Bhopal: The first Women’s Day was celebrated 45 years ago to give a voice to woman but her ordeal at home is yet to be heard.
Data shows only 2% of women in Madhya Pradesh report domestic violence to the police.
Though, 11% have dared to complain about the violence to a kin or acquaintance.
The figures are disheartening. The report of the National Health and Family Survey says more than one third of the total women population between 15 and 29 years have experienced physical or sexual violence.
Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action was adopted 25 years ago as a progressive roadmap for gender equality. The United Nation Women has established the theme of generation equality to mark Women’s Day 2020.
The theme paraphrased, is an effort to bring people from all generations, castes, creed and gender on one table and achieve equality for all.
Behind the stage, lies Madhya Pradesh, where over 80 per cent population of women have never sought help or told anybody about the domestic violence.
Psychiatrist Ruma Bhattacharya told Free Press that women have been made to accept the fact that it is okay for a female to get abuse, emotional, physical or sexual.
She said they have been considered secondary citizens since ages. The woman have been conditioned to believe that their dead bodies should leave their in-laws’ place and nowhere else, she said.
The women do not dare to speak up against their husband or the in-laws because they have been taught that she has to compromise and adjust, she adds.
Violence does not only limit to the physical abuse. In MP over 53% women have also suffered both sexual and physical violence.
The National Crime Records Bureau explains why women fail to report even if they gather some courage to do so.
The report of 2018 suggests that as many as 177 cases of the previous year were pending.
The pendency added to the fresh cases paints a number 756 of the domestic violence cases to be investigated for the counting year.
The rate of domestic violence case pendency has reached 85% in the state.
IPS officer Anuradha Shankar, the ADG Training, said the police officers appointed in all the departments undergo training to handle such sensitive issues.
Despite the training, the data proves that women still feel insecure of the formalities and never-ending court-runs and keep away from complaining.
Beating wives is justified, say 50% women in MP
The survey report of NHFS-4 says half of women in MP believe it is justifiable for a husband to beat his wife under certain circumstances. Women are most likely to believe that wife-beating is justified if a woman shows disrespect for her in-laws. The numbers inch to 38%. Over 28% might give in to violence if they argue with their husbands. Over 27% of women even give in if the husbands suspect them of being unfaithful. Bhattacharya said, the women have accepted the fact that their ultimate goal in life is to marry and settle down in her ‘own home’. She suggested that she herself has dealt with cases where financially independent women bear with the domestic violence just because they cannot afford to live as a divorcee.
Schooling, too, fails women’s cause
The NHFS-4 report says 43% men in MP say that wife-beating is justified in certain circumstances such as showing disrespect to in-laws. Even among women and men who have completed at least 12 years of schooling, one in three say that a husband is justified in beating his wife.
