KATHMANDU, JUNE 23
Despite significant progress made in the formulation of policy and programmes, violence against women is still widespread in Nepal.
A new research that lasted two years on young women showed that COVID-induced lockdowns had brought a drastic increase in cases of domestic violence. Also, newly-married women are especially vulnerable to domestic violence, the study suggests.
"No one has really studied what happens to women in this pivotal time when they enter a new marriage," said Mahesh Puri, co-director at the Centre for Research on Environment Health and Population Activities, a research organisation based in Kathmandu. "What we found from the study is that such change in life pattern brings comes with high risk of violence from partners and other family members, including mothers-in-law."
Reports of violence against young women perpetrated by their partners soared after marriage. A new paper published in AJOG Global Reports found that pregnancy increased those odds even more.
"You might think that domestic violence during pregnancy would be less likely because so much value is put on a woman proving her fertility by giving birth for the first time," said Dr Nadia Diamond-Smith, assistant professor of Epidemiology and Biostatistics at the University of California and author of the study. "Instead, we found that all the stresses that come with adding a baby to the family put women at even higher risk."
The proportion of participants experiencing violence has increased substantially over time. By the end of the study, 58 per cent of participants reported experiencing violence from their intimate partners, violence from another family member, or both, over a period of the past 6 months.
The COVID-19 pandemic has further aggravated an already dire situation for newly-married women. Intimate partner violence increased even more dramatically during the national COVID-19 lockdowns, increasing from about 50 per cent six months prior to the lockdowns to 80 per cent four months after the lockdowns.
Young married women, who are already at risk of violence, were at the receiving end in the midst of COV- ID-19, and women who lived in households with food insecurity faced even greater degree of abuse.
"In addition to the enforcement of laws against rising incidents of domestic violence, immediate special attention needs to be paid to women during the ongoing COVID-19 crisis, especially those who experience other household stresses," said Puri in a press release issued by the Department of Obstetrics, Gynaecology and Reproductive Science, University of California.
A version of this article appears in the print on June 24 2021, of The Himalayan Times.
