During the 16 days of activism against gender-based violence that follow the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women on 25 November, we must mobilise people everywhere to bring an end to domestic violence.

You can’t isolate poverty from domestic violence or domestic violence from poverty. They go together. We need to look at domestic violence as an aspect of poverty although it occurs in all social classes and goes beyond poverty. One of the main reasons women are excluded from the workforce and live in poverty in India is domestic violence, with over 1 in 2 women being impacted by it. Poverty is a type of violence, we’re not giving women a chance to come out of their poverty, we’re not giving them enough opportunities for education, livelihood, nutritious food or health. This is an issue that we need to urgently solve.

As part of our health leader program, we help to prevent domestic violence. One of our health leaders in Chandauli worked with a family to stop violence against a young woman who had just married the son. Her mother-in-law and husband demanded a dowry and began beating her. She went home to her parents, returned with money, but demands for money continued. The woman refused to ask her parents for any more and the mother-in-law with her son, kept beating her mercilessly. The health leader stepped in, took her out of the situation, counselled the husband and mother-in-law and explained the importance of respecting women - for their own dignity as much as anything, as beating the young woman put them in a poor light as well as that it’s a crime.

Health Leaders in India

The health leaders are taught to either knock on the door of the house where beating or verbal abuse is happening, to shift focus from the immediate, or step into the house and ask for something as mundane as a bowl of sugar, or ask the time.  This immediately stops the violence for that minute and many a time the moment of anger will pass.

One of the ways we can tackle domestic violence is by providing women with livelihoods, so they become a valuable member of the family and community and they’re not considered a burden on their family. Opportunity International Australia provides women in India with small loans to build businesses, giving them an income and helping them to earn the respect of their husband and parents-in-law. Earning an income boosts their economic value, women gain rights and dignity and domestic violence reduces.

So, during the 16 days of activism against gender-based violence, let’s help reduce violence by giving women livelihoods so they can be viewed as valuable assets in their families.

If you’d like to help women in India to earn a living and escape domestic violence click here. 

Mukti Bosco is the Director General of Healing Fields Foundation.