Issue: Women who experience violence are more at risk of unwanted pregnancies, maternal and infant mortality, and sexually transmitted infections, including HIV. In many societies, women who are raped or sexually abused are stigmatized and isolated, which impacts not only their well-being but also their social participation, opportunities, and quality of life. Such violence can cause direct and long-term physical and mental health consequences.

Economic Issue: Violence against women can have a serious impact on the economy of the household as well as of the nation. For instance, the direct costs of such violence include loss of income, productivity, healthcare, and cost of social services while the Indirect costs include the impact on child well- being, female and child mortality, intergenerational social and psychological cost. Women who experience violence from their partners are less likely to earn a living and are less able to care for their children or participate meaningfully in community activities or social interaction that might help end the abuse (Chauhan).

Development Issue: Violence obstructs participation of women in development and planning programs both at a micro and macro level. For instance, violence prevents women from experiencing or accessing the benefits of development by restricting their ability to act or move freely. It also acts as an obstruction to poverty alleviation programs as it impedes the equitable distribution of resources.

Rights Issue: Any form of Violence against women hinders their realization of fundamental rights under Article 14 which guarantees to all people equality before the law and equal protection of the laws, Articles 21&19 which are grouped under the broad heading of 'Right to Freedom' and Article 32 enshrines the provision where individuals may seek redressal for the violation of their fundamental rights.

Case Study 1: The Nirbhaya Case

One of the most horrifying rape cases that have occurred in India is the Nirbhaya Case of 2012. Nirbhaya-the fearless one as named by the press- was a 23-year old physiotherapy student in Delhi. The incident took place on 16th December 2012 when she was coming back from a movie theatre along with her male friend at 8:30 via an off-duty bus. The six men who were on the bus attacked the couple and raped the woman one by one. They had beaten her friend as well, and later brutally assaulted her with an iron rod. They were then thrown by the road-side for them to die. However, some passers-by saw their bloodied naked bodies and informed the police. The woman battled for her life for the next two weeks/ survived for the next two weeks, during the span of which India witnessed various protests and movements across the country for they were filled with rage with what had happened to Nirbhaya. Even after those two weeks, India witnessed protests like never before. The Capital came to a standstill as the protesters- mostly young women and men- took to the streets. The Delhi Police had closed certain metro points and even took measures to disperse the crowd, given their large numbers.

The massive protests led to the creation of new anti-rape laws in 2013 which stated that there will be harsher punishments for rapists and addressed new crimes, including stalking, acid throwing as well as spying on a woman when naked or circulating her pictures without her consent. The definition of rape to state that the absence of physical struggle didn't equal consent, which was a crucial and much-needed identification in the eyes of the law. Also, under the new laws, a repeat offender of rape or rape that causes coma could be given the death penalty.

More importantly, it took 3 years for India to serve justice to her as the four- men convicted of the crime- Akshay Thakur, Vinay Sharma, Pawan Gupta, and Mukesh Singh were finally hanged in the capital's high-security Tihar prison in the first executions in India since 2015 and were sentenced to death by a trial court in 2013. The remaining two-one was found dead in his cell in 2013 and had taken his own life while the other one was released after serving three years in a reform facility as he was 17 and was later released in 2015 (BBC News Article).

Critical analysis

The Nirbhaya case turned out to be a boiling point for the nation of tolerating such horrifying crimes done by men. Though one should be glad that this case resulted in the creation of stricter laws against such crimes, a lot still needs to be done. The Judiciary & Administration system needs to become more efficient so that the accused/guilty are penalized as early as possible, and not after three years like in the Nirbhaya case. In India, a woman is raped somewhere every 16 minutes, and every four minutes a woman experiences cruelty at the hands of her in-laws. In 2019, the country had recorded 88 rape cases every day. Of the total 32,033 reported rape cases in the year, 11% were from the Dalit community. Many of these cases are under-reported, as women are afraid to come out and speak about their experience. At times, women are asked to simply accept these crimes which further normalizes rape culture. According to research published in Lancet Public Health October Issue in 2018, the rate of Indian women who die by suicide represents 36.6% of global female suicide deaths, and the main causes behind these deaths are early marriage, deep-rooted patriarchy, and gender-based violence (The Guardian). These figures show that violence against women will only upsurge in the coming years, and indicates that it is high time that we, as a nation, take a stand and work towards changing our mindset towards the traditional socio-economic norms found in our society.

Prevention of these crimes

India has introduced numerous international human rights instruments, including the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, etc. and has set up various commissions such as National Commission of Women, set up as a statutory body in India in January 1992 that specifically focuses on the acceleration of the socio-economic development of women and their protection against the violation of rights.

At the national level, laws and policies have been put in place to prevent and respond to violence against women. While the under-reporting of gender-based violence still prevails, legislation exists in the nation to support women and the other genders who seek assistance. A few key changes in India’s legal system, including the passing of stricter sexual assault laws, and the creation of fast-track courts for prosecution of rapes have reaped better results. For instance, recent cases of violence against women like the Kathua Case and the Unnao Case has led to the introduction of introduced the death penalty for rapes of minors, defined as below 12 years of age, which is followed by at least four states – Rajasthan, Jammu and Kashmir, Haryana and Arunachal Pradesh (Chauhan).

There is no dearth of laws and policies around various aspects of gender-based violence that ranges from the traditional Dowry Prohibition Act (1961), Amendments to the Indian Penal Code, 1862 (1986), Indecent Representation of Women (Prohibition) Act (1986), The Pre-Conception and Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques (Prohibition Of Sex Selection) Act (1994), – Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act (2005), Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention Prohibition and 5 Redressal) Act (2013), Criminal Law (Amendment) Act (Death penalty for raping a minor- 2018) and many more (Chauhan).

Required improvements in the existing strategies

Gender-based legislation: It is important to enact and enforce legislation and develop and implement policies that promote gender equality by ending discrimination against women in marriage, divorce and custody laws, inheritance laws, and ownership of assets.

Financial Independence: Improving women’s access to paid employment is a crucial step that needs to be taken/boosted so that their dependence on men reduces, which oftentimes is an important cause behind violence against women and the under-reporting of such crimes (Drishti IAS).

Developing and resourcing national plans and policies: to address violence against women and providing appropriate referral and support. They also need to work on improving the system of collecting crime surveillance data on violence against women.

Male Mediated Initiatives: Evidence shows that when men and boys are engaged in tackling gender inequality and promoting women's choices, the resulting outcomes are positive, and men and women are able to enjoy equitable, healthy, and happy relationships. Therefore, it's important to engage men and boys to challenge the deeply rooted harmful gender norms (Chauhan).

Change in the mindset: Without a comprehensive effort to address issues around objectification of women and her treatment as the “weaker sex”, in schools or university, at work, in the family, in the community, and in print and electronic media, the elimination of violence against women remain a challenge as, without this effort, the harmful traditional practices and patriarchal norms would continue to exist. We also need to promote egalitarian gender norms to change the current mindset of people to achieve gender equality.

Conclusion

Thus, violence against women can spring from psychological abuse/physical abuse, resulting in the deterioration of their overall health. Existing patriarchy, unequal genders, traditional cultural practices, etc. are the main driving forces behind crimes against women. While the Nirbhaya case captured the nation's attention, many other similar cases haven't but still exist such as the Hathras Case, Mathura case, several acid-attack cases, financial abuse cases, and cyber sexual harassment cases. Until the deep-rooted patriarchy is not removed, and the judiciary and administration of the country do not offer their full support in the eradication of these crimes, achieving gender equality is a lost cause. It is high time that the country changes its mindset towards the existing patriarchal norms and culture or else India will continue carrying the label of “The most Dangerous Country for Women to live in.”

Works Cited

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• “What Is Violence against Women?” Australian Government, plan4womenssafety.dss.gov.au/resources/what-is-violence-against-women/.