Gender Inequalities and Gender Based Violence: Shadow Pandemic

Introspective Note of an Indian Feminist

Dr. Sanghamitra Dhar 

GENDER DISCUSSION BRINGS CHEERS OR JEERS

In our contemporary
social media-driven world, opinions are formed and vehemently spread at the
click of the mouse and a chirpy tweet – often unreasonable, judgmental, and
biased but always exhibiting power play! It is biased because often it is
circulation of unverified, unreliable, vested information. This has created a
vacuum in the rational health of a logical society. 

In such an
intellectually bereft environment, the chasm is even more profound when the topic
is on gender inequality of women and girls as it brings either intense
cheers or jeers. It is considered “…unnecessary now as the
twenty-first century is women’s and they have the maximum access to resources
and services that they ever had!”  “…many of the laws for the protection
and safety of women is misused to make the life of the men/husband/partner/male
colleague a living hell, just look up the data on the no. of false cases
registered against the hapless husband and his innocent family members”; “women
are getting more benefits in the corporate world by playing their charming
card or the vulnerable card, either way, they are the winner…” [i]
are some of the oft-contention from educated, urbane men and sometimes
women too.  

There is no denying, we have instances of women misusing the laws for
their vested and corrupt interests which requires urgent and immediate
restraining[1]. Men who face the brunt in
such cases are equally vulnerable and require urgent assistance and support
without a doubt. It is reported that 80% of dowry cases in India end in
acquittal[2]
however, here one has to remember the criticality of unavailability or lack
of proof for quashing of these cases as well[3].
Additionally, extensive research for the so-called data has been a futile
exercise as none of the reliable, scientific sources of information[ii]
have any data whatsoever on the status of harassment of men at home or
workplace, which implies reporting
on the same requires to be urgently remedied.

Let me
reiterate a fundamental fact here – gender inequality is a discourse about the
inequities faced by all gender, which can be either woman, man, or transgenders
of the world. However, gender inequality recognises that women,
and by extension transgenders and others are not equal to the men and indeed
gender impacts each person’s lived experiences. The differences arise from
divisions in the biological, psychological, and sociological/cultural norms. It
is also differently experienced according to the culture one comes from. The fight for women’s right is NOT AGAINST men’s right but
IT IS AGAINST the patriarchal and archaic mindset that believes women are
lesser human and need to be controlled and dominated.  

Gender
equality in current times is primarily addressing the issues of the women as
most of the reported inequalities are faced by the women, nationally as well as
globally. While inequality faced by the transgender community is also immense
and mostly invisible and undocumented nonetheless it is gradually coming to the
forefront which is much needed and applaudable.

The fight for women’s right is NOT AGAINST men’s right but IT IS AGAINST the patriarchal and archaic mindset that believes women are lesser human and need to be subjugated!

At the onset, as a feminist, let me put certain
basic key factors on the table:

1. Gender-based violence (GBV) is a wide term because the word ‘gender’ encompasses female, male, transgenders, and others. So, we need to specify and/or provide an operational definition of whom we are focusing on in discussion and presupposing it is only women is erroneous. 2. Be mindful of the enormity in nature and forms of GBV that exist. GBV against women is a pre-existing inequality which means violence against women is a pandemic going on since generations now, both nationally and internationally. The latest NFHS-4 data (2018-2019, India) reflects some astounding facts about the Indian situation – 30% of women have experienced physical violence since the age of 15 and 6% percent have experienced sexual violence in their lifetime. Intimate partner violence (IPV), more particularly 33% of the ever-married women were found to have faced some form of violence; notably instances of different variations of violence is enumerated and Physical violence stood at 30%, 14% of the women had faced emotional violence, and 7% had experienced sexual violence. Alarmingly, it is seen that only 14% of them have ever sought help to stop the violence. 3. GBV has geographical, religious, often racial and/or caste-based connotations. Case in point – the issue of female foeticide and infanticide, its rampant in some regions of India, cuts across religious borders and caste barriers yet in another part of the same country its completely non-existent, Rajasthan versus Nagaland. It does not mean Nagaland does have other forms of GBV against women, it definitely does, but female foeticide and infanticide is not there at all. 3. GBV has a social, political, economic, physical, and mental health connotations and it truly requires mitigation plans which are comprehensive, inter-disciplinary and multi-disciplinary in nature. For example: a programme that is focusing on the livelihood issues of women has to keep in mind and address all other factors too, in order for realising the goal of empowerment that will be sustainable and equitable. Case in point: We know there are numerous instances of affluent working women facing Intimate Partner Violence (IPV) on a regular basis in many parts of the world, which clearly indicates that economic independence alone cannot address IPV and GBV because empowerment of the survivor/victim is fundamental. An overhaul of the cultural and social norms is at the core of the problem.

GENDER-based violence against
women is a Shadow Pandemic – India and global 

Globally it
is a fact that 1 in every 3 women has experienced either physical/sexual
intimate partner violence or non-partner sexual violence[4]
in their lifetime. To nail it up for you – just look around your
surroundings while you are reading this article, if you see 3 women there, know
this for a fact that at least 1 of them has experienced violence against
her in her lifetime!

Since the
COVID-19 pandemic and the ensuing national lockdowns to arrest the virus
spread, the floodgates seem to be wide open in the incidences of violence
against women and girls[iii],
most particularly in the intimate partner violence  (IPV) – married or live-in couples, which has
found innumerable reporting, both nationally and globally, through different
mediums of information.  

WHO[iv]
cautions during conflicts, after-conflict and displacement, existing violence
is intensified in intimate partners, as well as non-partners, and often leads
to newer forms of violence against women[5].
Case in point, the current COVID-19 ridden world scenario wherein families are
living indoors, in isolation, in close quarters away from other people. The
incidences of IPV is aggravated as observed from the worldwide helpline numbers
getting ever-increasing reports of the same[6],
in France alone 30% jump in such incidences are reflected in a matter of couple
of weeks as the lockdown there was from 11 March[7].
Incidentally, France is among the highest rankers in cases of DV across Europe.
Their official data is disconcerting – 1 woman is killed by a partner or former
partner every 3 days![8]
In Australia, on an average, 1 woman is murdered by her current or former
partner every week[9]. Such occurrences and rise
in incidences and reporting is present across the continents.

In India as
well we are observing ever-rising numbers of reporting, during this lockdown
which is now more than 3-month long[v]
[10],
already 1428 [11] [12]
[13]
online complaints of IPV and DV have been reported at the National Commission
for Women[14] until April- May, some
state government bodies are also campaigning for reporting any cases of
violence against women and raising awareness about their support to the victims
at all times[15]. For a quick comparison
on the steep rise of cases, we observe out of the total cases received by NCW
in the January- March quarter, 20.6% cases were of DV and in just two month
,i.e. April had a 51.45% case, while May data reflects 45.07% cases of DV which
is an exponential jump of double its normal instances of reporting[16].

Some
preliminary derivations[vi]
from the nature of the e-complaints is further highlighted in the box below[17]:

• The complainants are educated 
• They have some level of understanding about digital information and access to internet and email
• May hail from an affluent and middle class section of the society
• Are unable to access the telephone helpline due to lack of privacy and restricted mobility as confined with perpetrator
• The IPV incidences of the weaker sections are yet to surface as currently they are struggling to achieve basic/physiological needs of food and shelter

A
deepened understanding on some of the different forms of violence against
women, in India as well as in many other countries, can be observed from a
lifecycle perspective, wherein it is observed that the struggle begins from its
conception and her mere chance for survival in the form of female foeticide and
infanticide, moving on to female mutilation of genitals for ensuring purity,
child marriages, incest, rape, kidnapping and abduction, dowry deaths, assault
on women with intent to outrage her modesty, sexual harassment, voyeurism,
stalking, insult to the modesty of women, intimate partner violence, forced
prostitution and pornography, sexual harassment at the workplace, cyber-crime
and harassment in social media are some of the rampant forms of VAWG incidences
and practices world over.

Therefore, the
nature and different forms of gender inequality and violence against women and
girls is indeed a shadow pandemic[vii]
which is silently, systematically, and adversely affecting hundreds of
thousands of women as they are getting scarred, maimed, killed every day across
the globe irrespective of the region, class, religion and clearly for their
biological identity! The patriarchal hegemony of gender bias/injustice has to
be called out and addressed at every stage in a girls and women’s life in order
for building a truly equitable and fair society of gender equality.

Undoubtedly, 21^st
Century has evidenced more women accessing resources and services than the
previous periods, however the struggle and fight to a truly GENDER EQUAL WORLD is
far from achieved. And every time a person speaks of the supposed
non-existent  gender inequality scenario, know this for a fact – it is
unmistakeably coming from priviledge alone, not so much from ignorance!