CPD-UNFPA Programme on Population and Sustainable Development

Paper 20 (Summary)

Violence Against Women: Marital Violence in Rural Bangladesh
 

M A Mannan

INTRODUCTION
A combination of factors such as lack of government attention, protection of victims, etc. serve to both legitimise and perpetuate marital violence and it also reflects the deep rooted gender inequalities that prevail and persist in Bangladesh. After Papua New Guinea, Bangladesh stands second in the world chart as regards the violence committed against women by men, which testifies to shocking levels of domestic violence in the country. Since very little research has been done on marital violence, this study entitled "Violence Against Women: Marital Violence in Rural Bangladesh" is an attempt to examine the socio demographic characteristics, nature, causes and consequences of marital violence in rural Bangladesh.

OBJECTIVES
The main objectives of the study were to-
· Look into the reason of violence enters into husband-wife relationships
· Formulate an in-depth understanding of the phenomenon of wife abuse
· To gain the insight situation of victim's daily life
· Examine the correlated factors of violence to understand how some women manage to escape

METHODOLOGY
The study is based on both primary and secondary source of information. The primary data was collected from two villages each from Laximpur and Kushtia district. The first phase of the study involved a household survey of currently married women below 50 years of age. The second phase was related to case studies based on in-depth research. The related aspects of surveyed data were a) demographic characteristics i.e.-age, education, age of marriage, number of marriages, and number of children and b) Husband-wife relationship i.e. frequency, reasons and nature of abuse c) the magnitude and the pressure for dowry

FINDINGS

The Magnitude of Violence:
The study found that overall 46 per cent of women respondents were subjected to both physical and psychological violence in their married life and 54 per cent reported verbal abuse by their husbands. In many cases this problem started within a few months of marriage. Educated women are much more subjected to verbal abuse than to physical assault. The widespread occurrence of violence was observed on the wives of agricultural and non-agricultural wage labour's family. Besides these, the incidence of violence in joint family and nuclear family was same.

The Incidence of Wife Beating:
The study reported that wife beating is considered legitimate for the negligence of household duties, disobedience to husband etc. Better-educated women experience wife beating to a smaller extent compared to wives with minimum education. The study also found that age was not a barrier to violence committed against women.

Common Situations Evoking Violence: The study found that mistakes in running the household, disobedience to the husband's order, failing to meet husband's expectations, failure to bring sufficient dowry on the part of the wife, asking husbands for money, affairs with someone else and poverty are the predominant reasons for violence.

Justifying Wife Beating: Violence against women is considered as an accepted form of behaviour, as a women's due and a husband's right. The general impression is that women who misbehave deserve an adequate lesson. Majority of the women who went to their parental home after a serious altercation did not tell their parents or brothers the real reason of their visit because of the parent's poor economic condition, social tradition and unwillingness to depend on married brothers. They allowed their anger or hurt to cool off for a few days and returned to their husband's home as if nothing had happened. Thus they justified wife beating.

Type of Physical Assault: Pulling by the hair, hurling objects at wife, beating with a stick, banging head against the wall, hitting in private parts, kicking, pushing, shoving using foul language, blaming parents of the women were found to be the most common assaults. Irrespective of education levels, all women are victims of slapping by husbands. With at least ten years of education, a significantly lower proportion of women suffer other severe forms of physical assault compared to women with lower level of education. Similarly, with husbands having more years of schooling, women are less likely to be subjects of abuse by husbands.
Role of Dowry in Marital Violence: According to the study, about one fourth of the households had to sell property, another fifth had to mortgage property, and about 30 per cent had to borrow money from money lenders to arrange for the dowry money. A wide majority among them belonging to the age group 15-24 years were found to face constant pressure for further dowry. Young wives whose families cannot meet their husband's demands for dowry might be abandoned, divorced, tortured, attacked with acid or even murdered. Dowry is also closely linked with women's role in productive activities. Since women are regarded as an unproductive burden, dowry is given to the bridegroom as compensation. As to the methods of killing women for dowry, 54 per cent was accounted for by beating and 34 per cent by physical torture which add up to a gruesome 88 per cent of deaths by direct physical violence, while the remaining 12 per cent of deaths were caused by use of acids and poison.

Violence in the Conjugal Home: More than 80 per cent of the women live in the rural areas and are usually kept apart from the males. They, along with a number of women in the urban areas are dominated by their counterparts. They do not have power on the decision making process, do not enjoy freedom of choice, and control over power or resources.
Patriarchy in Bangladesh: The study also noted that the girl and boy child within the same family are treated differently. Due to lack of food and inadequate care given to the girl child, the mortality rate for girls below 5 ranges from 35-50 per cent higher than that of boys of the same age group. Infact, the main reason of the inferior position of female members is not religion or the tradition, but patriarchal influence and authority.

POLICIY RECOMENDATION
· Laws regarding minimum age at marriage, dowry issues and inheritances should be strictly enforced.
· Women's awareness about their rights should be increased.
· There should be a legal cell at the village level to give free legal advice to women in distress.
· Offering special sessions of Marriage Counselling should be given active consideration by NGO's and other bodies
· The Government should establish a Violence Against Women Crisis Unit staffed with female doctors and counsellors to give support to the victims for their physical and psychological trauma.
· Women's organizations and human rights activists should launch a vigorous conscientizing campaign.
· Wife battering and wife abuse will have to be given legal recognition as criminal offence.

 

To obtain the full text of this report please contact:

Centre for Policy Dialogue
Dialogue and Communication Division
House No 40/C, Road No 11, Dhanmondi R/A, Dhaka-1209
GPO Box 2129, Dhaka-1000, Bangladesh
Tel: (+880 2) 8124770,9141734,9141703 ; Fax: (+880 2) 8130951
E-mail: cpd@bdonline.com

Price: Tk.100.00 (The price quoted does not include postal charges)
Pages: 66