Stop This War

It’s shameful that violence against women, particularly within the home, is a burning issue even now.

- Kamla Bhasin

ACCORDING TO THE World Health Organization, one out of every three women in the world is subjected to violence. This means over a billion women and girls suffer violence even after almost 70 years of the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Violence against women is the biggest war in the world.

Domestic violence, of course, is the most painful of them all because you are being violated by those who are meant to love, cherish and protect you. This is revealing because it lifts the veil on the ugly side of families, the most revered of institutions, which socializes us and instills values in us. In order to be safe, women are advised not to go out, but the reality is that the family is the most dangerous place for women and girls. In India, 30 to 50 per cent women experience violence at the hands of the men they are married to; this is where sex-selective abortions of girls are planned by son-loving families and greedy clinics, before they can be born, leading to ever declining sex ratios. Various studies estimate that 40–65 million women and girls are “missing” in India because of neglect, violence, abuse, sex-selective abortions, all of which take place within our families. The maximum number of sex-selective abortions take place among the economically better off states, such as Punjab, Haryana, Delhi, Gujarat and Maharashtra, in educated middle class families.

The main reason for this is the existence of the social system called patriarchy where men are defined as superior to women and given more control over resources, decision making and ideology. It is supported by most religions. In popular understanding, God is male. If God is He, then automatically he (man) is God.

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