By Kashif-ul-huda, TwoCircles.net
A few days ago we reported that Hindu women suffer more physical and psychological abuse than Muslims and Christian during their pregnancy. This was result of a study published in the September issue of the Journal of Affective Disorders. The response to this news was what one would expect. Muslims were mostly happy that their brothers in faith seem to be treating their wives a bit better than Hindus of India. Hindus on the other hand, either ignored it completely or offered arguments for not putting too much trust in this study.
National media obviously chose to ignore this study and focused on the non-existing fatwa against Salman Khan. What was not obvious was the missing outrage that a large number of married women are not safe within their homes during a very delicate time in their life when they are pregnant. Here we present a more in-depth report on the study and go beyond that study to look at domestic violence in India.
Domestic violence also known as Intimate Partner Violence (IPV) is reported by 15% of pregnant women in China, 20% in Australia and UK. Researchers in North America have reported anywhere between 4%-30% women abused physically during pregnancy. Lack of single definition of violence explains the differences between different studies. Multiple studies in India have placed IPV from 13% to 28%.
Physical abuse such as slapping, hitting, kicking and forced sex affects women’s physical and mental health. These women show an increase risk of miscarriage, pre-mature births and other pregnancy related complications. Not only the unborn babies but women can also suffer from physical problems, many of them are also experiencing serious consequences on their mental health.
One study done in India in 2005 showed that the physical violence doubled the risk of poor mental health in abused women when compared with women who did not report any abuse. This study, lead by Shuba Kumar of the India Clinical Epidemiology Network in Chennai, said that four factors seem to contribute to poor mental health among women. This study was conducted in New Delhi, Lucknow, Bhopal, Nagpur, Chennai, Trivandrum and Vellore. It found that women who “(a) experience dowry harassment or harsh physical punishment during childhood, (b) witnessed their father beating their mother, (c) whose husbands regularly consumed alcohol, and (d) experienced physical violence at home”, were at greater risk of having poor mental health. This study also suggested that a High school education for both partners and social support act were protective factors for women.
The present study was conducted by a team from the Departments of Psychiatry and Biostatistics of Bangalore based in the National Institute of Mental Health and Neuro Sciences. The study involved 203 pregnant women attending a clinic in a public hospital of Bangalore. Researchers asked them detailed questions in isolation to evaluate incidence of violence and their mental health conditions.
The paper documented the study of domestic violence and sexual coercion among pregnant women in India and studied its relationship with depression and post-traumatic stress disorder.
The age of the women participating in the study ranged from 16 to 34 years and about half of them were between the ages of 21 and 25. All were married women and more than half (55%) were Hindu, 39% were Muslim and 6% Christian. 76% of these women had primary or high school education. Ten of these women reported that their husbands had multiple sexual partners while they were pregnant. 27% of women reported alcohol use by their husbands.
28 of the 203 women i.e. 14% reported physical violence consistent with other studies. 15% reported psychological violence. All of these women reported constant levels of violence throughout their pregnancy. 18 or 9% of women reported sexual coercion involving force during their pregnancy.
The study lead by Dr. Prabha S. Chandra collected information on these women on what the paper referred to as “sociodemographic characteristics.” These were age, education, employment, income, marital status, religious background, and number of people in the household. Except for religion, there were no significant differences in any of these sociodemographic variables among the abused and non-abused women. The study found that abuse was more common among Hindu families than Muslim or Christian families. 19% of Hindu women reported violence as opposed to 8% of other faith, a significant difference.
Alcohol use is another factor that is common among the abuser (82%) as compared to spouses of non-abused women (18%). Alcohol use is a “significant predictor of presence as well as severity of violence” according to the article, even after controlling for age, income, number of children and family type.
Surprisingly, the study found that the chances of abuse were greater for women in households with a monthly income greater than Rs. 3000 compared to households with less than Rs. 1000 income. Increasing the age of the husband also seems to be a factor in decreasing the risk of physical abuse of pregnant women.
Researchers of this study were alarmed by the high rate of physical and psychological abuse and sexual coercion. “These findings clearly document the vulnerability of Indian women to intimate partner violence, consistent with earlier reported findings from different cultures,” the researchers noted.
“IPV was more common among families that were of Hindu faith, younger age, and higher household income, and when alcohol abuse was present in the male partner,” the paper concluded. Authors expressed surprise at the strong association between Hindu faith and violence but no explanation was offered by the researchers for this finding except suggesting more research.
A National Family Health Survey in UP in 1998-1999 revealed the same percentage (20%) of Hindu and Muslim women reported violence by their husband.
Activist and Journalist Nasiruddin Haider Khan says that though the figure of 20% women reporting domestic violence is very high, the situation is more grim. He points out that the actual figures could be as high as 3 or 4 times the reported number. He attributes under reporting to lack of proper understanding of what comes under domestic violence or women not wanting to talk about their abuse.
Mr. Khan who is studying women issues for Health and Population Innovation Fellowship (formerly known as the MacArthur Fellowship) says that in many instances men and women don’t know what can be considered domestic violence and many women think that violence is justified in some cases.
In 2006, India passed the Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act 2005 to offer protection to women who are abused by their partners. Under this law women can obtain protection from their husbands and partners by citing emotional, physical, or economical abuse.
[Next: Details on India’s Domestic Violence Act]
[This article is part of the TCN’s Domestic Violence series.]