Women and Gender-based Violence in South
Asia
South Asia is the home to 1.2 billion people, which is one-fifth of humanity,
with a growth rate of 2.1 percent yearly. The population has more than doubled
in the last three decades, from 563 million in 1960 to 1191 million in 1993.
It has been projected that the population would double in the next 25 years.
Apart from being identified as the most populous region in the world, South
Asia has also been identified as the poorest region where 40 per cent of
the world’s absolute poor live. According to the World Bank’s estimation,
over 500 million people survive below the absolute poverty line, where even
their basic human needs are overlooked. The per capita GNP of South Asia,
which was $309 in 1993, stands lowest among all other regions in the world.
While South Asia and East Asia had roughly the same nominal per capita income
three decades ago, the latter, excluding China, has now 27 times greater
number than South Asia. At the same time, South Asia’s share in global income
is only 1.3 per cent.
This region is also characterised as one where adult literacy rate is the
lowest, which is 48 per cent and contains 46 per cent of the world’s total
illiterate persons. The negative attributes prevalent in South Asia do not
end here. It is the most malnourished region of the world where half of
the children are underweight, compared with 30 per cent in Sub-Saharan Africa.
About 260 million people lack access to rudimentary health facilities, 337
million lack safe drinking water, 830 million have no access to basic sanitation
facilities and over 400 million people go hungry everyday. In this context
it is ironic that South Asia is the most militarised region in the world.
The region has two of the largest armies of the world between the perpetual
enemies India and Pakistan. The nuclear tests of last year, both by India
and Pakistan, and the recent military crisis over the Kashmir issue in Kargil
have again intensified the arms race between them. It is the only region
where expenditure on defence as proportion of GNP has increased since 1987.
In such an impoverished and conflict ridden region, it would be pertinent
to examine the situations of marginalised and oppressed social groups like
women.
Women in South Asia
“To be women in this region (South Asia) is to be a non-person” – this is
the picture of womenfolk in South Asia depicted by Dr. Mahbub ul Haq in
the “Human Development in South Asia, 1997”.8 South Asia is a region where
even the global biological pattern of men-women ratio, which implies that
if both sexes receive similar nutritional and health care, women outlive
men, has been overturned. While it is natural that women live longer than
men do, there is an overall ratio of 106 women to 100 men globally. But
in South Asia, the men outnumber the women, where there are only 94 women
to every 100 men. While according to the global trend, the number of men
and women population should have been 614 and 649 millions respectively,
the actual numbers in South Asia are 616 and 575 respectively. If we take
an in-depth look towards the country-wise figure, the situation in Pakistan
is most serious than the other countries of the region where there are only
93 women compared with every 100 men. The ratio of women-men population
is nearly equal in Sri Lanka and Maldives while the ratio of women for every
100 men is 94 in India and Bangladesh, and 96 in Nepal. Dr. Haq has shown
that thus 74 million women are missing in South Asia, for whom there exists
indifference at the policy-making level of the countries in the region.
The socio-economic status of women in South Asia is deplorable where women’s
basic needs are also at stake. In South Asia, one-third of the adult women
receives some education and only half of the female population is enrolled
at the primary, secondary or tertiary level. Women in the subcontinent are
also deprived from the nutritional point of view since they are often fed
last in the household. At the same time, they carry the greatest burden
of the workload. There is no exception of this rule for a girl child though
her brother is never asked to work with her.
The average fertility rate per married woman in South Asia is still very
high, at 4.2. Married women are often burdened with unwanted pregnancies
since only 39 per cent of married couples use any form of contraception.
In South Asia, only 36 per cent of the women are economically active, compared
to the 50 per cent of the developing world. Women earn only one-fifth of
the total income. Women’s rate of participation in politics is also very
low where, on the contrary to the general picture, several women politicians
have reached the acme of political power in several South Asian countries.
In the sub-continent, women’s share in the parliament is only 7 per cent
while the rate is lower in case of participation in the administrative and
managerial positions, which is only 3 per cent.
According to the UNDP report, Sri Lanka ranks as the best country in terms
of investing in women’s capabilities and in making various opportunities
available to them. It is only in Sri Lanka that the South Asian demographic
characteristic of men outnumbering women is reversed. In Sri Lanka, life
expectancy is 106 per cent of male life expectancy, female literacy rate
is 86 per cent and female economic activity rate is 36 per cent though in
decision-making procedure women are far behind men. Women’s share in the
national parliament is only 5 per cent, at the cabinet level it is only
3 per cent and in the top administrative and managerial positions, the share
amounts to only 17 per cent.
In most gender-related human development indicators, Pakistan ranks the
lowest in the subcontinent with female literacy being 23 percent, female
participation in economic activities 16 percent, women’s participation in
top administrative and managerial jobs 3 per cent, and women’s participation
in national parliament only 1.6 per cent. In Pakistan, discrimination based
on sex is guaranteed by the constitution itself.
Gender-based violence in South Asia
It can be inferred from the above discussion that under the prevailing gender
discrimination in South Asia, it is the women who are the most disadvantageous
group in the region. It is the only region where a prevalence of women in
the state power hierarchy exists amidst low rate of women’s participation
in politics. The four major countries of the sub-continent, Bangladesh,
India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka, both have and are experiencing elected female
heads of the state not only for one or two terms but for several terms.
But this has in no way improved the lot of womenfolk of their countries.
Dr. Haq has correctly identified that being a woman Prime Minister or President
does not solve the basic unequal status of women in South Asia.
At this point, it would be pertinent to discuss the condition of women in
India, Nepal and Pakistan with regard to gender-based violence.
Gender-based Violence: India
India, the biggest democracy in the subcontinent, experiences 11 per one
lakh population crime rate. The total number of cases of violence against
women reported in 1996 was 1,05,439 against 1,05,413 of 1995. The breakdown
of cases of violence against women in 1996 follows:
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Table 2: Violence against Women in India
|
| Type of Incidents
|
1995 |
1996 |
| Rape |
12,922 |
12,385 |
| Kidnapping and Abduction
|
13,540 |
13,369 |
| Dowry Deaths |
5,151 |
5,101 |
| Torture |
28,835 |
30,086 |
| Molestation |
26,134 |
24,019 |
| Sexual Harassment
|
10,943 |
11,900 |
| Importation of Girls
|
191 |
172 |
| Sati Prevention Act
|
2 |
2 |
| Immoral Traffic (Prevention)
Act |
6,756 |
5,678 |
| Indecent Representation
of Women |
939 |
659 |
| Total |
105,413 |
105,439 |
In 1990, the number of cases reported was
68,317, which reveals that the increase in the number of crimes reported
in 1996 was as high as 54.2 per cent when compared with 1990. The rate
of increase was perceived to be synonymous with the increasing rate of
women’s participation in “activities outside the home, influence of indecent
representation of women in the mass media, globalisation etc. and also
because of greater awareness, police sensitivity and public concern”.
Gender-based Violence in Nepal
In a seminar organised by Women For Women, Dhaka in December 1997, Dr.
Jyoti Tulad Har from Nepal presented the state of women in Nepal with
regard to gender-based violence, based on a survey conducted in 1997.
The study identified the following as gender-based violence in the context
of Nepal:
• Domestic violence;
• Sexual slavery, prostitution and international trafficking of women;
• Incest;
• Violation of reproductive rights of women;
• Rape;
• Sexual harassment/ sex discrimination;
• Medical abuse;
• Abuse of women with physical and mental disabilities;
• Culture bound practices harmful to women;
• Ritual abuse within religious cults;
• Marital rape;
• Pornography and abuse of women in media;
• Abuse of women in refugee and relocation camps;
• Custodial abuse;
• Female feticide;
• Dowry related violence and murder;
Nepal being a patriarchal society, the women are often victims of indiscriminate
violence generated by male members of the society. About 95 per cent of
the respondents of the study reported having first hand knowledge of violent
incidents against women. Among the high-risk group were commercial sex
workers, who had all experienced incidences of violence first hand. About
60 per cent of the respondents reported domestic violence to be a daily
occurrence while 55 per cent reported to be weekly, 64 per cent monthly
and 88 per cent reported it to be an occasional incident.
The most common form of violence perpetrated against women was identified
as physical beating as 82 per cent of the respondents opined so. Among
other types of physical violence carried out against women were assault
(66 per cent), rape (30 per cent), forced prostitution (28 per cent),
abortion (13 per cent), sexual abuse (13 per cent) and untouchability
(21 per cent). Mental torture accounted to be the highest- 61 per cent-among
the different forms of psychological violence perpetrated against women.
Among other forms of psychological violence, 32 per cent reported emotional
torture, 31 per cent sexual harassment in public places and 17 per cent
reported sexual harassment in the work place. Torture in police custody
was reported as being most frequent by respondents in the two districts
of Nuwakot and Kanchanpur to be 28 per cent and 25 per cent respectively.
Seventy-seven per cent of the perpetrators of violence were reported as
being from within the family and only 23 per cent from outside.
Gender-based Violence – Pakistan
Pakistan is a signatory to the UN Convention on the Elimination of All
Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) and thereby, is committed
to eliminate all discriminatory practices against women. However, after
one year of the ratification of the CEDAW, the Amnesty International issued
a report on the condition of women in Pakistan and carrying out the responsibilities
under the Convention titled as “Pakistan: Women’s human rights remain
a dead letter”.10 In the report, the Amnesty International highlighted
the forms of discrimination and violence that are carried out against
women in Pakistan.
According to the findings of the women’s rights group of Pakistan, 70
per cent women in Pakistan are subject to domestic violence. A non-governmental
organisation, War Against Rape (WAR), reported that in the last three
months of 1997, 58 women approached the police surgeon’s office at Karachi
with the allegation of being raped. Another non-governmental organisation
monitoring Lahore-based newspapers, recorded 717 incidents of rape only
in the Lahore city and its hinterland in 1997. Sixty-five per cent of
the victims were minor girls and almost 30 per cent of the victims were
gang raped. Between January 1997 to February 1998, some 1,130 women had
been murdered, raped, abducted or subjected to severe forms of violence,
compared to 75 such cases the corresponding earlier period. These figures
included an average of more than 10 women being raped every month in the
city of Multan alone. That NGO, in its report concluded that the country-wide
incidents of rape, including unreported cases in 1997 saw “at least eight
women ... criminally raped every 24 hours, more than two of them by gangs
and more than five of them were minor”. “Bride burning”, one of the most
inhuman forms of violence against women in South Asia, accounts for more
than a dozen deaths of women every year in Pakistan. The victims’ husbands
or in-laws mainly perpetrate these acts. The reason for such burning,
range from punishing women for not obeying their husbands and elders of
the family, the inability to produce a male heir , or failure to bring
larger dowry.
Women in Pakistan are also victimised if the family believes the woman
has done anything to violate the sanctity or honour of the family. Accordingly
women are seldom permitted to get married according to their own choices
and/ or to marry outside of their respective tribes. Those women who dare
to marry according to their choices are often threatened or even killed
by their families. In this respect, the marriage between a Pashtun woman
Rifat Afridi and a Mohajir, Kunwar Ahsan is worth mentioning The Pashtun
tribe called for the death of the couple for they charged that Rifat had
gone against the will of her father and had thereby dishonoured the family.
Ironically, Rifat’s own father supported the verdict of death on the grounds
that she had dishonoured the family and the tribe.
In 1994 the Government of Pakistan set up a “Commission of Inquiry for
Women”, headed by a Supreme Court judge and consisting of human rights
lawyers, Islamic scholars and legislators to review the existing laws
that perpetuate discrimination against women and prevent them attaining
equality vis-à-vis men. The recommendations of the Commission were unheeded
by the government for a long period. However, in September 1998, the cell
set up in the Ministry of Women’s Development released a set of recommendations
to the government of Pakistan, which included the recommendations of the
Commission and held that an intensive programme to lobby its implementation
would be launched by the end of 1999.
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