Muristek
Aditi Tandon
New Delhi, April 23
The burden of domestic violence against women has grown multifold in the last nearly two decades with the rate of conviction for the crime remaining abysmally low.
Prevalence higher in South Asia
The World Health Organisation estimates a 26 per cent prevalence of intimate partner violence in ever-married/ partnered women aged 15 years or more globally in 2018This prevalence is higher at 35 per cent for the southern Asia region in which India fallsThe largest longitudinal study of the National Crimes Record Bureau's domestic violence data reveals 'cruelty by husbands and relatives' making up bulk of cases.
The rate of reported cases of 'cruelty by husbands and relatives' marked an increase of 53 per cent between 2001 and 2018, with the middle socio-demographic index (SDI) states bearing the highest burden. "A total of 15,48,548 cases were reported under 'cruelty by husband or his relatives' from 2001 to 2018, with 5, 54,481 (35.8%) between 2014 and 2018 alone.
"The reported rate of the crime in India was 18.5 in 2001 and 28.3 in 2018 per 1,00,000 women aged 15-49 years, marking a significant increase of 53 per cent over this period," finds the study published in BMC Health, an open access peer reviewed journal on health services.
The study seeks to gauge India's preparedness to meet the UN Sustainable Development Goal 5 of elimination of all forms of violence against women and girls.
Author Rakhi Dandona of the Public Health Foundation of India said the rate of crime involving cruelty by husbands was 37.9 for the middle SDI states as compared with 27.6 in the low and 18.1in the high-SDI states in 2018. The rate of reported crime (cruelty by husbands) remained higher in the middle SDI states between 2001 and 2018 as compared to other states, reaching highest levels between 2011 and 2014. The study documents wide variations in the rate for reported cruelty by husband or his relatives in 2018 at the state-level — ranging from 0.5 in Sikkim to 113.7 in Assam.
Delhi, Assam, West Bengal, Arunachal Pradesh, Meghalaya and Jamp;K documented over 160 per cent increase in this reported crime rate during 2001ndash;2018. The greatest decline in the rate of this reported crime was seen in Mizoram, which is 74.3 per cent from 2001 to 2018.
Only Assam and Rajasthan among the low SDI states, Andhra Pradesh and Tripura among the middle SDI states, and Kerala and Delhi among the high SDI states showed increased reporting of this crime over the study period.