A prospective study to find the prevalence of domestic violence against married females of rural India

INTRODUCTION

Starting from Vedic age to twenty first century, women have never been given equal freedom as of males. The concept of ‘Ardhangini’ (half of the body) is between the words in literature. In addition to this, extracts from Ramcharitamanas of Tulsidas like ‘Dhol, Gauwnaar, Shudra, PashuaurNari; SakalTadan ka Adhikari’ (drums, uncivilized illiterates, lower castes, animals and women are all fit to be beaten). In short, it is always the women who have to be on the tight rope, subject to inequality and looked down as an inferior sex. From cradle to grave she has to be under the control of father or husband or the son.¹

The Indian “protection of women from domestic violence act, 2005” says that any act, omission or commission that harms or injures or has the potential to harm or injure will be considered domestic violence by the law. Even a single act of omission or commission may constitute domestic violence in other words; women do not have to suffer a prolonged period of abuse before taking recourse to law. The law covers children also. Domestic violence is perpetrated by, and on, both men and women.^2,3

The definition states that domestic violence “can happen to anyone regardless of race, age, sexual orientation, religion, or gender”, and can take many forms, including physical abuse, sexual abuse, and emotional, economic and psychological abuse.⁴

Aim and objective:

The aim and objective of the study was to find the prevalence of domestic violence.

METHODS

A cross sectional study was carried out and among four subcentres from the primary health care under the filed practice area of Ayaan Medical College, Hyderabad, one subcentre was selected by simple random sampling. From this subcentre one village was selected by lottery method and the study was conducted in Kanakamamidi village for a period of 1 year i.e. from September 2018 to September 2019.

Systematic random sampling method was used to select the house to be included in the study. Every 2nd house was interviewed. Simple random sampling was used to select an individual for the study among eligible family members.

Inclusion criteria

Married female and willing to participate were included in this study.

Exclusion criteria

Exclusion criteria were unmarried female.

Ethical clearance was taken from college and informed consent was taken from the participant in the language she understands. Thus total 776 married females were studied. Prior a pilot study was carried out among 25 married class IV female workers. A predesigned and pretested questionnaire was used and data was collected by conducting personal face to face interview and all the confidentiality was maintained. standard questions related to socio demographic factors, environmental conditions, addiction among family members, family size and so on, were interviewed in details. Statistical analysis was done using SPSS 21 software.

Operational definition

Domestic violence: It is defined as any act of violence of physical, sexual, emotional or social violence against a person within or beyond the confines of home.⁵

Definition of injury: Any harm whatever illegally caused to any person in body, mind, reputation or property (as per section 44 of IPC).⁵

RESULTS

Average age of the respondents was 28.13±11.68 years, range 18 to 56 years.

Figure 1 shows age distribution, it was seen majority 72.55% females were in age group of 16 to 30 years.

Table 1 shows respondents education were, overall 96% respondents were literate

Majority number of respondents were housewives i.e. 58.37%, while 31.18% doing job, 4.51% working as farmer, 3.22% brick kiln worker, 2.44% worked as maid and only 0.25% respondents were working as tailor.

Figure 2 shows income per month of females were majority 58.37% had no income.

Figure 3 shows respondents those gave dowry or bride in marriage, were majority 84.14% had given it.

Table 2 shows that majority 97.93% females had dispute at the time of marriage

Figure 4 shows that all females suffered from emotional violence followed by 79.12% had physical violence and 35.56% had sexual violence.

Table 3 shows that majority 64.04% females had no knowledge about domestic violence act.

DISCUSSION

Mean age in present study was 28.13±11.68 ranging from 18 to 56 years and majority 72.55% being in age group of 16 to 30 years, whereas in study by Foo et al rural study found 35.6% female victims fall in the age group 21-30 yrs.⁶ Similar findings were seen by Dave et al.⁷ Bott et al, Jejeebhoy et al did a Global review and found that domestic violence is associated with lack of education.^8,9 The study by Dalal et al demonstrated that economic empowerment; along with higher education was an effective protection for domestic violence.¹⁰ Educated households are less likely to experience stress due to poverty. As 96% respondents were educated, out of them 58% were housewife, it means that respondents had had no permission to work. Gelles (Rhode Island) also identified unemployment and poverty as predictors of domestic violence.¹¹ The study by Sinha et al observed higher per capita income, presence of social support and property to be protective against domestic violence.¹² Women in rural areas are more likely to report dowry demand than women in urban areas (57 and 33 percent respectively). A similar pattern is reported for new demands for dowry that 37 percent women in rural areas as compared to 11 percent women in urban areas reported new dowry demands raised after marriage.¹³ A study by WHO showed that the proportion of women who ever suffered physical violence by male partner ranged from 13% in Japan to 61% in provincial Peru. Japan also had the lowest level of sexual violence at 6%, with the highest figure of 59% being reported in Ethiopia.¹⁴ In a study conducted in Kerala by Saradamoni, the prevalence of lifetime physical and psychological violence was found to be 35.7% and 64.9% respectively.¹⁵

CONCLUSION

Various sociodemographic factors like age of the women, education of women and perpetrator, age at marriage of women, and the socio-economic status shows inverse relationship with occurrence of domestic violence. More economic empowerment, along with higher education, may provide women with the ground of awareness protesting platform and consultative machinery eventually promoting the protective factors against domestic violence. Formation of acts does not make any difference; they must reach to the needful. For this strengthening of the peripheral educational centers is very necessary.

Funding: No funding sources

Conflict of interest: None declared

Ethical approval: The study was approved by the Institutional Ethics Committee

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