Cruelty Inside House;
For the so called better half of the humanity, life inside the house may be agonising or taut. The women are not vulnerable outside in the darkness, but in the light of their own marital abodes. In spite of this torment being ubiquitous, this situation hardly draws any attention of our politicians or noisy media. Tortured women are left to their own fate or at the most given only untrue consolation. A few occasional anecdotal coverage in media fails to shake the conscience of mankind. Today, I was appalled by a news item from Jharkhand where a Muslim woman was murdered by all members of the family of in-laws with unimaginable brutality for a paltry amount of dowry. In my long career in police I never came across such case.
Recent report of National Family Health Survey-5 (2019–21) is hardly an eye opener but it only re-confirms what is already known to most of the social observers. National Family Health Survey is a country-wide survey conducted by Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India, with the International Institute for Population Sciences serving as the nodal agency.
The survey found that 30% of women aged 18–49 years had experienced physical violence and 6% had suffered sexual violence in their life. That is almost one third of women are facing physical violence and many more are threatened with it. The persecution of women has gone to such a degree that 77% victims of domestic violence do not seek any remedy for it or even talk about it with anyone. They suffer in silence blaming their stars.
In the police department I had focused on this problem and in my earlier write up I have described about my experiences in Indore. I tried with all the resources at my disposal to fight against this problem of domestic violence by encouraging women to come to family counselling centres. I motivated the tortured women to come out and report but I know that my best intentions only touched the tip of the iceberg.
The survey has further analysed the 30% women who suffered domestic violence. Out of these victims only 14% actually sought any relief. Out of this meagre 14% some 58% sought help from their parental house and another 27% from there in-laws and 18% from friends. Hardly 9% of them went to the police.
As I mentioned above, 30% of all married women have become victims of domestic violence. Out of these victims nearly one fourth got physical injuries and 7% of them had grievous hurts. Of course, there is no computation of the mental harassment of the victims. Even apart from these 30% known victims, there are women who are put to sarcastic remarks and other forms of subtle mental torture. Herculean efforts are required to alleviate this situation, even marginally.
Culturally things have deteriorated to such a level where 45% women and 44% men believe that the husband is justified in beating the wife in several circumstances. I am aware that this is not an Indian problem only, but the malaise is global. Very concerted efforts on the part of sociologists, doctors, psychologists, police administrators, social workers, educationists, politicians and media are required. Presently there seems to be no such inclination. We will keep getting such horrific statistics survey after survey.
