Violence against Women in India: Efforts to Eradicate

Violence is a major obstacle to development. Violence against women in particular hinders progress in achieving development targets. Violence against women is a major threat to social and economic development. Violence against women takes many forms, from the overt to the subtle. Sexual violence means a woman has been: physically forced to have sexual intercourse; had sexual intercourse because she was afraid of what her partner might do; or forced to do something sexual she found degrading or humiliating. Violence against women occurs in all social and economic classes, but women living in poverty are more likely to experience violence. Programmes to eradicate extreme poverty and hunger should be designed specifically to promote women’s economic participation and independence of women in ways that do not expose them to increased violence. Violence against women is partly a result of gender relations that assumes men to be superior to women. The paper discusses the possibility of community-interventions by raising awareness about the violation of human rights issues and other psychological consequences to prevent domestic violence.