49% violence survivors suffered marital rape, says report

Aditi Tandon

New Delhi, February 21

Marital rape could be widespread in Indian homes with nearly half the survivors of domestic violence who reached India’s oldest crisis response centre, Dilasaa, over two decades reporting sexual violence in a marital relationship.

Publishing the first set of scientific evidence on forced sex in marriages in the country, the Centre for Enquiry Into Health And Allied Themes (CEHAT), which runs India’s oldest hospital-based crisis department called Dilasaa in Mumbai, says, “Data from two decades of service records highlights the widespread prevalence (49 per cent) of sexual violence in a marital relationship in the form of forced sex and reproductive control and its health consequences. Despite non-recognition of marital rape by law, a sensitive enquiry within a health facility can enable disclosure and support-seeking to mitigate sexual violence within marriages.”

Indian health systems do not measure marital rape.

The critical data set published for the first time emerges from experiences which 3,435 survivors of violence shared with care providers at the crisis centre, which was set up by CEHAT in 2000 in collaboration with the Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai.

The analysis further shows 40 per cent survivors of violence were aged 18 to 35 years, which is the prime reproductive age; eight in 10 were married, and 89 per cent were either unemployed or in the informal sector.

The CEHAT brief, which found intimate partner or husband to be the perpetrator in a whopping 82 per cent cases, makes a case for health-based crisis response to domestic and sexual violence with women reporting even marital rape only in intimate health response settings to care providers.

The impact of violence on mental health was also huge — reported by 92 per cent women who came to Dilasaa.

Almost 32 per cent survivors reported having attempted suicide at some point in life.

“Physical injuries such as cuts, bruises and broken bones were predominantly reported. Abortions, stillbirths and miscarriages were other health outcomes of physical violence reported by the survivors,” says the CEHAT brief.

The landmark study could change the way policymakers look at sexual violence response, currently available only through one-stop centres functioning under the Women and Child Development Ministry. “Our analysis reveals the importance of a public health system-based response to domestic violence given the immense negative impact on the health of the survivors. We found that none of the survivors of marital rape reported violence to the police but did report abuse in a healthcare setting. Health workers are trained to pick covert signs of abuse such as anemia, malnutrition and broken bones syndrome among others. This may not be possible in a non-health care setting,” CEHAT’s Sangeeta Rege told The Tribune today, calling for policy intervention to ensure health facilities provide quality response and services to survivors of domestic violence.

The Dilasaa model has already been adopted by Kerala, Meghalaya, Karnataka, Haryana, Goa and Gujarat.

Dilaasa is being run by the Brihnamumbai Municipal Corporation since 2005. Apart from the original centre, 11 more such health-centric crisis response sectors have been set up in 11 peripheral hospitals in Mumbai.

Spousal abuse

• One in every four women above the age of 15 experiencing intimate partner violence at least once in their life, says UN’s review of the status of the sustainable development goal of “eliminating all forms of violence against all women and girls in the public and private spheres” by 2030
• The National Health and Family Survey-5 (2019-2021) showed that one in three women in India between the ages of 18 and 35 have experienced some form of violence by intimate partner in their lifetime
• Centre for Enquiry Into Health And Allied Themes data shows two in three survivors of violence are aged 18 to 35 years