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In the United States, for
instance, wife battering is the prime cause of injury to women.
Astonishingly, over 4,000 women yearly get beaten to death. One
in 10 Canadian women get battered by their partner. The
Ahmedabad Action Group report says that an estimated 1,000 women
are burned in the state of Gujarat alone every year. Every nine
minutes a woman gets raped in Mexico. Every 10 days one woman is
beaten to death in Sweden. It thus becomes quite clear that more
than any other place in modern society, the home is probably the
most frightening and dangerous as is obvious from these
statistics on violence. As Anthony Giddens writes: 'A person of
any age or of either sex is far more likely to be the subject of
physical attack at home than on the street.'
Many countries
around the world have instituted legal aid as women around the
world can ill-afford to go through litigation and 'a barrage of
legal jargon that is often hard to understand.' However,
voluntary organisations and places of refuge do feel that legal
aid systems around the world are completely inadequate. Women,
often, in many countries have to wait for over half a year to be
rescued. Systems are grossly under-funded. There is no way of
clearing the backlog. Though people receive help from such
social welfare institutions, it is clear that there are long
queues at most of the legal aid centres. But for the knowledge
of women who want to seek help, application forms are available
at the legal aid centres. It should be clear that the voice of
the people is what matters finally. The legal aid systems need
to be revised and upgraded.
Some experts in
this field are of the view that socio-economic factors such as
crime, alcohol and deficient education are factors responsible
for the lack of communication or articulation. It is for this
reason, they believe, that violence is used instead of words. It
follows that violence may be found only in the lower classes
which is not always the case. One wonders if these are the real
causes of violence and whether society is really to be blamed.
There can be so many causes of violence: can we say that these
people are genetically responsible for their own actions
regardless of society? What about violent behaviour arising out
of jealousy? Many times violence arises only because the
opponent—women and children—is weaker. Why else don't these
men beat up people on the street, or why do adults control their
children through beating them?
Thus, it is
important that a study be carried out to understand what really
is wrong in the 'safe' confines of the home. It has been
reported by John Lonergan, the governor of a prison in Ireland,
that 'men are generally well behaved and cooperative when they
are put into a prison and remain very anxious about their
relationship with their partner. There is no question of their
being violent here.' It therefore becomes important, as is often
argued, that it is essential to remove these men from the family
home so that they can realise the pain they have caused to their
wives and their children.
A question
commonly put to the battered women is: 'Why don't you simply
leave him?' Again, the answers are complex: a woman continues to
suffer endlessly largely because she has no self-worth left. Her
state of mind is so shattered that she cannot make difficult
decisions. Financial dependence on her partner aggravates this
condition. Many women suffer for the sake of their children, not
realising that the children would be better off in a more secure
environment. Some hope the beatings will stop and others just
want to avoid the stigma of being known as a 'battered wife'. A
large number of women worry about being eventually found and
beaten to death by the abandoned husband. Colgan urges women to
not accept the depravity that they endure from their partners
because their physical and emotional abuse along with the abuse
of their children has wide-ranging consequences for society.
The innumerable hair-raising
stories in this book make dreadful and disquieting reading and
expose aspects of home life that are kept concealed for their
entire life.
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‘HE
went to the cupboard, took out the hammer and came back to the
table. Then he calmly asked me which two fingers I wanted
broken. I thought that he was just trying to frighten me but
soon I realised that he wasn't. He said that I had 10 seconds
to decide and that if I didn't tell him he was going to break
every one of my fingers. I tried to reason with him and then
without any warning, he lifted the hammer and smashed it down
on to the last two fingers of my left hand. I almost passed
out with pain. He made me sit on the chair all night without
moving, I had to urinate without moving off the chair. I felt
so humiliated.'
