It is well known that India’s record of violence against women is dismal but the bigger shock is the revelation that incidents of such violence are consistently rising. According to a report by the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM), the rate of increase in violence against women in 2007 was over 12 per cent as compared to the previous year. The most depressing part of the report is that the number of rape cases has increased ten fold in the past four and a half decades.

Based on country data available, up to 70 percent of women experience physical or sexual violence from men in their lifetime — the majority from husbands, intimate partners or someone they know. Among women aged 15–44, acts of violence cause more death and disability than cancer, malaria, traffic accidents and war combined. Perhaps the most pervasive human rights violation that we know today, violence against women devastates lives, fractures communities, and stalls development. It takes many forms and occurs in many places — domestic violence in the home, sexual abuse of girls in schools, sexual harassment at work, rape by husbands or strangers, in refugee camps or as a tactic of war.

Marking the 10th anniversary of the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has called for increased action to deal with the global pandemic of violence against women and girls. On 6 November 2009, United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM) launched the global advocacy initiative Say NO – UNiTE to end violence against women, which will stimulate, count and showcase actions on ending violence against women. The innovative platform will spotlight global efforts and demonstrate the groundswell of support and actions on the issue.    In India, a survey showed that for each incidence of violence, women lost an average of 7 working days. Violence against women and girls is a problem of pandemic proportions. According to the latest National Crime Records Bureau 2007, a total of 1,85,312 incidents of crime against women (both under Indian Penal Code-IPC and Special and Local Laws-SLL) were reported in the country during 2007 as compared to 1,64,765 during 2006, thus recording an increase of 12.5% during 2007. The number of rape cases has increased by nearly ten folds from 2,487 in 1953 to 20,737 in 2007. 

Femicide – the murder of women because they are women

• In the United States, one-third of women murdered each year are killed by intimate partners.

• In South Africa, a woman is killed every 6 hours by an intimate partner.

• In India, 22 women were killed each day in dowry-related murders in 2007.

• In Guatemala, two women are murdered, on average, each day.

Trafficking

• Women and girls constitute 80 percent of the estimated 800,000 people trafficked annually, with the majority (79 percent) trafficked for sexual exploitation.

Harmful practices

• Approximately 100 to 140 million girls and women in the world have experienced female genital mutilation/cutting, with more than 3 million girls in Africa annually at risk of the practice.

• More than 60 million girls worldwide are child brides, married before the age of 18, primarily in South Asia (31.1 million) and sub-Saharan Africa (14.1 million).

Sexual violence against women and girls

• An estimated 150 million girls under 18 suffered some form of sexual violence in 2002 alone.

• As many as 1 in 4 women experience physical and/or sexual violence during pregnancy, which increases the likelihood of having a miscarriage, stillbirth and abortion. Up to 53 percent of women physically abused by their intimate partners are being kicked or punched in the abdomen.

• In São Paulo, Brazil, a woman is assaulted every 15 seconds.

• In Ecuador, adolescent girls reporting sexual violence in school identified teachers as the perpetrators in 37 percent of cases.

Rape as a method of warfare

• Approximately 250,000 to 500,000 women and girls were raped in the 1994 Rwandan genocide.

• In eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, at least 200,000 cases of sexual violence, mostly involving women and girls, have been documented since 1996, though the actual numbers are considered to be much higher.

Cost of violence against women

• Domestic violence alone cost approximately US$1.16 billion in Canada and US$5.8 billion in the United States. In Australia, violence against women and children costs an estimated US$11.38 billion per year.

Sexual harassment

• Between 40 and 50 percent of women in European Union countries experience unwanted sexual advancements, physical contact or other forms of sexual harassment at their workplace.

• In the United States, 83 percent of girls aged 12–16 experienced some form of sexual harassment in public schools.

Further readings

http://www.unifem.org/campaigns/sayno/docs/SayNOunite_FactSheet_VAWworldwide.pdf

http://www.un.org/en/women/endviolence/network.shtml

http://www.unifem.org/campaigns/sayno/

http://www.un.org/Depts/dhl/violence/

National Crime Records Bureau 2007,

http://ncrb.nic.in/cii2007/cii-2007/FIGURES_2007.pdf

National Crime Records Bureau 2007, http://ncrb.nic.in/cii2007/cii-2007/CHAP5.pdf

Violence Against Women Fachtsheet # 239, World Health Organization (WHO),
Available at www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs239/en/index.html