Towards Ending Violence Against Women in South Asia

There are 50 million fewer women in South Asia today than there should be – girl babies are killed before birth through sex-selective abortions, or die prematurely through violence and neglect. Millions more girls and women face discrimination – they have less to eat than boys and men, are denied an education, are forced into dowry marriages, have little or no access to health services, and suffer violence. This situation will not just be changed by state laws and international agreements. Until men’s and women’s belief that violence against women is a ‘private’ matter and culturally acceptable is challenged and changed, the violence and discrimination will continue.

Download a PDF file (192K) of the full paper

Summary

One in every two women in South Asia faces violence in her home. Violence is an inescapable reality of women’s lives, as the social customs and attitudes that support violence against them are entrenched and institutionalised at all levels – home, family, community, society, and the State. Breaking the silence on this violence is not an easy, or even a real option for most women; to do so would threaten their lives.

What does violence against women consist of? The globally accepted definition considers as violence ‘any act that results in, or is likely to result in, physical, sexual, or psychological harm or suffering to women, including threats of such acts, coercion or arbitrary deprivation of liberty, whether occurring in public or private life’.

The pervasive culture of gender-based violence in South Asia has eroded women’s fundamental rights to life, health, security, bodily integrity, political participation, food, work, and shelter. It has severely limited their choices in practically all spheres of life, and explains the uniformly poor gender-related development indices in crucial sectors like health, nutrition, education, political participation, and employment. Sharp gender bias has also led to 50 million fewer women in the population; girls and women in South Asia die prematurely through neglect and violence. This is known as the ‘missing women’ phenomenon.

The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Human Development Report 2003 exposes how women in this region remain deeply vulnerable and disadvantaged; indicators for literacy, health, economic activities, work burden, empowerment, and political participation are among the lowest in the world. A recent World Bank regional brief for South Asia reinforces the message that women are in crisis; stating that 56 per cent of South Asian women are illiterate, and one third of all maternal deaths in the world occur in the region.

The small gains made across the region in improving access to health care, nutrition or education are being rapidly eroded through other forms of discrimination such as sex-selective abortions. In India, for example, the impact of such practices is visible in the ratio of girls to boys among children below the age of six. Compared with the normal ratio of about 95 girls being born per 100 boys, there were 92.7 girls born per 100 boys in 2001, and in some states such as Punjab and Gujarat, the ratio of girls is as low as 79.3 and 87.8. This already distorted sex ratio for children below the age of six is predicted to worsen across the region. Thus, even though overall development gains have led to a decline in women’s excessive mortality, other forms of discrimination are increasing (and new forms are arising) which negate any positive impact on women’s lives.

State interventions to protect women through effective implementation of legislation have been consistently impaired by the lack of support from dominant interests within the community, who legitimise violence against women as ‘normal’. Despite punitive legislation, most women have to abide by the rules of a patriarchal social system which reinforces gender inequalities.

Research also shows that despite three decades of activism by women’s groups all over the world, and the issue of violence against women gaining attention in global policy debates as a health and human rights issue, the social crisis is growing. A recent UNIFEM report calls for urgent action to enable women to experience real change in their lives and to be free of the fear of violence.

As violence against women varies in its nature and manifestation, there are four critical challenges for all those working in the area of violence against women:

to challenge and change existing social and individual attitudes that accept violence against women as ‘normal’;
to mobilise all sections of the family, community, and society to act to prevent violence against women;
to build popular pressure on the State to formulate and implement gender-equitable policies;
to bring together diverse local, national, regional, and international efforts working towards ending violence against women.