Women abuse still high in rural areas: Study

A qualitative study conducted in rural Bangladesh, have found that women abuse still remains very high regardless of changing gender roles that allows women to have a greater access to education, mobility and employment.

Further exploration revealed such changes in gender roles, women-focused NGO programmes, state policies on gender equality, promotion of female education, laws favouring women have generated a perception of male disadvantage.

These contribute to an adverse condition and spousal abuse. Men strongly perceive that development policies and women's empowerment initiatives were bypassing them and unduly favouring women at their expense.

The perception of rural Bangladeshi men towards women's empowerment is a zero-sum game resulting in a high level of wife abuse in rural Bangladesh, said the study conducted by icddr,b scientists and their partners.

The study, funded and coordinated by the Overseas Development Institute (ODI- UK) while Emory University, USA served as a partner, was conducted during April 2016 to April 2017 in five villages of Dhaka and Mymensingh divisions.

Some 40 key informant interviews, 11 focus group discussion, 23 in-depth interviews and 7 intergenerational trios with females and males have been conducted.

The study highlights the complex, multi-level nature of the drivers of perpetration of wife abuse at individual, household and community/societal level.

The study found that childhood exposure of men to violence particularly against women in the household and community contributes to the creation of perpetrator.