DOMESTIC VIOLENCE: PREJUDICE, BIGOTRY AND

NARROW-MINDEDNESS
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Submitted by
Prabhnoor Guliani

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Division:E PRN: 18010223095 Batch: 2018-23

Sociology
Symbiosis Law School, NOIDA
Symbiosis International (Deemed University)

In

July, 2018
Under the guidance of
Dr. Garima Yadav

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Designation and official address of Research Guide

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 CERTIFICATE

The project entitled “DOMESTIC VIOLENCE: PREJUDICE, BIGOTRY

AND NARROW-MINDEDNESS” submitted to Symbiosis Law
School, NOIDA for Sociology as part of internal assessment is
based on my original work under the guidance of Dr. Garima
Yadav from 6th July 2018 to 31st July 2018
The material borrowed from other sources and incorporated in
the project has been duly acknowledged
I understand that I myself could be held responsible and
accountable for plagiarism, if any detected later

Signature of Candidte

Date:
 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
I would like to express my special thanks of gratitude to Dr.
Garima Yadav for her explicable support and encouragement
throughout this endeavor. I would also like to thank our Director,
Dr Chandrashekhar J. Rawandale who has given me this
opportunity to do this important research on domestic violence. It
has indubitively helped me in my research and attain immense
knowledge of the social issues and stigmas associated with them
and offering solutions to how to tackle these problems. I am
really thankful to both of them. Secondly, I would also like to
thank my friends who have helped me completing this project in
a limited time frame.
 INDEX
1. Introduction
2. Discussion
3. Conclusion
 INTRODUCTION
Domestic violence is a heinous and a wrongful act of mistreating
a person by physically or mentally abusing a person belonging in
the same domestic setting. It happens in both heterosexual and
homosexual couples within an intimate relationship among both
adults and adolescents. In Indian society the low status of women
compared to men usually results in subjugation of women. The
people belonging to the LGBT community are also looked down
upon because they differ in their sexual orientation than the so
called ‘accepted’ kind of lifestyle choice. This is the reason why
homosexual people are often discriminated as well as harmed
through domestic violence. People belonging to different age
groups can also be subjected to this violence. Children often are
the victim to this crime where their parents often hit beat up their
children, either intentionally as they consider it as a way to
punish children when they commit mistakes or without any
reason to get rid of their frustration. Old People are no exception
to this. There have been many cases where parents are ill-treated
by their children because they see their parents as a burden.
Women are the worst affected victims of domestic violence. They
are physically and mentally tortured for dowry, refusing sex, or
when they try to have an argument with their significant other.
Though domestic violence against women is not only limited to
physical abuse but also vulgar language, trafficking of women,
rape, molestation and other inhuman acts.
Indian National Family Health Survey-III carried out in 29 states
of India found that a large proportion of women have been
abused by their husband during some point of their lives. Bihar
was found to be the most violent with a rate of 59% of women
being abused at home. This was followed by Madhya Pradesh
(45.8%), Rajasthan (46.3%), Manipur (43.9%), Uttar Pradesh
(42.4%), Tamil Nadu (41.9%) and West Bengal (40.3%).
Objective: Analyzing, recommending as well as communicating
the best actions that can be used to improve the conditions of the
victims who are suffering or have suffered from the viable to the
most extreme cases of domestic violence.

RESEARCH QUESTIONS:-
Q1. How does the society react to domestic violence on the basis
of gender, age and sexual orientation?
Q2. Why many people don’t seek help or complain about
domestic violence?
Q3. How can the victims of domestic violence seek treatment and
help?
Reference of journal articles:-
A large portion of reports of domestic violence against women
include multiple perpetrators. Most of the time have been these
perpetrators other than the husband include the in-laws.
According to a study conducted by Michael Salter reported that
Multi Perpetrator Violence (MDV) are removed from the analysis
of domestic violence studies and are often considered as single
perpetrator’s incidents. MDV incidents often results in negative
mental and health outcomes. Intimate partner violence often
results in homelessness among women along with severe
psychological disorders like depression and suicidality. The report
has highlighted 2 groups that are significantly vulnerable to MDV.
This includes girls and women who are married in a family of
organized crime groups and women who belong to a prejudiced
minority ethnic community. It is crystal clear that such heinous
form of violence present grave challenges to improve the
condition of women. There is a massive need for intervention and
treatment along with coordinated model of investigation, support
and care.
According to a 2016 study ‘Understanding Violence against
Women and Children’ found that 59% of married women aged
from 15-49 years had experienced physical and/or sexual
violence from their husband at least once. There is however a
larger percentage of women that is approximately 81% who have
experienced domestic violence on several occasions. The main
reason of this problem is gender inequality and the prevailing
patriarchy in society. Women leaders often feel that complaining
to the concerned authorities is not worth the effort because it
undermines the implicitness of the law and will become a
powerless and shameless woman in front of the society. This
shows that inherent cultural practices, beliefs and norms are so
much influential that even with education in modern times ,
standards of human rights and other modern ideas are
considered as ‘useless’ ideas because of the large comparisons
between the modern and prosperous ideas from the already
orthodox prevailing norms.
It has been found that homosexual men have higher rates of
domestic violence intimate partner violence. There is a lack of
attention and towards the gay community to record the amount
of violence against them. Not only gays but lesbians,
transgenders and bisexuals have also been subjected to a lot of
domestic violence when they come out of the closet and try to
express their sexuality. Parents with such children often feel
shame and punish their children for not following the ‘accepted
behavior’. A lack of attention to nonphysical and non-sexual
forms of intimate partner violence and it is now becoming a
universal use of cross-sectional samples of urban men who
express their homosexuality. More rigorous and epidemiological
methods are required to reduce the cases of domestic violence
among the LGBT community.
Domestic violence is not something that only adults have to deal
with but also children. Such kind of exposure to violence during a
young and immature age often leads to resilience. There is often
a risk of considerable overlap, compounding effects and possible
gender differences in outcomes of violence exposure. Further
testing from modern forms of theoretical models will try to make
a breakthrough in the behavior of children who later how
psychological abnormalities when they reach adulthood. Child
domestic abuse is not only limited to parents but also his/her
teachers, child-minders, relatives and so on. It is not by just
beating up the child that justifies it as domestic violence but it
also includes sexual abuse, neglect and emotional abuse.
According to SWD statistics nearly 39.5% children were physically
abused. Common presentations of physical abuse include bite
marks, bruises, burns, fractures, head and abdominal injuries. It
is saddening that sexual abuse accounts for 33.3% of the time
the second commonest kind of violence among children. This
includes forcing sexual behavior on the child, indecent assault,
molestation, exposition to pornography and making jokes of
sexual nature. This leads to poor peer relationships and carry
sexual fears in adulthood. Negligence towards the child arrests
their development. Constant failure to provide needs of the child
in respect to medical, educational, emotional needs along with
basic needs like food and water cause neglect in the development
of the child.
The elderly people are no exception to this crime either. It has
been found that old people are often subjected to domestic
violence either by their intimate partner or by their children. They
are often seen as burden or a liability and are often abused
physically and emotionally. Abuse on old people is also not limited
to physical torture but negligence like not providing them proper
food, clothes and shelter, not taking care of their medical health
etc. Emotional abuse is also an important part of domestic abuse.
Here old people are often made a subject of abusive language.
Many are dropped on the road with no home or a place to go.
The main solution that is easy to offer is, “why doesn’t the victim
just leave?” Leaving is often the most difficult thing for the victim
to do because it is like taking the dominant power of the abuser
and challenging him/her to retaliate against the victim in more
heinous and destructive ways. Women are often afraid to leave
because they are afraid of the consequences that will follow their
departure, especially in countries like India. Some people just go
into denial and they may not know what a healthy relationship
looks like. Such people are those who have grown up in an
abusive environment. People often feel shame to admit that they
are a victim of domestic violence. They feel like they have done
something wrong or it was their fault and they should accept the
abusive behavior, they are basically the people with low self-
esteem. They are more concerned about what their friends and
family will think if they get to know about it. Often the victim has
some kind of a loving relationship with the abuser (mostly the
husband), because they have children with them and want to
maintain their family.
Abusing people are often charming and charismatic at the
beginning part of the relationship, so it is often hoped that their
partner will change and will become the person with whom they
fell in love with. The victim wants the abuse to stop but not the
relationship. In countries like India, tradition and religion is an
important part of any marriage and any intimate relationship,
might force the victim to stay within the abusive relationship in
the fear that shame may befall upon their family. Financial abuse
is also very common and the victim might be financially
dependent on them so they are forced to put up with the abusive
behavior. Without money or access to resources it becomes
difficult for the victim to leave the domestic setting as they don’t
have a place to go. The feeling of helplessness is often strong and
forces them to deal with the situation by suffering in silence.
Domestic violence is a global issue and needs to be taken
seriously. A recent UNPF report revealed that 2/3rd of married
women in India have suffered domestic violence. The effects of
such abuse is not only on the woman but also on her children
because they are most likely to use violence in school or
community in response to perceived threats, more likely to
commit suicide and indulge in alcohol and drugs. The biggest con
here is that these children are most likely to become abusers
themselves. To get out of such abusive behavior we must fix our
own mindsets and stop seeing the victim with judging eyes. Other
methods can be to provide psychological treatments to the
victim, arrest and punish the abuser and give appropriate
compensation to the victim for putting him/her in such a
situation. The effectiveness of measures and initiatives will
depend on coherence and coordination associated with their
design and implementation. The issue of domestic violence must
be brought into open and examined as any other preventable
health problem, and best remedies available be applied.

BIBLIOGRAPHY
Journals.sagepub.com (Cattherine Finnerman, Martha J. Markward
Daniel P. Mears, Michael Salter, Chung Wai So),
Jstor.org (Damien Grenfell, Todd I. Herrenkohl, Tiffany E. Wright),
Legalindia.com,
Thehotline.org,
Psychologytoday.com
Ncbi.nlm.nih.gov