INDIAN LOVE VIII
In an average it will take 4.2 years before Indian Women of the Delhi aerea will go to police for a complaint about domestic violence, endure torture or sexual abuse.
78% of these victims are confrontated with physically aggressive behaviour in front of and by in-laws, children and in public.
60% took support from their children after facing violent behaviour. Nearly 17% said that children became human shields to protect them. 23% women found their parents supportive after being thrown out by their husbands or their families. These facts came to light in a five-year study conducted between 2002 and 2007 on 1,805 victims seeking help from Delhi Police’s Crime Against Women Cell for help and were referred for counselling to a team of clinical psychologists from the NGO Swanchetan. On an average, the counselling lasted an hour with about three sessions per couple. Psychologists concluded that 1,531 of the women faced constant domestic abuse while only 274 cases were overstated. "The situation could be much worse in north India’s smaller towns where police often treat domestic violence as a family matter, where the social dice is loaded against women lodging a protest and where support services such as short-stay homes or women’s organisations are either rare or absent," says Ranjana Kumari, director, Centre for Social Research. The study shows that dowry remains a major reason for marital discord and often leads to violence. A huge 54% of the victims said that the dowry demands began with sudden violence.
