Fight gender-based violence at the roots

The recently launched month-long campaign against gender-based violence (GBV), led by Union rural development and agriculture and farmers welfare minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan with support from various government departments, is perhaps the first time a serious whole-of-government approach has been adopted to this persistent problem.

- Lalita Panicker

Violence against women is not just domestic and sexual violence, but also a symptom of the larger oppression of women and gender inequality. It is the result of structural violence—manifested as unequal distribution of resources, opportunities, and decision-making—that gives rise to several forms of violence against women.