In the past, discussions of domestic abuse have run aground because of the lack of good information. In general, we end up agreeing on three points:
- Women are assaulted by their partners in South Asia
- South Asian women are assaulted by their partners in America
- Non South Asian women are assaulted by their partners all over the world as well
but we always lack the numbers to talk about how bad the problem is in different places and for different communities. For that reason, I thought it was worth flagging this statistic I saw in the recent NEJM article on AIDS in India:
That’s more than 1 in every 3 women in India who has had a husband at some point. The numbers in the article varied by state, and unfortunately they provided these figures for only a handful of states (those where they had HIV figures). Still, here’s what it says:
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| State | %age of women abused |
| India overall | 37.2% |
| Delhi | 16.3% |
| Andhra Pradesh | 35.2% |
| Karnataka | 20% |
| Maharashtra | 30.7% |
| Manipur | 43.9% |
| Nagaland | 15.4% |
| Tamil Nadu | 41.9% |
The figures come from the 2005-06 National Family Health Survey, and the data involved have not yet been published so I can’t tell you what figures are available for the other states. I also can’t find the exact definition that they used in their questionnaire, nor can I tell you how India compares to other countries.
Here’s a different report with a far higher figure, although using a different definition:
As many as 70 per cent of married women in India between the age of 15 and 49 are victims of beating, rape or coerced sex, the United Nation Population Fund report said. However, the rate of domestic violence is much higher in Egypt with 94 per cent and Zambia with 91 per cent. [Link]
I’m finding that set of numbers a bit hard to believe, in part because Egypt comes close to being a country where all women are assaulted.
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p>[The comments below convincingly argue that the numbers struck out actually referred to women’s opinions concerning when it was OK for their husband to use force against them and not to actual rates of male against female DV]
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p>Lastly, here is a link to some different numbers for the region, again comparability is unclear but it suggests that violence against women is higher in the region than in the world as a whole.
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p>UPDATE: here are some figures for abuse of children – will try to post more when the report comes out:
Every second child in India has suffered some form of abuse, according to the world’s largest-ever study on child abuse… At least 25 per cent respondents had been sexually abused — 30 per cent of them by family members or relatives, says the National Study on Child Abuse. Forty per cent of children interviewed said they were subjected to physical violence, and five per cent of these said they had resorted to substance abuse to cope with being battered regularly. [Link via UB]
See related posts: Wifebeating worldwide, National Sexual Assault Awareness Month, Misogyny kills, Seeing the in-laws
the states with the (of the ones reported) highest incidence of HIV infections seem to also be the ones with the higher incidence of abuse against women (again, of the states for which there is info).
Absolutely disgraceful; but the number is not really that surprising considering that “Nearly one-third of American women (31 percent) report being physically or sexually abused by a husband or boyfriend at some point in their lives, according to a 1998 Commonwealth Fund survey.” Assuming that the latter used comparable definitions and questions, one would expect domestic abuse incidents to be higher in India.
The comparability bit is crucial, as you can see a different survey with a different definition gave numbers almost twice as high. That’s why I’m very careful about making comparisons unless I see the same definition being used across the board.
Why are the numbers so high for southern India where female literacy is higher and female rights are greater than in machoistic north like Delhi?
I don’t know, but it’s consistent with figures from Bangladesh showing that rates where higher in rural areas than urban ones.
Exactly my reaction. These numbers seem very strange. It makes me question the survey method. If one questionaire was provided per family or if families were interviewed as a group (as opposed to providing each woman with her own questionnaire or interviewing them individually) then women in North India were probably far less likely to report domestic violence then those in the South.
perhaps the first order effect of literacy/rights might be better reportage while less violence might be second order and require more time? just a guess….
If these numbers are correct, we have to admit that wife-beating is part of our culture at this point. How many other practices have anywhere from 20% to 40% of the people engaging in them? And that, of course, is horrible. And I’m sure the stats for many states not listed would be worse than what we see here.
Yes, this is disturbing.. But 80% of Indians are still working on farms and have no education past grade 10. Even when I watch Tamil soap operas today, they show lower caste men beating there wives and such and the rest of the village just watches.. So it seems like it is socially acceptable among uneducated indians.
Comment #8 is from me…I don’t know why I called myself American there…freudian slip when confronted with stats like these? (Although I am in fact American, the stats here might not be much better).
Probably goes higher than 40% in some states if the average is 40% and we can see some (albeit less populous) states below.
They key here would be UP.
This is some weird shit…I’m sure I saw ‘American’ as my handle for comment #8, and now it says ‘Amitabh’.
I fixed it after your comment.
How do I get the three vertical dots and then quote from someone elses comment ?
while this is disturbing– there are many, many states missing on the list! what about figures from Gujarat, Punjab, Assam, etc? i’d like to get a more complete picture of what is happening before we decide that south india has a higher proportion of domestic abuse cases. it may be that more women are willing to report in south indian states as opposed to north indian states.
regardless, domestic violence in south asia and all over the globe needs to STOP!
look at the study, they chose those six states based upon their higher prevalence of HIV/AIDS.
however, i still maintain looking at EACH state’s reported DV statistics plus an estimate of what is NOT being reported would give a more accurate picture.
once again, regardless, it must STOP!! Domestic Violence is just horrible.
I think the reason why Egypt shows such high numbers is the inclusion of ‘coerced sex’ in the definition of abuse. UN surveys correctly consider ‘coerced sex’ in a marriage to also be abuse. I would assume in a lot of other cultures this is not viewed as abuse at all ( they think of it as ‘a husband’s right’ !!! ).
Another way of looking at this study is that 37.2% of married men in India have assaulted women. That is scary. It would mean every third man around me is capable of violence.
Do the statistics resonate with any of the experiences of people who participate at this blog? Do any of you recall relatives or friends/neighbors of relatives in India behaving in suspicious manners with their spouses? If so, what was your reaction or the reaction of the people you know or are related to in India?
@MoS 18. I am a FoB from Mumbai. In my experience there is a class correlation. Among the middle classes it is less common, probably as a result of better education. Among the lower classes, I have seen this happen in public. One must however keep in mind that: “The plural of anecdote is not data”. My guess is that it is not that common in the middle class and that when it does happen, noone wants “publicity” and the police involved. Getting involved in a domestic dispute as a good samaritan can lead to adverse consequences, as the wife may prefer to deny it for the aforementioned “publicity” reasons. There are women’s organizations that are raising these issues from time-to-time and there has been some success.
As much as the problem as wife beating is back in the homeland, it is also the problem among some desi’s in the west.
In the last 4 months in Vancouver area 3 punjabi women have been murdered and a 4th is in coma after being attacked by there husband or there families. Manjit Panghali, Amanpreet Bahia, and Navreet Waraich are all dead and Gurjeet Ghuman is in a coma.
The murders of Amanpreet Bahia and Navreet Waraich have some things in common. Both were arranged marriages in which the women were given little freedom or any social life by there husbands or in-laws. After there deaths the familes of these 2 young women spoke of how there daughters were kept prisoners in there own home.
But the response among South Asian commuity leaders in Vancouver is to say that violence is a problem against women is a problem among all communites, instead of dealing with the problems. It been an joke the way that the community leaders want to avoid dealing with the problem.
While some amount of class correlation may be present- I know that that domestic violence happens in all strata of society. Doctors, lawyers, actresses( Remember Zeenat Aman getting beat up by then boyfriend Sanjay Khan ?).
On the few ocassions that I had to visit the friendly neighborhood police station in India, I observed at least one weeping woman every vist.Having just been battered by her husband, she would probably be resisting the policeman’s efforts to get her to write an official complaint because where would she go with the breadwinner in prison?And that’s why playing good smaritan does not work.I know, I have tried and failed.
As for personal experience: I remember one case involving a distant relative.The girl chose not to tell anyone about it because she was not sure about the reaction from her parents and brothers. EVERYONE supported her when she finally came forward and not one person suggested that she should stick by her creepo husband.
Women’s organizations in India are douing what they can for general empowerment .With 80% of India still rural and access to primary health and education constrained to the few lucky ones, it\s an obviously up hill task.But at least things will change slowly.
Here a website done in the honor of the late Manjit Panghali
http://www.manjitpanghali.org
Keep in mind that according to some muslims, striking one’s wife was prescribed by the Prophet Muhammed in the Quran.
An analysisi of that here; http://www.answering-islam.de/Main/Silas/wife-beating.htm
I have had some involvement with the south asian centers for domestic violence here in the Bay area and it is true that the numbers are high among south indians. It appears to be a cultural thing unconnected apparently with level of education (see comment #9).
I suggest everyone look at the website Clueless mentioned above. Very poignant and sad.
@Runa
Yes women don’t want to report such problems in india; even when they are financially secure. Many of them want to be on a moral high ground and some are afraid of the publicity and its consequence on them and their family. I have known women from the middle and lower classes who work and earn for the whole family and the husband just drinks and beats her, but they still refuse to report them. I even had a distant aunt who worked as a teacher and came home to an abusive husband; she separated only after her teenaged son threated to run away or something and then too only separated (not divorced). I think first we need to change the attitude of the people regarding divorce and the wife’s role in family. She shouldn’t feel like she is losing her identity and should feel free to socialise. The few women who do take action feel extremely uncomfortable attending marraiges, etc. mostly because they are pointed out and whispered about. They suddenly find themselves in the ‘evil women’ or the ‘victim’ category wherein they are pitied or hated rather than accepeted as a normal person.
Theres no socio – economic & religious background of the abusers. Is abuse more common in the lower strata of society than the higher? What about Islam where Quaran santions wife beating?
ylrsings said:
Yes, there are. The survey was conducted across India. However, the NEJM article only reported some domestic abuse figures. As I said in the post:
ylrsings also said:
Ummmm … no. Like I said:
We don’t know if the other states had higher or lower HIV figures. These are simply the only states where we have good HIV figures.
Unfortunately, they haven’t released this data yet. The NEJM article was able to gain access, but I haven’t, so I can’t tell you about the influence of class or education. As for Islam, it’s unlikely the dominant factor given the pattern of variation we see in the states were we have data. We can see some states that are very high that have few muslims.
I just saw the site honoring Manjit Panghali- how sad! I am especially shocked to see that her husband was also a teacher and her brother was involved!!! This just shows us that women who are smart/emplyed/westernized can be victims of abuse also. Don’t only focus on the “old country” (wherever that might be)look at the people around you in your community/neighborhood/job.
I cannot speak about wife beating, it is nit something I have seen among my Indian relatives, that doesn’t mean it non existent. But child beating as far as I hve seen is an integral part of atleast Bengali culture, maybe things have changed since the 80’s. As for wife beating, the woman the cooks for my father in Kolkata used to get beaten by her drunk husband regularly, it happend so often that my father spoke to the police who in turn gave her husband a beating. Well thats law enforcement in India today. Street justice, atleast if you’re poor.
I saw this on DD years ago when AIDS campaigns were starting out TN, citing the very high figures – Dr Jaya Shreedhar attributed them to superior and reliable statistics collection mechanisms in the State. In a way this corroborates to the high literacy rates cited, both cases being true (Literacy and AIDS/Battery)
Case in point – the graphs
TN has reporting on more categories than any other state, here’s the legend Among Antenatal Clinic attendees – TN:0.75% AP:1.25% STD clinic attendees – TN:9% 21.5% Female Sex Workers – NA NA Injecting Drug Users – TN:39% AP:NA KA:2.8% MN:22.4% Men having Sex with Men – TN:~1% AP:NA TB patients – NA Migrants – NA
Year 2003, TN – Tamil Nadu, AP – Andhra Pradesh, KA – Karnataka, MN – Manipur
Actually NACO has better figures – http://www.nacoonline.org/facts_statewise.htm
This is awful, and yet entirely unsurprising. And I’m glad that Clueless posted on the murders that have been happening in Vancouver. When the parents (who are in India) of one of these women were interviewed, her father said, “I knew she was being beaten, but I didn’t think it would go this far.” (!!!!) Again, underscoring how accepted/normalized domestic violence is. While there’s a lot of nitpicking we could do with the stats, at the end of the day, DV is one of the most methodologically difficult things to track, and I am inclined to believe higher %s instead of lower ones, particularly based on anecdotal experience.
While I think a socio-economic breakdown would be interesting, I’m with Runa. People often assume DV is more prevalent in low-income communities, when in fact it spans across classes. Similar to the comment “but we have such high literacy! how are those stats possible?”, I think people assume that education = less abuse. We can see from the U.S. that that is just not the case.At the end of the day, women across sll sorts of backgrounds are the targets of brutal and ongoing abuse.
Thanks for the post Ennis.
I wonder if this type of thing is prevelant amongst couples where the husband is living and working outside of India and goes back to India to find a wife, brings her to his country of residence where she has no connections, and proceeds to abuse her. If so a mass campaign should be commenced in order to inform women in India that these things are going on. Maybe such women should bring with them a relative who can live with her in her husband’s house (afterall, she most likely has to live with her in-laws so why not the other way around?).
Seems like campaigns need to go on in all the gurudwars, mandirs and masjids informing the men of what the laws in their particular countries are regarding domestic violence, and that they will be reported to the police if they are found to be committing illegal acts. It is up to the communities to come down hard on criminals like this. ZERO TOLERANCE POLICY.
MoS, I think it IS common, but not much more common than the same for diaspora-diaspora marriages. I think this woman had immigrated with family, originally, actually. So it wasn’t her husband, but rather her uncle/cousin who killed her. I’ll have to double check – the information is unpublished, but is coming out in a manuscript in the next year.
All that said, I know in the U.S. they passed new laws re: DV for recent spouse-immigrants, but unfortunately, with the craziness in immigration these past few years many people are still afraid to report abuse. I have no idea if Canada has an equivalent law.
I can only speak for my own local community, but the irony I have found is that these attitudes are super prevalent ACROSS classes, especially among 2nd gen’ers. That said, if you asked them directly if they think DV is ok, or if they believe in gender equality, they would say no and yes, respectively. For some reason people are able to disassociate what they know is normatively right/wrong from their actions. I wonder if that is true in other communities, as well?
At the risk of sounding politically incorrect and very un-liberal, is it possible that there are more incidences of domestic violence amongst people who were not born and raised in North America or Western European countries? I know that domestic violence is not un-common in the USA amongst people who were born and raised here, yet statistically, is it greater or lesser than that found amongst people who were not born and raised here?
I assume that the hardcore feminist movements of the 1960s would place USA low in domestic violence amongst people who were born and raised here.
As someone who has travelled the world, I find that USA and Western Europe are the places I feel more relaxed and “safe” in as a woman, even if they are lacking in other areas of culture.
Countries I have been to that have not had the types of “radical feminists” (women who really pushed things over the top very publicly), seem to still have very, very, very defined roles for men and women in relationships. Some of that has to do with religion, some of it not.
@ MoS # 35 & 37
Yes, not only is what you say politically incorrect , its offensive and trivializes the issue.Domestic violence isa global issue. Some cultures maybe more secretive about it than others.
Also , for your information, people in India , believe it or not, are very well aware of the dangers of sending their daughters overseas after marriage .I happen to know for a fact that unlike the 70s and 80s today its difficult for young men working in the USA to find brides easily precisely because everyone has wised up and would rather not send their daughters hundreds of miles away.As fora campaign, did everyone miss teh fact that the Government in India openedan entire bureau devoted to helping victimes of NRI marriages?
It really pisses me off to see a serious issue being identified as one more candidate for serious stereotyping .That’s what it came across as to me in any case.
Runa,
Mos has a long history on this site for making incredibly sweeping generalizations without any backing, I believe it is best not to indulge her.
Two points:
Is it any suprising that the same attitude finds its way into the house?
Do you find yourself doing that as well? Didn’t you know that Gandhiji beat his wife in his early years, Nehru thrashed his wife regularly, Jinnah used to kick his wife around? But hey – they were good in their day-jobs as freedom fighters! So, anything they do goes!
The west, they don’t beat their wives as much – they cheat on them. But as long as they are good in their day-job and bringing fame and money to themselves – the public lets it slide.
The solution to the problem may lie in judging a man differently.
M. Nam
domestic violence is about power. more specifically, it is about exerting power over an individual. of course, its etiology is multi-faceted and incredibly complex. i think we start entering into a dangerously dichotomous (as well as false) territory when we start engaging in a discussion that simplifies dv to class or endemic to a specific culture (the cultural context of india, as stated by some of the comments). such as: dv is more prevalent among ppl with lower SES OR dv is more of an issue in india vs. the west.
i was once asked by a white woman, who positioned herself as an expert on india based upon her 2 week vacation to the sub-continent, if dv was/is more prevalent in india because of the custom of arranged marriages. obviously, her question is incredibly flawed in many, many ways. it also shows a complete lack of understanding of what dv is. yes, it can be generally said that there is perhaps more public awareness of the negative consequences of dv in the U.S. vs. India BUT this does not negate the fact that the same patterns of gender oppression that exist in India -exist in the US. This sort of odd ‘faux multiculturalist’ thinking is obviously v. v. dangerous as it absolves americans (as well as good middle class south asians) from “tending their backyard”- and allows for righteous and condescending finger pointing, such as: “these poor third world women they are soooo oppressed” OR “these poor peasant women they are soooo oppressed.”
fact of the matter is dv, as one of the comments indicates, is a global issue. and will continue to be a global issue until or unless both the micro and macro forces that program and allow men (b.c. the perpetrators are mainly men…although in some cases, it can be women also)to exert their power over women.Simplification and dichotomization are then definitely not the answer. nowhere near it.
Does anyone have any data on how the prevalence of domestic violence in UP? Did the researchers even consider UP?
Aparna
The survey was nationwide, but unfortunately the only numbers that I could see were part of an article on HIV / AIDS and those were limited by the few states for which India has good HIV/AIDS figures. The national survey itself has not been released, but if you click on the link provided, you can see more about it.
Here in Vancouver there alot of women who have come from Punjab to live with there husbands and his family. Alot of these women have no or very few family on there side in Canada. Alot of men who go back to punjab to find a wife, look for one who doesn’t have much family in Canada. This way they will be able to control there wife more.
One problem is that women rights groups are afraid to say anything about this, cause they fear being called racist. That is why that DV is and will be a problem among some immigrant groups in the west.
Ennis, your three bullet points were awesome!
Folks,
please go here for the latest and best information about domestic violence and sexual assault/abuse. Better to talk to experts rather than all the conjecture.
I’ve been a volunteer there since 2003. They know their shit and will even send people out to educate in your workplace, school, etc.
I stand behind my questions because they were, afterall, only questions. And I think the independence that women have achieved in the West is a very significant factor in the equation. Women in the west are way more likely to divorce a man who cheats on them, abuses them, curtails their freedom, or even just annoys them, than women in India. That is what has been re-iterated on this and many other sites — the stigma attached to divorce amongst Indian people in general. Although Islam allows for divorce, the common understanding is that Hinduism does not, even though the laws of India do. So you see divorce quite prevelant amongst Muslims in Arab countries whereas you do not see the same amongst Hindus in India, even though the law allows for it. Many Indian Muslims also often have similar views of divorce as to Indian Hindus – despite the fact that both their religion and the laws of their country allow it (same with widow re-marriage amongst Indian Muslims).
Add to the divorce stigma the role of the wife/mother commonly bantered about in classical and ancient Indian literature, many of it religiously based, as well as the “values” that are touted via television serials and movies. The self-sacrificing woman who attains goddess status by bending to everyone else’s expectations and “finding herself” in the course of it all.
We just don’t have all of that here in the West in general, to the extent that India has it. Yes, you find some religious types who are into the submissive wife stereotype of the Bible or something like that time to time. But the general overall ethos of North American women and men regarding marriage relationships and the relationship of a woman to her in-laws is very, very, very different than that of men and women in India.
India has not had a “feminist revolution” or “sexual revolution” back in the 60’s like America had and those also might be contributing factors. Not that India does not have feminists, it does. But the hardcore wave of consciousness raising that men and women of North America were pretty much forced to undergo by the exposure that radical feminists and their ideas got over here has not taken place in India as of yet.
I am suggesting that perhaps all of this might contribute to higher statistics in the domestic violence department. Or maybe it doesn’t.
I am just asking.
Moornam also made a good point about people lacking in conflict resolution skills. If someone is not trained in such, or exposed to people with such skills – how will they learn? I know that even counseling or therapy is a taboo amongst some India people, and where it is not completely taboo, it is stigmatized.
Add to that a family culture which still revolves pretty much around “beta” (son) and where the brides are taught to “adjust”, well, it’s a recipe for disaster.
Add this to my points above.
One part of data is False and the other part is unscientific.
UNDP or UNFPA never published any data which says that 70% of Indian women face domestic violence. Please correct this massive rumour /hoax. WashingtonTimes published a correction on this.
This article has more details.
Coming to the data that 37.2% of Indian women face domestic violence, this is an unscientific representation.
The data related to crimes, suicides are published as numbers per year.
The current representation of 37.2% women facing DV creates false impression that it is a yearly figure.
Moreover, imagine there is absolutely no DV in year 2007, 2008 and 2009. Still, this statistic will show a percentage as high as 33% women facing DV as it considers even a woman who got beaten up in year 1985 and it will keep doing so for many years to come.
When you take yearly DV data, for urban women it comes to about 3.8%. This figure is so small that it necessitates a similar study to be conducted for men facing DV and both figures have to be keep side by side for analysis.
Otherwise, this data is unscientific.
By the way, the suicide rate of men vs women in India is 64% to 36% and the same ratio is applicable for suicides due to family reasons as well. So, Indian family is more dangerous for a man than a woman.
I hope, you will take a fresh look at the data in an unbiased manner and put some science into it.
More data on suicide and crime statistics is available at: ncrb.nic.in