Sexual violence among married women: an unspoken sting

Authors

  • Amruta S. Indupalli Professor, Department of Community Medicine (PSM), KBN Institute of Medical Sciences, Gulbarga, Karnataka
  • Purushottam A. Giri Associate Professor, Department of Community Medicine (PSM), Rural Medical College, Loni, Maharashtra

Keywords:

Intimate partner violence, Sexual violence, Married women

Abstract

Sexual violence is not only a violation of human rights, but also a public health problem, with intimate partner violence and sexual violence among the most pervasive forms of violence against women. Worldwide, one in three women experience either physical or sexual partner violence or non-partner sexual violence. The lifetime prevalence of sexual partner violence reported by women, in age group of 15 to 49 years, in the WHO multi-country study ranged from 6% in Japan to 59% in Ethiopia, with rates in the majority of settings falling between 10% and 50%. The observed inter community; country and regional variation in the prevalence of violence imply that sexual violence within marriage can be addressed and preventable. The existing prevention programmes need to be tested and scaled up. The majority of women tend to avoid reporting these experiences due to associated shame, reprisal or gender inequity. Current review is an attempt to address the sexual violence among married women in a silent suffering. Various internets based popular search engines were used to explore data from literature, which includes PubMed, PubMed Central, Google Scholar and Medknow. Search was done using the key-word combinations ‘sexual violence within marriage’ andintimate partner violence’. A total of 51 publications were evaluated for this article.

References

Santhya KG et al. Consent and Coercion: Examining Unwanted Sex among Married Young Women in India. International Family Planning Perspectives 2007;33(3):124-32.

Im-em, W. et al. Sexual coercion among women in Thailand: Results from the WHO multi-country study on women’s health and life experiences, New Delhi meeting. 2003.

Understanding and addressing violence against women: http://www.who.int/reproductivehealth/topics/violence/vaw_series/en/

Global and regional estimated violence against women. Prevalence and health effects of intimate partner violence and non partner sexual violence by World Health Organization, the London School of Hygiene and tropical Medicine and The South African Medical Research Council: http://www.who.int/reproductivehealth/publications/violence/en/index.html.

Michelle J. Hindin, Sunita Kishor and Donna L. Ansara: DHS Analytical Studies No. 18 ‘Intimate Partner Violence among Couples in 10 DHS Countries: Predictors and Health Outcomes’ United States: December 2008.

Registrar General, India, Census of India, Marriage Tables, New Delhi: Government of India, C Series, 2001.

Jejeebhoy SJ and Sebastian MP. Young people’s sexual and reproductive health in: Jejeebhoy SJ, ed., Looking Back, Looking Forward: A Profile of Sexual and Reproductive Health in India, New Delhi: Rawat Publications, 2004, pp. 138-68.

Duvvury N, Nayak MB, Allendorf K. Links between masculinity and violence: aggregate analysis. In Domestic Violence in India: Exploring Strategies, Promoting Dialogue. Men, Masculinity and Domestic Violence in India. Summary Report of Four Studies (eds M Young, ICRW staff): 52-70. International Center for Research on Women, 2002.

World report on violence and health. World Health Organization, Geneva, Switzerland, 2002.

Puri M, Tamang J, Shah I: Suffering in silence: consequences of sexual violence within marriage among young women in Nepal. BMC Public Health 2011, 11:29.

World report on violence 2002 chapter 6 sexual violence pp. 149-181: http://www.who.int/violence_injury_prevention/violence/global_campaign/en/chap6.pdf.

Black MC. Intimate partner violence and adverse health consequences: implications for clinicians. American J Lifestyle Med 2011; 5:428–39.

Executive summary Global and regional estimates of violence against women: prevalence and health effects of intimate partner violence and non-partner sexual violence: WHO/RHR/HRP/13.06 World Health Organization 2013.

WHO policy brief: Perspectives on sexual violence during early years of marriage in Nepal. findings from a qualitative study: www.who.int/ reproductive-health.

Koenig M, Zabolkota I, Lutalo T, Nalugoda F, Wagmen J, Gray R. Coerced first intercourse and reproductive health among adolescent women in Rakai, Uganda. International Family Planning Perspectives 2004; 20(4):156-63.

Kishor S, Johnson M. Profiling domestic Violence: a Multi-Country Study. Macro International, Calverton, USA; 2001.

Parish WL, Wang T, Laumann EO, Pan S, Luo Y: Intimate partner violence in China: National prevalence, risk factors and associated health problems. International Family Planning Perspectives 2004; 30(4):174-81.

Martin SL, Tsu AO, Maitra Singh K, Kupper LL: Sexual behaviours and reproductive health outcomes: associations with wife abuse in India. The Journal of the American Medical Association 1999; 28(20):1967-72.

Caceres CF, Marin BV, Hudes ES: Sexual coercion among youth and young adults in Lima, Peru. Journal of Adolescent Health 2000; 27(5):361-367.

World Health Organisation: WHO Multi-Country Study on Women’s Health and Domestic Violence against Women. Geneva, World Health Organization, 2005.

World Health Organization. Violence against women – Intimate partner and sexual violence against women. Geneva, World Health Organization, 2011.

Garcia-Moreno C, Watts C: Violence against women: its importance for HIV/AIDS prevention. AIDS 2000; 14(suppl.3):253-65.

World Health Organisation /London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine: Preventing intimate partner and sexual violence against women: taking action and generating evidence. Geneva, World Health Organization, 2010.

Erulkar AS. The experience of sexual coercion among young people in Kenya, International Family Planning Perspectives 2004; 30(4):182–89.

Jewkes R et al. Gender inequitable masculinity and sexual entitlement in rape perpetration South Africa: findings of a cross-sectional study. PLoS ONE, 2011; 6(12):295-97.

Rickert VI et al. Rates and risk factors of sexual violence among an ethnically diverse sample of adolescents, Archives of Paediatrics and Adolescent Medicine 2004; 158(12):1132–39.

Manopaiboon C et al., Sexual coercion among adolescents in northern Thailand: prevalence and associated factors, Southeast Asian Journal of Tropical Medicine and Public Health 2003; 34(2): 447-57.

Krishnan S, Rocca CH, Hubbard AE, Subbiah K, Edmeades J, Padian NS. Do changes in spousal employment status lead to domestic violence? Insights from a prospective study in Bangalore, India. Social Science and Medicine 2010;70(1): 136–43.

Karuna S. Chibber, Karl Krupp, Nancy Padian, and Purnima Madhivanan: Examining the Determinants of Sexual Violence Among Young, Married Women in Southern India: J Interpers Violence. 2012; 27(12): 2465-83.

Rocca CH, Rathod S, Falle T, Pande RP, Krishnan S. Challenging assumptions about women’s empowerment: Social and economic resources and domestic violence among young married women in urban South India. International Journal of Injury Control and Safety Promotion. 2009; 38(2):577-85.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/international-womens-day-2014-the-shocking-statistics-that-show-why-it-is-still-so-important-9177211.html.

Deepali Chandhoke. Legal service India: Impact of Sexual Harassment on Women: http://www.legalserviceindia.com/

Puri et al. The prevalence and determinants of sexual violence against young married women by husbands in rural Nepal. BMC Research 2012;5: 291-303: http://www.biomedcentral.com/1756-0500/5/291.

World Health Organization, 2013: Responding to intimate partner violence and sexual violence against women WHO clinical and policy guidelines: http://www.who.int/reproductivehealth/publications/violence/9789241548595/en/

Recommendation is adapted from Psychological first aid. Geneva, World Health Organization, 2011, aimed at individuals in community crisis situations: whqlibdoc.who.int/publications/2011/9789241548205_eng.pdf.

Mental health GAP intervention guide for mental, neurological and substance use disorders in non-specialized health settings. Geneva, World Health Organization, 2010: http://whqlibdoc.who.int/publications/2010/9789241548069_eng.pdf

Guidelines for medico-legal care of sexual violence survivors. Geneva, World Health Organization, 2003.

Clinical management of rape survivors. Geneva, WHO/Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), 2004.

E-learning programme on Clinical management of rape survivors. Geneva, WHO/UNHCR/ United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), 2009.

WHO medical eligibility criteria. Geneva, World Health Organization, 2010.

Joint ILO/WHO guidelines on post-exposure prophylaxis to prevent HIV infection. Geneva, World Health Organization, 2008.

Downloads

Published

2017-01-26

How to Cite

Indupalli, A. S., & Giri, P. A. (2017). Sexual violence among married women: an unspoken sting. International Journal of Research in Medical Sciences, 2(4), 1248–1252. Retrieved from https://www.msjonline.org/index.php/ijrms/article/view/2403

Issue

Section

Review Articles