The health of a nation is often reflected in the health and status of women in that nation. Due to a variety of social, economic and traditional factors, women’s health in India is neglected, not only by her family, but by the woman herself. Gender inequality, violence against women and economic dependence on men are found to be creating adverse health outcomes for women in India. Also, such inequalities and violence plays a major role in incidence of unwanted pregnancies and repeated abortions among rural women.

Background
India, a 5,000 year old civilization is the largest democracy in the world. It has a population of over 1.3 billion, with more than 325 spoken languages. India is a known patriarchal society and strong gender bias exists all over the country, although the intensity varies. The society has a deeply rooted and often dangerous outlook on gender difference and it covers all aspects of life, from birth to death. Movies, advertisements and other social media strongly endorse this stereotypical gender expectation and cast the ideal image of women as being ‘westernized with strong Indian values’- armored with high paying jobs, but submissive to their male counterparts.

However, India was not so in ancient times. According to Hindu mythology, one of the creators of mankind was a woman. Indian women enjoyed a status equivalent to that of men in ancient times and adorned powerful positions and were brave warriors. They had the right to choose who they wanted to marry and were allowed to divorce. But after almost five thousand years of freedom and equality, their importance started to fall and later degraded to some lowest levels possible. Different reasons are cited by scholars, including invasions, both religious and cultural (Lauren L. Tichy, Judith V. Becker and Melissa M. Sisco 2009).

Female infanticide, sex selective abortions and killing women for dowry are common in India. The article, Women: Safe at Home?, cited a recent investigation at a Mumbai nursing home. It was found that almost 95.5 per cent of the foetuses found to be aborted were females (Kanika Goswami 2010):

The reason is the far sightedness of the parents, because they live in a society where a woman can be burned to death for not bringing adequate dowry to her married home. Indeed, in India, an average of five women are killed (usually burnt to death) in dowry related violence, everyday. If fathers permit their daughters to do well in life, the husbands are sure to find this a problem, because a successful wife is not their idea of a good wife. If the women do not take up the opportunity, their lot will actually never improve. Nowhere in the history of mankind, or womankind, have women faced a more dismal situation.

Domestic Violence in India
Domestic violence is a chronic public health problem in India (Suneeta Krishnan, 2005; Babu, Bontha V., Kar, Shantanu K. 2009). As per National Crime Reports Bureau statistics, one crime against women takes place every three minutes, one rape every 29 minutes, one dowry death case every 77 minutes, one case of cruelty by husband and relatives every nine minutes (National Crime Records Bureau 2009). Around 70 per cent of women in India are victims of domestic violence in some form or another and almost 50 per cent during their pregnancies. Most often, the reason is disobedience that can range from going out without the husband's permission to cooking a bad meal (BBC News 2006). Violence is undoubtedly linked with maternal, neonatal and child mortality in India (Michael A. Koenig, Rob Stephenson, Rajib Acharya, Lindsay Barrick, Saifuddin Ahmed and Michelle Hindin 2010). Fifty percent of all pregnant women undergo some sort of domestic violence, including intimate partner violence, according to a study. There is 68 per cent higher risk of infant mortality for women who experienced violence compared to those who do not (Babu, Bontha V; Kar, Shantanu K 2009).

Violence is cited as a reason for unfavorable birth and gestation outcomes, high prevalence of sexually transmitted diseases, unintended pregnancies, unsafe abortions, non-use of contraceptives and early childhood mortalities in rural India. Domestic violence mitigation should be included in programme planning for maternal and child health services in order to reduce an array of reproductive problems, including maternal and child mortality (Michael A. Koenig, Rob Stephenson, Rajib Acharya, Lindsay Barrick, Saifuddin Ahmed and Michelle Hindin 2010).

Legal system in India
Domestic violence was recognized as a criminal offence in India by the addition of Section 498-A into the Indian Penal Code in 1983. It dealt with cruelty against women from partners or family members. A more stringent Act was passed by the Indian Government in 2005 called the Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act, 2005. However, these laws are still not very favorable for the victims and are often misused, because of the restricted definition of ‘cruelty against women’ in the Act.

The legal system is commonly perceived as time consuming and not in favour of the victim. The Act of 2005 strictly prohibits domestic violence, but fails to mandate any necessary support system for the victims, like temporary shelter, legal protection or further healthcare accessibility. The Act also fails to implement any policy changes on mandatory reporting, confidential investigation or victim-sensitive case processing. However, it has helped create a wing in the police force called ‘Protection Officers’, who handle only domestic violence complaints. Such a step is undoubtedly in the right direction in order to tackle violence against women. A supportive police system definitely increases women’s faith in judiciary and encourages them to fearlessly report such cruelties.

Conclusion
The greatest challenge in battling domestic violence is changing the mindset of women in India. According to a survey by the International Institute of Population Studies, 56 per cent of Indian women believed cruelty against women could be justified in certain circumstances.  A majority of women in India have a deep belief inflicted in them that they are supposed to bear and suffer in order to maintain their household’s pride and for being born as a girl. This situation explains why domestic abuse is often denied by the victims themselves (V. Babu, and S. K. Kar 2010). It is important to work on violence against women to bring about changes in the adverse health outcome of women in the country and to raise the status of women as a whole.
In an era where one in five women in India face domestic violence every day, the country needs to tackle this problem and make necessary actions to prevent it. While the government is implementing different legislations to improve women’s participation and status in every realm of the society (like reserving 50 per cent of seats in Parliament for women or implementing women development programs nationwide), the real improvement will only come from women themselves.

References

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D'Souza, Odeal. 7 December 2010. Special Officers for Domestic Violence Cases in Karnataka. Accessed at http://www.dnaindia.com/bangalore/report_special-officers-for-domestic-violence-cases-in-karnataka_1477778
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Lauren L. Tichy, Judith V. Becker and Melissa M. Sisco. 2009. The Downside of Patriarchal Benevolence: Ambivalence in Addressing Domestic Violence and Socio Economic Considerations for Women of Tamil Nadu, India. Journal of Family Violence 24. Accessed at http://web.ebscohost.com/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=11&hid=24&sid=e0a79ced-192e-4ac4-8a69-32e78dc0c9f5%40sessionmgr12

Michael A. Koenig, Rob Stephenson, Rajib Acharya, Lindsay Barrick, Saifuddin Ahmed and Michelle Hindin. 2010. Domestic Violence and Early Childhood Mortality in Rural India: Evidence from Prospective Data.
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Rob Stephenson, Michael A. Koenig, Rajib Acharya, and Tarun K. Roy 2008. Domestic Violence, Contraceptive Use, and Unwanted Pregnancy in Rural India. Studies in Family Planning 39, No. 3.
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