Combating Gender-Based Violence through a responsive counselling and referral network
Making support systems more responsive and accessible to address gender-based violence can play a significant role in preventing violence against women?
Gender Based Violence (GBV) is a globally pervasive yet largely-invisible human rights violation. It includes physical, sexual, mental or economic harm inflicted on a person because of gender-based power imbalances in the society. According to World Health Organization’s (WHO), almost one in every three women, or approximately 736 million women, have been subjected to intimate partner violence, non-partner sexual violence or both at least once in their lifetime. Violence is prevalent in all spaces women occupy – including digital spaces.
During the pandemic, several reports indicated, a significant increase in domestic violence cases due to loss of income and decreased access to services, disruption of social and protective networks, increasing household workload, drudgery etc. The varied stresses of the COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated gender-based violence (GBV) cases and it continues to wreak havoc silently, though the pandemic is on wane.
Significant evidence and insights, which are India specific, have also been generated from various studies and community interventions during the pandemic.?World Health Partners (WHP), through its comprehensive intervention focussed on addressing gender based violence (GBV), in the states of Delhi, Gujarat and Jharkhand, from June 2021-March 2023. The project supported individuals with GBV issues through counselling and referral, and facilitated linkages with government social security and protection schemes. They were also linked with organisations that provided skill building trainings. Close to 40,000 people were screened and more than 2,500 were found affected with GBV. They were provided counselling and referral services and the project generated significant evidences to understand the prevalence, incidence, impact of gender-based violence and the measures required to address it.
Interestingly, physical violence is not always the dominant form of coercion. In terms of the nature of violence, WHP data showed that 72% GBV survivors faced emotional violence such as belittling, abusive language, and isolation from family, 15% faced economic violence as they were not given access to economic resources such as mobile phones or money for daily expenses, 11% faced physical violence including hitting and kicking and 1% faced sexual violence, including marital rape.
Gender-based violence results in short and long-term consequences, which sometimes are quite devastating. Injuries, unintended pregnancies, sexually transmitted infections as well as anxiety, depression, post-traumatic stress disorder and even self-harm and suicide are some of the impacts of violence that survivors may face.
WHP’s findings presented strong linkages between mental health and gender-based violence, an area that has largely been ignored. More than 75% women, in the project intervention areas, who had faced GBV had some MH issues – 62 % were mild, 27% moderate and 11% had severe mental health issues. These individuals were further linked with specialist services for further care and treatment as they also had strong suicidal tendencies. The linkages, in such cases become even more critical, given the increasing trend of attempted suicide among women, particularly housewives in India. As per the latest National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) data, suicides among housewives, in India, has risen gradually over the last three years from 21,359 in 2019 to 22,374 in 2020 to 23,179 in 2021. Also, the share of housewives in female suicides increased to 51.5% (23,179) in 2021, from 50.3% (22,374) in the previous year.
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A more insightful understanding of the relationship between differing experiences of GBV and mental health will be extremely important to develop effective prevention and response programmes and strategies.
Making support system responsive
It has been found that lack of response from support services like legal cells, police, hospitals, together with lack of financial resources and distance from home, have proved to be major deterrents for aggrieved women in taking up any timely action that could have provided immediate and appropriate relief. Timely, responsive, evidence-based and often low-cost interventions when activated in an integrated manners can help in saving lives. WHP’s intervention shows that even accessibility to a simple tele-counselling services alone can make a lot of difference, as GBV survivors feel supported to overcome the violence they are facing. In addition, ensuring receptive, collaborated and accessible referral pathways like One Stop Centres (OSCs) also called as Sakhi centres is a major requirement to address the issue of gender-based violence and preventing it from becoming a major cause of a life threatening step like a suicidal attempt.
The need of the hour is to create massive community awareness about various government support services as well as introduce the much required systemic reforms to bring about gradual change in the response towards the victims of gender-based violence. Currently, government of India’s ‘Mission Shakti’, with its two sub-schemes - ‘Sambal’ and ‘Samarthya’ are aimed at strengthening interventions for women’s safety, security, and empowerment in a mission mode. However, its success will largely depend in overcoming the lingering challenge of inter-departmental coordination and collaborations. For instance, the Women’s Helpline (WHL) – 181, and OSCs have been designed to operate in an integrated manner, however, no such integration has ever been done. Several states have been running their own distress helpline services like 104 and even these have not been integrated with OSCs. Similarly, necessary linkages between various legal provisions like Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2000 and the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act, 2012 are yet to be worked out. This led to weak enforcement of laws and results in victim's apathy and distrust and avoidance of the system.
Addressing Gender-Based Violence (GBV) requires a comprehensive, survivor-centered response system, based on right to safety, confidentiality, non-discrimination and self-determination for all survivors.?In addition, the strategy must include prevention programming, service delivery, policy integration and community awareness on laws and action plans based on data and research. The health pandemic might be on a downward trajectory but the ‘shadow pandemic’ of GBV continues to thrive and perpetuate, deeply rooted in gender-based discrimination and entrenched social norms.
(Author: Ms. Prachi Shukla, Country Director, World Health Partners)
*The article was originally published in The Pioneer.