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Violence Against Women

February 10, 2023

The United Nations General Assembly defines violence against women as any act of gender-based violence that results in, or is likely to result in, physical, sexual or mental or harm or suffering to women, including threats of such acts, coercion or arbitrary deprivation of liberty, whether occurring in public or in private life.

Violence against women- Statistics

Global level

• Around the world, at least one woman in every three has been beaten, coerced into sex, or otherwise abused in her lifetime.
• Worldwide, as many as one woman in every four is abused during pregnancy.
• Worldwide, two million girls between ages 5-15 are introduced into the commercial sex market each year.
• At least 60 million girls who would otherwise be expected to be alive, are “missing” in Asia, as a result of sex selective abortions, infanticide or neglect.

National level

• Crime against women rose by 15.3 per cent in 2021 from the previous year, according to latest data released by the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), with 4,28,278 cases registered last year following 3,71,503 cases in 2020.
• Amongst the majority of the crimes against women, 31.8 per cent were cases registered under ‘cruelty by husband or his relatives’, 20.8 per cent cases were ‘assault on women with intent to outrage her modesty’, kidnapping and abduction accounted for 17.6 per cent cases and 7.4 per cent were rapes.
• As many as 31,677 rape cases were registered in 2021 as compared to 28,046 cases in 2020 in the country.
• Delhi accounted for the highest rate of crimes against women in 2021 among the Union territories, showed NCRB data. The number of cases surged over the past three years from 13,395 in 2019 to 14,277 in 2021.

Factors affecting violence against women

• At the individual level: The present behaviour of any individual depends on his/her past history. In a patriarchal society, men think they have the right to control their wives. Apart from this, being abused as a child or witnessing marital violence in the home, having an absent or rejecting father, and frequent use of alcohol are characteristics of the individual that increase the likelihood of being a victim or a perpetrator
• At the family and relationship level: In a patriarchal society, control over wealth and decision making is in the hands of the men within the family and marital conflicts are strong predetermining factors resulting in abuse of women.
• At the community level: At the community level, due to patriarchal norms and poor access to information, women are unaware about their rights. Lack of social support especially in the area of women’s concerns and legitimising VAW by society are some of the factors which predict higher rates of violence.
• At the Societal Level: It is an established fact that violence against women is most common in a society where gender roles are rigidly defined and enforced and where the concept of masculinity is linked to toughness, male honour, or dominance. Other societal factors include culture of silence and tolerance especially amongst women, acceptance of violence as a means to settle interpersonal disputes and the perception that men have “ownership” of women.

Reasons for increased violence against women

• Rapid growth of cities and urbanisation has led to haphazard development with unsafe spaces for women to travel and work.
• Existence of cultural lag: Increased entry of women into public spaces is a recent phenomenon in India. Thus, the societies norms and values has not evolved to accept this radical change.
• Stigmatizing the victim: When verbal harassment or groping do occur in public areas, bystanders frequently look the other way rather than intervene, both to avoid a conflict and because they — on some level — blame the victim, observers say.
• Patriarchy: According to Gail Omvedt, violence against women which directly undermine the autonomous existence of the female self is often anchored in both the theory and practice of patriarchy which itself can be understood as “structural system of male domination”
• Incomplete modernisation: According to NFHS-5, a significant proportion of women, regardless of their socio-economic background, accept power differentials based on sex and that men have a right to discipline them.
• Ineffective Judiciary: India’s court system is painfully slow because of a shortage of judges leading to hug pendency of cases. The country has about 15 judges for every 1 million people which makes people lose confidence in judiciary and reporting crimes.
• Poor Conviction Rates: The public prosecution is generally weak leading to poor conviction rates for those accused of violence.
• Low representation of women in parliament and police: Few female ministers and police: India has historically had a much lower percentage of female police officers than other Asian countries. The representation of women in Parliament is also low despite the trend of women empowerment.
• Poor Public Transport System: without ample coverage and frequency and measures like CCTV surveillance further makes women vulnerable in public spaces.
• Impact of social media and Internet: Sexist comments, stalking and harassment and abuses online also translates to public spaces where women are harassed.

Consequences of violence against women

• Physical consequences: Violence is a major cause of injuries to women. It ranges from minor cuts to bruises and welts to disability and sometimes death. Apart from injury, it leads to irritable bowel syndrome, gastrointestinal disorders and chronic pain. These health consequences become complex when women fail to access timely health care due to various reasons.
• Physiological and mental consequences: The psychological and emotional consequences are far more deep than physical as it erodes their self-esteem leading to other mental health problems. Physical abuse also leads to emotional disorders.
• Sexual and Reproductive Consequences: The most common consequences of VAW on women’s reproductive health is unwanted pregnancy, pregnancy related consequences and STDs including HIV / AIDS. Sexual abuse also leads to emotional and behaviour damage. Sometime sexual abuse can be fatal.

Measures for protection

• The Criminal Law (Amendment), Act 2013 was enacted for effective deterrence against sexual offences. Further, the Criminal Law (Amendment) Act, 2018 was enacted to prescribe even more stringent penal provisions including death penalty for rape of a girl below the age of 12 years. The Act also inter-alia mandates completion of investigation and trials within 2 months each.
• Emergency Response Support System provides a pan-India, single, internationally recognized number (112) based system for all emergencies, with computer aided dispatch of field resources to the location of distress.
• Using technology to aid smart policing and safety management, Safe City Projects have been sanctioned in first Phase in 8 cities (Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Chennai, Delhi, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Lucknow and Mumbai).
• The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has launched a cyber-crime portal on 20^th September 2018 for citizens to report obscene content.
• MHA has launched the ‘National Database on Sexual Offenders’ (NDSO) on 20^th September 2018 to facilitate investigation and tracking of sexual offenders across the country by law enforcement agencies.
• In order to facilitate States/UTs, MHA on 19^th February 2019 launched an online analytic tool for police called ‘Investigation Tracking System for Sexual Offences’ to monitor and track time-bound investigation in sexual assault cases in accordance with the Criminal Law (Amendment) Act 2018.
• One Stop Centre (OSC) scheme is being implemented across the country since 1^st April 2015 which is exclusively designed to provide integrated services such as medical aid, police assistance, legal counselling/ court case management, psycho-social counselling and temporary shelter to women affected by violence under one roof. As per available information, 728 OSCs have been approved by Government of India, 595 OSCs are operational in the country.
• PoSH (Protection of Women from Sexual Harassment) Act, 2013: The PoSH Act has been implemented to prevent and protect women from sexual harassment at the workplace and thereby ensure a safe working environment for women.

Gender-based violence is universally used as a social mechanism to suppress women across societies. The indicators of structural inequalities such as women’s location in private sphere, their reproductive role, class position, caste inequalities have largely contributed towards the increasing rate of violence. The violence against women is rooted in the discourse of gender and power relations, which represents the dominance of men and continuance of patriarchal ideology in the society.