INDIA ARMED VIOLENCE ASSESSMENT Issue Brief Number 5 October 2015 Unheard and Uncounted Violence against Women in India Introduction violence against women (Shen, 2013). and effective responses remain elusive. This and subsequent group rapes and While domestic violence and public Violence against women and the relucc incidents of rape and murder have intimidation are familiar to women tance of public authorities to deal captured national and international across India, statistics remain scarce with it are longstanding themes of pubc attention (Shen, 2013). They leave no and unreliable. lic debate in India. They have been This Issue Brief reviews the state part of India’s public policy agenda doubt that violence against women is of violence against women in India since the landmark rape case in 1972 of a serious challenge to Indian society, and the state of research to date. Key a teenage girl known only as Mathura law enforcement, and judicial affairs. findings include the following: (Basu, 2013). Forty years later, the These highly publicized incidents group rape and murder committed in focus attention on the widespread but A series of highly publicized vioc New Delhi in 2012 (also known as the poorly understood problem of violence lent crimes against women have Nirbhaya case)1 generated mass protest, against women. The Indian public has transformed public awareness of making the issue central to debates on voiced their demands for action, yet the problem and elevated demands how the country is tackling issues of knowledge of the scale of the problem for action in India. Dalit women demonstrating for women’s rights, fair wages, and the rights of their community, in Karnataka, Bangalore, May 2009. Source: Forster/ullstein bild/Getty Images www.india-ava.org 1 Underreporting appears to affect rape in the United Kingdom, for examc Box 1 What is violence against women? virtually all forms of violence against ple, states that 75 to 95 per cent of cases women in India, including rape. in that country go unreported (HMIC, Effective interventions require clear definitions. In 2013, the number of rapes forc 2007, p. 8). In the United States, survey The labels gender-based violence and violence against women are often used interchangeably. mally reported in India was 33,707 research shows that approximately When used loosely, however, such terms may lead for a national rate of 5.7 per 100,000 65 per cent of rapes go unreported to confusion about related law, policy, problems, female residents. While it is a signific� (Rennison, 2002, p. 2). Social science and goals (Dziewanski, LeBrun, and Racovita, 2014, cant increase over previous officially research on rape is improving in these pp. 10, 29; UN Women, 2013, p. 2). Gender based violence refers to violence reported rates, it is still one of the - countries and elsewhere as data gradc directed against a person due to expectations lower rates reported worldwide. ually becomes more complete and relic of their role in society or culture based on their Estimates of the proportion of able (Taylor, 2006). For countries such as gender (UN Women, 2013, p. 2). According to the rapes in India reported to police India, however, systematic research is 1993 United Nations Declaration on the Elimination of Violence against Women, violence against women range from 1 in 10 to 1 in 200. Such limited and statistics on rape—including refers to ‘any act of gender-based violence that estimates suggest as many as sevc those cited in this Issue Brief—should be results in, or is likely to result in, physical, sexual eral million rapes are unreported referred to with caution. When possible, or psychological harm or suffering to women, annually. independent estimates and other survey including threats of such acts, coercion or arbi- trary deprivation of liberty, whether occurring in A range of violent social practices, data have been sourced in this research. public or in private life’ (UNGA, 1993, art. 1). including selective abortion and Poor reporting may explain the lack This Issue Brief focuses on the narrower topic foeticide, regional cultures of vioc of public attention to the victimization of physical and sexual violence against women. lence, and armed conflict, elevate of women in the past. Provoked by the the danger of violence in India, spec public outcry against highly publicized women (31,807 out of 33,707 reported cifically against women. brutal crimes—starting with the 2012 rape cases in 2013) involve a family Improved monitoring and measurec Delhi group rape and murder—the member or husband, a neighbour, or ment of trends in violence against Central Government appears to be someone from the community known women are essential to better policyc taking swifter action (Shen, 2013). to the victim (NCRB, 2014, pp. 397, 399; making and interventions for vicc A prominent indication of this parac see Figure 6). tims. Independent, largecsample digm shift was the 2013 report of the Violence against women is a reflecc surveys are an especially promising Justice Verma Committee, a judicial tion of the larger society in which it way to begin. review conducted in response to the occurs. Selective abortion and foeticide Comprehensive police reform— assault carried out by the Delhi gang. —responses to multiclayered cultural including more police who are The Verma Committee concluded that and religious oppression—undermine dedicated to serving victims and ‘violence or assault, sexual or otherwise, are free of corruption—is essential a woman’s prospects in India from on women is a violation of the fundac before her birth. Vulnerabilities are for responding to violence against mental right to live with dignity’ (Verma, further compounded by domestic facc women. Seth, and Subramanium, 2013, p. 65). tors of caste, ethnicity, and poverty. As In addition to institutional reforms, The Committee framed violence against emphasized in this Issue Brief, most social change is a key part of the women as a violation of the Indian conc social pathologies, including regional solution to problems of violence stitution’s commitment to equality and cultures of violence and armed conflict, against women in India, from changc autonomy, as a result of entrenched also elevate the danger of violence ing attitudes towards women in social prejudices, and as a failure of against women (Joseph, 2010, p. 19). general to assumptions about government institutions. The most effective responses are to be domestic relations. The clash between traditional mores found in immediate interventions to Violence against women and rape and social transformation worsens the prevent individual crimes, and broader in particular are probably the most problem. There is a common belief that social engagement to reduce their likec underreported of all major crimes men who are unemployed, uneducated, lihood throughout society, over time. globally (UN Department of Public marginalized, or of low social status may The Issue Brief begins by situatc Information, 2011). Chronic doubt, be more prone to violence against girls ing India in the wider, global context regarding reporting and the scale of and women (Desai, 2014). Research conc of violence against women. It then the crime, is greatly exacerbated by a ducted in the country reveals the family examines diverse estimates for rape lack of standardized legal definitions to be the predominant site in which vioc in India to highlight the widespread across India (see Box 1). Because systemc lence against women occurs, notably underr eporting of all acts of violence atic underreporting renders official in the form of dowrycrelated torture, against women. The limitations relatc statistics incomplete, estimates are homicide, and suicide (Saravanan, ing to recording rape include the onc essential to any efforts to assess the 2000). According to official statistics, going ambiguity around defining the scope of the problem. An estimate of almost 95 per cent of rapes against term, within the Indian legal system. 2 Small Arms Survey Issue Brief Number 5 October 2015 Under reporting is also a gendered be Afghanistan, Democratic Republic women and girls. Statistics on rapes problem in the country, along with of the Congo, India, Pakistan, and reported to the police collected by women’s unequal access to the judicial Somalia (Anderson, 2011). To find India UNODC indicate very low levels of system. An analysis of these issues is listed among countries burdened by rape in India, with less than two cases followed by a breakdown of the major civil war, largecscale terrorism, and reported annually per 100,000 residents. categories of violence experienced by failed states might be unexpected, but In India, with approximately only one women in India. The Issue Brief conc increasingly gendercsensitive assessc rape reported for every woman or girl siders the particular vulnerability of ments have reaffirmed this finding. reported killed, the ratio between the women from lower caste and tribal In some respects women are not the rate of rapes reported to the police and backgrounds and those living in areas group most affected by lethal violence the rate of female violent deaths is the of armed conflict. To conclude, the in India. As in other countries, the vicc lowest among a selection of countries study focuses on India’s need for comc tims of armed violence tend be male with low or medium levels of female bined legal, social, and cultural reforms (Oosterveld, 2014, p. 107). In India’s violence deaths (see Table 1). to significantly reduce the levels of vioc official national crime statistics for lent acts committed against women. 2013, female victims accounted for 27 per cent of all reported homicides Estimating the scale of (NCRB, 2014, p. 333). rape in India Violence against women in A global assessment of official stac In estimating the scale and regional India and the global context tistics on female victims of homicide also shows India to have a low rate, distribution of violence against women, Internationally, violence against women averaging 1.5 per 100,000 for 2007–2012 obstacles arise from controversies over is recognized as ‘one of the most sysc (Geneva Declaration Secretariat, n.d.).