We Need To Take Gender-Based Violence Seriously: Here's Why

Trigger Warning: gender-based violence, violence against women, mentions of bride burning

By Soumya Mathew , Breakthrough India

In March, a study of autopsies conducted jointly by King Edward Memorial hospital (KEM) and the Seth GS Medical College in Mumbai found that about 21 percent of the unnatural deaths of women registered with its forensic department could instead be cases of deaths due to gender-based violence. According to a report by Scroll.in, the study, conducted between May 2017 and April 2022, found that the police did not investigate many of these cases and wrote some of them off as accidents and suicides.?

...survivors of abuse are conditioned to believe that partner abuse is normal or that this is just another expression of their partner’s love.

While the findings of the research are concerning to say the least, it is well indicative of the status quo wherein women in the country continue to be denied safety and dignity by the upholders of patriarchal societal structures. Along with societal norms, critical infrastructure, such as the police, medical care, etc. continue to be complacent in perpetuating gender-based violence by not conducting probes into actual causes of injuries and/or death of women. This predominant pattern, in turn, renders women unsafe within their households and outside, affecting their mental, physical, economical and social well-being.?

Social norms that influence investigations into violence against women

In addition to the police’s lackadaisical approach towards investigating violence against women, it should also be noted that only a handful of cases of GBV gets registered in the first place. This, again, is determined by incumbent societal norms that inform how several households restrict the mobility of women, many of whom are denied access to safe spaces or even mobile phones to vocalise their troubles. Surveillance of their movements by family members, community, and the police further restrict women from accessing assistance in such times. Further, when survivors of abuse are conditioned to believe that partner abuse is normal or that this is just another expression of their partner’s love, it adds to the problem of underreporting of cases of domestic violence. Coupled with this is the general tendency of many police officials to urge the survivors, who somehow manage to file a complaint, to reach a ‘compromise’ or ‘settlement’ with the alleged abusers.?

Societal conditioning of the survivors

Following the findings of the study, Mangal Prabhat Lodha, Maharashtra’s Women and Child Development Minister, has called for a committee to create a system that prevents and addresses cases of domestic violence along with generating recommendations to prevent GBV. However, such legal and governmental measures are inadequate when society continues to normalise women suffering in violent households, or, even worse, sees it as an extension of? their gendered identity to endure domestic violence. So much so, that the personal and the political are often hand-in-glove to quickly write off suspicious cases of violence against women as mere accidents. ‘Bride-burning’ or ‘stove burning’ was found to be a common form of homicides in Indian households by a 2020 study on gender-based violence. It is a form of violence wherein a woman (mostly a new bride) is set on fire with an intention to harm or kill her, especially in cases of dowry, and is then reported by the family members to the police as an accidental death due to stove-bursting, for instance.

...legal and governmental measures are inadequate when society continues to normalise women suffering in violent households, or, even worse, sees it as an extension of? their gendered identity to endure domestic violence.

Studies such as that led by the KEM that investigate causes of suspicious deaths is a step in the direction of generating more accountability by medical health practitioners and the police, which could in turn open up avenues for survivors of abuse to ask for help. Addressing violence against women as a form of systemic oppression and making interventions founded in restorative justice instead of retributive justice, coupled with infrastructural accountability, could go a long way.