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How India should change norms to tackle partner violence and bias against girl child

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A new study titled Masculinity, Intimate Partner Violence and Son Preference in India published on Monday by the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) and Washington-based International Centre for Research on Women (ICRW) shed light on the high prevalence of intimate partner violence and son preference in India. 

The study found six out of 10 men in India have acted violently against their wives or partners at some point of time.  One of the authors of the study Priya Nanda, Group Director – Social & Economic Development Group of the International Centre for Research on Women, says the study found “a dramatic influence of childhood experiences and observation of gender discrimination on both men's behaviour and women's tolerance of violence”.

However Nanda says this issue is a pandemic and prevalent across countries, cultures and class. “The fact is that the environment and the factors and conditions leading to this (partner violence) exist in our ecosystem everywhere. For some (countries) the figures maybe more and some the figures maybe less but that doesn’t mean it isn’t there,” Nanda said. “Now there might be certain indicators of masculinity and violence which is higher in India compared to other countries but I think across the board experiences of violence are very similar,” she added.

Nanda said WHO conducted a Multi Country Study on Gender Based Violence and found 1 in 3 women experienced partner violence in their life. “Intimate partner violence is complex—the male equation of control and dominance in relationships due to societal expectations of a certain kind of masculine behaviour, men's own attitudes towards gender equality and the privilege that is taken for granted has a counterpart in how women internalise norms and accept or tolerate certain kinds of male dominance,” said Nanda.

In the study Masculinity, Intimate Partner Violence and Son Preference in India found the root cause in such violence stemmed from childhood. “Some of the factors determinant for us that comes out fairly strikingly,  is experiences of discrimination and observation of discrimination in their childhood. So men who as boys have experienced or seen discrimination either towards themselves or towards their mothers or sisters in their childhood are more likely to perpetrate violence as adults,” said Nanda.

The socialisation and normalisation of certain kinds of roles and expectations between men and women is one of the reasons why partner violence is so prevalent globally. “The reason men and women normalise it, because this is watched behaviour. You observe this behaviour from the time you're a child so it like the intergenerational cycle of violence that keeps perpetuating because what you observe is what you perpetuate and that is what we’re finding in the study,” said Nanda.

It is important to understand that violence comes in all aspects i.e economic,emotional, physical psychological and social. “I think when you start defining these types of violence and you ask a woman whether she is facing emotional violence or psychological violence, it (partner violence) will be even more prevalent in many women,” said Nanda.

More awareness on gender equality needs to be conditioned and trained in young girls and boys to respect and value women. “What you observe in your childhood and how those patterns can be re-learnt has to be systematic attempts to re-learn this pattern cause otherwise it (progress) won't happen, I think it’s critical both for men and women we have to re-insert new norms and new values around gender equality from very early childhood and all kinds of institutions where boys and girls have exposure to each other and to these norms,” said Nanda.

While laws need to be put in place to protect women, they also need to learn to value themselves first and foremost. “There need to be supportive laws and services for women in order for them to have this confidence and sense of entitlement,” said Nanda “Irrespective of that it is important that women learn to respect themselves their bodies and understand their own rights and entitlements, have the confidence to say no and negotiate with their partners for equal spaces and rights in their relationships,” she added.

Another important change to make, is bringing to light female to reinforce their value and worth. According to Nanda, creating a language of respect for girls is equally important along with bringing in examples of successful girls and their achievements. The fact is there are many girls who are going to school excelling, who are aspiring and we need to create that positive narrative for girls as well because that message goes back in society. And it reinforces the attitudes against daughters. We must create a positive alternative narrative which is missing right now in our public discourse around girls,” she said.

Awareness about gender equality needs to start from an early age in order to decrease the number of partner violence. “Schools are a place we feel its very important to ensure curricular that reinforces messages of gender equality for boys and its equally important that girls learn to respect themselves and not tolerate violence as much as boys learn to respect girls and not perpetuate violence so both sides have to happen,” said Nanda. “We need to create an environment of a certain kind in educational institutions really having much more reflective learning conversations around on gender inequality in schools in colleges and having a curriculum agenda,” she said.

Repeating positive behaviour needs to be initiated to tackle the problem. “By demonstrating in an everyday pattern you have to break the message everyday consistently and it has to be changed through your everyday messaging even your ecosystem. If only everybody behaves that way and if only everybody changes and makes certain attempts to change the system attitude and behavioural ecosystem that the way the change will happen,” said Nanda.

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