Absolutely no! It’s an irony being a woman in Orissa. They are in danger in the place where they should be safest. For them, ‘Home’ means a regime of terror and violence. Their fundamental rights are oppressed and severally violated in their families. We no need to speak about their social status.
According to National Family Health Survey (NFHS-3), 34 percent of women in Orissa experience physical violence, 20 percent suffer from emotional violence and 15 percent face sexual harassment.
Only one per cent women had ever initiated violence against their husband in the State. On the other hand the men were carrying out different types of violence against their spouses, physical violence being the most common form of torture.
As far as spousal violence was concerned, the State is positioned at the 11th place with 38 per cent of women saying that they had experience of violence from their husband.
What are factors responsible for domestic violence in Orissa?
No singular factor can be attributed for the increasing domestic violence in Orissa. There are several factors, which I feel can be summarized as below.
Cultural:
- Gender-specific socialization
- Belief in the inherent superiority of males
- Values that give men proprietary rights over women and girls
- Customs of marriage (bride price/dowry)
Economic:
- Women’s economic dependence on men
- Limited access to cash and credit
- Discriminatory laws regarding inheritance, property rights
- Limited access to employment in formal and informal sectors
- Limited access to education and training for women
Legal:
- Lesser legal status of women either by written law and/or by practice
- Laws regarding divorce, child custody, maintenance and inheritance
- Low levels of legal literacy among women
- Insensitive treatment of women and girls by police and judiciary
Political:
- Under-representation of women in power, politics, the media and in the legal and medical professions
- Notions of family being private and beyond control of the state
- Limited organization of women as a political force
- Limited participation of women in organized political system
4 comments:
It is very difficult to say 'Yes' or 'No' about the safety of women in Odisa.In retrospect, women are not safe at all in any part of the world. It is a very relative term, in compare to places. For example, we can say mumbai is safer than other metros and Bhubaneswar is most unsafe capital but Cuttack is far better place as far as safety of women goes. Many factors responsible for this,like too much ignorant & too smart, circumstance, timing are some macro points. There are innumberable micro reasons contribute to our own safety net.Interpersonal relationships, the way you carry yourself & move in your circle.e.t.c. in general,every women should try her best to guard, protect herself taking into consideration everything in her mind. Keep some thum rules in rigid manner.
Dear Giri,
Thank you very much for your frank comment. You are right women are not safe at all in any part of the world. Various reports confirm this.
Crimes against women are committed with impunity. A numerous causes are responsible. So far India is concerned; the government has framed so many women specific laws. But the irony is that most of the women are unaware about the rules meant for them. Therefore it is high time to aware the women about the laws.
Government's women specific rules comes to our rescue only when a woemen get victimised. But what I want to specify that we take utmost care (humanly possible) to prvent & the possibilties are in our hand which we can judge from our experience, ambience plus the level of maturity to handle a situation. However every single women irrespective of literate or illiterate should aware of rules of the GAME. But how we can make it feasible Bhagaban Babu????
Dear Giri,
Thank you very much for your comment. You put a tough question.
I do agree that the feasibility is very difficult, but not impossible. We should lead nationwide campaign in this regard as we did in other fronts like Polio eradication, Sarva Sikhya Avhiyan etc.
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