1984

Violence Against Women:
The State of Punjab - Part V

GUNISHA KAUR

 

 

 

Punjab has been a hotspot of human rights violations and activism since the birth of the Indian nation in 1947. The history of human rights abuses in the state has contributed significantly to the present economic, environmental and medical crisis in Punjab.

In this multi-part series, we explore the emergent issues in the state, with a focus on farmer suicides, female feticide and infanticide, ecological damage, river water rights, rising rates of diseases, mental health, and drug and alcohol abuse.

 

Violence against women is a part of India’s cultural heritage.The general malaise that infects the entire country is now rooted in the state of Punjab as well.

In 2009 alone, India's Ministry of Home Affairs reported 21,397 cases of rape, 25,741 cases of female abduction, 38,711 cases of molestation, and 89,546 reports of cruelty by husbands and relatives; 203,804 cases of crimes against women were registered in India.

Furthermore, the patriarchal nature of Indian society results in severe underreporting of violence against women.

A recent study found that over 70% of crimes against women went unreported due to fear of stigma or repercussions.

In Punjab, the increase of violence against women has coincided with the economic decline over the past several decades. Females are considered to be an economic burden, and documented cases of female infanticide have surged to alarming levels.

This mentality is represented by the popularized Punjabi phrase: "Raising a daughter is like watering your neighbor’s garden.”

Finally, rising levels of drug and alcohol abuse have contributed significantly to violence against women.

The role of women in Punjabi society has changed dramatically over the past century. Prior to the Green Revolution, women were an invaluable source of productivity within the home and the public sphere. In post-Green Revolution Punjabi agricultural societies, women’s roles on farms have largely been replaced by technology, and they rarely hold profitable jobs outside of the home.

This major shift has resulted in the decreased earning potential of women. It is also not socially acceptable for women in India to inherit property or be responsible for taking care of aging parents; having a male ensures the survival of the family property and name in old age. Inability to earn an income, claim inheritance of land, or take responsibility for elderly parents contributes to the cultural perception that women are a financial drain.

Problems for females come particularly at the time of marriage. In the process of marriage, the bride’s family loses significant wealth in paying for the wedding and dowry. According to one study, the cost of weddings exceeds average salaries by a factor of ten, while the expectation for dowries has become progressively more extravagant.

Though Sikh principles call for gender equality and have unequivocally rejected practices of dowry exchange, the existing Indian cultural norms have overridden these beliefs.

In recent decades, a new trend has developed in which extortion of money continues beyond the wedding ceremony.

Ranjana Kumari, who runs seven domestic violence refugee centers, explains: “Sometimes women are tortured to squeeze more money out of their families and in extreme cases they’re killed. Then the husband is free to remarry and get another dowry.”

Grotesque methods of extortion of women may involve mutilation, including burning with cigarettes, electric irons, and disfigurement by acid. Violence against women has resulted in an unfortunate trend of dowry deaths, instances in which a husband and his family abuse and harass a woman so intensively that she is brought to her death either by their violence or by suicide.

The vast financial difference between raising a female and a male child is not lost among rural Punjabis, particularly not among farmers that are already drowning in their own debt. Punjabi villagers have begun demonstrating preferences for males in a number of ways, including sex-selective abortion.

The Government of Punjab indicates that women themselves have been indoctrinated with gender inequality. Their report states:

A woman’s status in society, among her own peers is measured not by what she is and what she does but if she has at least one male child. So strong is this need to ‘belong’ to the society and community that women themselves perpetuate the custom of son preference.

According to the 2011 Government of India Census, the female to male ratio in Punjab is 893 to 1000. This unnatural disparity is largely a result of sex-selective abortion. Though this ratio has improved since 2001, it remains amongst the lowest in the country.

Significantly, a study in the prominent British medical journal, The Lancet, found that the number of ultrasound machines in a region within India could be correlated with the magnitude of female feticide.

Another study published in The Lancet found that educated mothers are more likely to abort female fetuses than illiterate ones, likely because they have better access to ultrasound technology and early gender determination.

The immense problem of female feticide compelled the Government of India to pass the Pre-Natal Determination Test (PNDT) Act in 1994, which outlawed ultrasound testing to determine the gender of a fetus. Similar to the Dowry Prohibition Act of 1961, however, this act remains poorly enforced, and has had had little impact on common practices on the ground.

Abuse of drugs and alcohol by Punjabis compounds the violence against women. The use of substances such as cocaine, heroin and alcohol has been shown in multiple studies to increase violent behavior. In Punjab this violence is often directed at women.

The Tribune reports the tale of 22 year-old Poonam, who was shot in the chest by her father for speaking out against his drinking.

Poonam’s story is not an isolated case. Abused women often cannot escape their homes as they have nowhere to go - domestic violence shelters are uncommon, most young women have little to no education, and Indian cultural norms expect that a married daughter will not return to the home of her biological parents.

Even at the highest levels, the inferiority of women remains deeply embedded within society. Dowries have become such a ubiquitous part of Indian culture that an entire paradigm shift is necessary to reverse the convention.

As a long-term solution, we must begin to recognize the value of women.

On an individual and community level, we have to openly oppose the transaction of dowries.

And as a collective, we must work toward honoring and protecting our mothers, sisters, and daughters.

[The author is a human rights activist and a physician at Cornell University in New York City. Her research focuses on chronic pain management in survivors of torture, and she has written extensively on human rights violations in India. Her first book, entitled "Lost in History: 1984 Reconstructed" - [http://www.panjabmall.com/storeproduct508.aspx], documents the violence in Punjab that took place in the 1980s and 1990s. The articles in this series draw from her forthcoming book, which discusses the current economic, environmental, and health crisis in Punjab.]

Parts I to IV in this series can be accessed from the "1984" section on sikhchic.com.

June 4, 2012 

 

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