hard talk: UNFPA study shows sexual & physical aggravations predominant against Indian women
One in two men in India believes that a woman must endure domestic violence to keep her family together, revealed a study released by the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) on Monday. The study also revealed that while 93.6% of male respondents believed that a woman should obey her husband, 76.9% of the men believed that if a wife or partner does something wrong, a man has the right to punish her.
The study conducted by the UNFPA in collaboration with the International Centre for Research on Women also revealed that 52% of female respondents reported being subjected to some form of violence through their lives, while 60% of men admitted to having committed various acts of violence on women.
The study was conducted with a sample size of 1,500 men and 500 women each from the states of Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Punjab and Haryana, Odisha, Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra. In all, 9,205 men and 3,158 women were covered in the study.
51.1% of the male respondents and 57.3% of the female respondents believed that a woman should tolerate domestic violence to keep her family together. While 93.6% of the men and 91.1% of the women believed that a woman should obey her husband, 76.9% men and 78.7% women felt that if a woman's husband has the right to punish her if she does something wrong.
The study was released at the MenEngage symposium, which aims to look for better participation by men in bringing about gender parity. Of the 52% of women who admitted to being victims of violence, 38% reported to be victims of physical violence, 35% admitted to being emotionally violated while 17% reported sexual violence. Of this, three-fourths of the respondents from Odisha and Uttar Pradesh (75%) admitted to perpetrating varied forms of violence.
With the prevalence of rigid ideas of masculinity, 93% of men felt that 'to be a man, you need to be tough' compared to 85% women. 86.2% men and 74% women believed that the most important role of a woman is to take care of her home and cook for her family. Shockingly, 74.6% of men and 65.1% of the women believed that if a woman does not physically fight back, it is not rape.
Majority of women interviewed (62%) said 'yes' when asked if a man should 'expect wife/partner to agree when they (men) want to have sex' and that the 'husbands/partners don't approve wife/partner suggesting the use of condoms'. 77% women also said that their partners expected them to agree when they wanted sex. 54% of the women also said that if they asked their partners to use a condom, their partners would get angry.
The findings show that childhood experiences of discrimination have a strong bearing on attitudes of masculinity and control. Economic stress was also one of the reasons behind violent behaviour; so was alcohol or substance abuse, poverty, women's power and relationship-conflict. Results showed that education is imperative to end violence by intimate partners.
"It is high time we begin to seriously think how we wish to bring up our boys and also present ourselves as adults to younger ones within the families," said Ravi Verma, regional director of the ICRW (Asia). "It identifies triggers that could enable them to become change agents in addressing gender discrimination," said UNFPA India head, Frederika Meijer.
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