Current Events
No Country For Women:
India Today
VANI S. KULKARNI, MANOJ K. PANDEY & RAGHAV GAIHA
In today’s India, every hour 25 women fall victim to crimes; that is, one every two minutes!
Of those 25 victims every hour, 11 suffer cruelty by husbands and other relatives; three are raped; and there is one dowry death.
Horrific crimes against women in that country have, in fact, continued unabated.
What is worse is that there has been an acceleration of such crimes in recent years, with the annual rate rising from 5.9 per cent in 2006 to 7.8 per cent during 2006-2011.
Cases of domestic violence against women by their husbands and other relatives comprised over 43 per cent of all crimes against women in 2011. Domestic violence also accelerated, with the annual rate rising from 8.25 per cent in 2006 to 11.41 per cent between 2006-2011 despite a landmark legislation in 2006 declaring “wife-beating” a crime (National Crime Bureau Report).
Much of the violence is also rooted in dowry issues — women are beaten, threatened, burned and even killed to extract gifts of money, jewellery and consumer durables (e.g. a television set, fridge) from their families.
Such cruelty is not confined to cases around dowry, however. ‘Punishment’ for negligence of domestic duties, poorly prepared food and going out alone without permission -- a sign of independence -- are often dealt with just as cruelly.
FORMS OF VIOLENCE
The highest incidence of violence was associated with going out alone without permission (about 39 per cent), followed by violence over neglect of household duties (about 35 per cent), punishment over badly cooked meals (about 29.50 per cent), and dowry-related (about 29 per cent).
Dowry-related violence was highest in Bangalore (48.55 per cent), followed by Chennai (about 33.50 per cent) and lowest in Delhi (about 18 per cent).
Violence associated with neglect of household duties follows a slightly different pattern, with the highest incidence in Chennai (53 per cent), followed by Bangalore (over 47 per cent) and lowest in Delhi (about 11 per cent).
While Bangalore overtakes Chennai in violence associated with bad cooking (about 47 per cent and over 35 per cent, respectively), Delhi exhibits the lowest incidence (6.20 per cent).
[Vani S. Kulkarni is a research associate, Department of Sociology, Yale University; Manoj K. Pandey, a doctoral candidate in Economics, Australian National University, and Raghav Gaiha, a visiting scientist, Department of Global Health and Population, Harvard School of Public Health.]
[Courtesy: The Hindu newspaper. Edited for sikhchic.com]
May 22, 2013
Conversation about this article
1: Gurpal (United Kingdom), May 22, 2013, 12:42 PM.
And I thought the South-Indians were soft and the Northerners (Delhi-ites) were aggressive!