charukesi September 11th, 2004
Today’s discovery is vichaar.org : thought-provoking insights on India (although I must admit that I found it strange that the writer rather than the reader thought so - but then to each his own). With categories politics, terrorism, economy, security, IndoPak relations and more - this is sure one interesting blog. (A blog discovery a day - is just too much to hope for… Once every so often keeps me happy).
Some shocking revelations on - Domestic violence *increases* with education (link thru womensenew.org). Discussing a study on domestic violence in India (among other countries), the article says that the study found a woman’s risk of being beaten, kicked or hit rose along with her level of education. This finding is accompanied by an intelligent warning not to use this data to push aside any existing thrust on women’s education in India. More disturbing facts and figures are quoted in the report.
….. researchers found that the highest rates of sexual violence were among highly educated men. Thirty-two percent of men with zero years of education and 42 percent men with one-to-five years of education reported sexual violence. Among men with six-to-10 years of education–as well as those with high-school education and higher–this figure increased to 57 percent. (I assume this finding means that the women reported on their men and not that the men themselves admitted to sexual violence).
A similar pattern was seen when the problem was analyzed according to income and socioeconomic standing. Those at the lowest rungs of the socio-economic ladder–migrant labor, cobblers, carpenters, and barbers–showed a sexual violence rate of 35 percent. The rate almost doubled to 61 percent among the highest income groups.
Researchers have not determined why men with higher incomes and educations are more likely to be violent towards women.
Trying to shake off the feeling of horror that clings to me, I am trying to think about this. Studies across the world, including in countries like the US have shown similar trends.
Does it intuitively make sense to you that men tend to get more violent / abusive towards their wives as their education / income level increases? Of course, it could be possible - the man’s need to be “the man of the house” and to “show the woman her place” might increase as his own self image gets more and more enhanced. But it not an explanation I am entirely comfortable with.
Could it possibly be that the incidence of reported violence / abuse increases as the woman’s education level increases (assuming more educated men marry correspondingly more educated women, as a rule) or among higher income / high socioeconomic classes?
What I mean is : it might not be necessarily more violence itslef but more likelihood and incidence of violence being reported and documented.
Turning cause-effect relationship on its head.
(Not to undermine the trauma of such victims in any way, but just to suggest that research findings need not and must not always been taken at face value. When there is no obvious explanation, look at it from other angles - which most but the best researchers fail to do)
And if this is true, then there is a stronger need for such social monitoring, for sensitivity among the law makers and the ‘protectors’, and better support systems for victims - to enable them to come out of this hell and report it - and then pick up pieces of their lives and move on.
For however educated the woman is, whatever her income and social status, she is reluctant to come out and report such violence - especially sexual violence. Apart from concerns about societal pressures and the future of her children, there is a much deeper barrier holding her back - of battered self respect.
The Indian Government’s Domestic Violence Bill was panned for its entirely subjective and insensitive understanding of the issue . For instance, I quote, the Bill defines domestic violence as conduct whereby the abuser ‘habitually assaults’ the person aggrieved or makes her life ‘miserable’ by his conduct. Why does the assault need to be ‘habitual’ for it to amount to domestic violence? What does one mean by making the life of a person ‘miserable’? Lobbyists have raised enough stink to get the bill reconsidered by the parliamentary working committee - but so far, nothing seems to have come out of it…..
