Skip to main content

South Rajasthan's 54% rural women beaten up for leaving home without nod: Report

 
Finding crucial relationship between what it calls “unpaid work” and sexual violence as a social norm in rural Rajasthan, a new study, carried out by high-profile NGO Oxfam India, has found that a whopping 54.4% of women it had interviewed were beaten up as and when they attempted to leave house without permission, while in 86.4% cases they were harshly criticized for this type of “disrespect” shown to their male folks in the family.
Carried out in five blocks of Udaipur district, Barwada, Salumbar, Sayra, Kherwada and Royda, the study, “On Women’s Back: India Inequality Report 2020”, quoting Oxfam India’s Household Care Survey 2019, further finds that 42.2% women were beaten up for failing to fetch water or firewood for the family, and 64.7% were harshly criticized for failing to perform this “crucial” household duty.
Further, it says, 41.2% women were beaten up for failing to prepare meal for men in the family, while 67.9% were “harshly criticized”; 32.6% were beaten up for leaving their dependent/ill unattended, and 60.6% were beaten up; 33% were beaten up for failing to care children, and 53.4% were harshly criticized; 26.3% were beaten up for spending money without asking, and 42% were harshly criticized; and 24.3% were beaten up for disobeyed men in family, and 42.6% were harshly criticized.
Despite such rampant sexual violence, the report, authored by two researchers Amrita Nandy and Diya Dutta, with inputs from a grassroots organization, Aajivika Bureau, says, “It was surprising to find that a majority of those we interviewed in rural Udaipur … mentioned that they had never faced sexual harassment…", even though they also revealed that the fear of sexual harassment was "the main cause for low participation of girls in school/college and women in labour.”
Suggesting that this type of violence on women for their “unpaid work”, which mainly involves household chores, has huge toll on the economy, the report cites a World Bank estimate to say, “In India, women’s contribution to its GDP is one of the lowest in the world: 17%.
The researchers say, they selected Udaipur -- known for its elite tourist attraction -- in order to do field study “because of its strong patriarchal culture, high levels of illiteracy and reasonable representation of traditionally marginalized communities such as Tribals (Scheduled Tribes), Dalits (Scheduled Castes) and Muslims”.
Conclusions were drawn following seven focus group discussions (FGDs) in a participatory workshop mode and 74 in-depth interviews with mostly poor respondents with a monthly income of less than Rs 10,000.
Gender-based violence inflicted upon South Rajasthan women (%)
Pointing out that the region was also selected because “heavy exodus of rural migrants from southern Rajasthan comprises 80 percent males”, the report, however, regrets, available literature on this features women only as having been ‘left behind’, bearing “an increased burden of labour”, and experiencing “greater autonomy with regard to decision making and mobility”.
However, the report underlines, most of the literature on migration “is silent about these women’s lives, especially the nature and degree of intensive paid and/or unpaid labour performed by rural women.”
It adds, “There is scant research on women migrants”, especially in the context of the fact that “women in migrant household continue to perform a high degree of unpaid and underpaid work to keep the households afloat, exacerbated by the care work they have to perform for their sick and burnt out husbands upon their return from migration.”
The report further laments, “Rural women tend to justify men’s work as ‘hard work’ and women’s work as inconsequential”, adding, “At discussion with elderly women from the Dalit community in rural Udaipur, the women were expressly uncomfortable to talk about women’s unpaid care work as they thought it was natural, compulsory work and not worth wasting time discussing in a gathering.”
Pointing out that as against the national average of crimes against women (17.5%), Rajasthan has a higher incidence (39.5%), and reporting of “such cases have seen a rise in the past decade since the Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act became a civil instrument”, the report says, “Violence against women has another insidious but fatal face – the outright neglect of women’s health.”
Citing medical data from Amrit clinics, running in 4 blocks of the region and serving a population of about 1,15,000 people, the report says, "Almost 99% ST women in these areas are anemic. Some families refuse to seek treatment for the daughters-in-law, even during the time of delivery or when the woman is too weak to perform any labour in the house.”
Noting that “such neglect is accompanied by a general lack of respect, contempt and verbal abuse by the husband and his family”, the report cites colloquial expressions in the local dialect suggest such as:
  • Lugayia ri buddhi to choti mei ya goda mei veve (a woman’s brain is either in her braid or in her knees); 
  • Aadmi ke to sau dimaag hain, ghaagra ro gher jitro lugaayi ra dimaag hai (a man’s brain is equal to a 100 brains, but a woman’s brain is as big as the circle of her skirt); 
  • Aurtaan to paav ri jooti hai, paav mei chhala ho gya to ek utaari dusri pehen li (a woman is like a shoe, if you get blisters, you can get a new shoe; implying that a man can find a new wife if he doesn’t like the old wife); 
  • Aurtaan to ghar ri kheti hai, ek gyi to dusri aayi (women are like locally produced vegetables, you can always get a new one if the older ones get stale); 
  • Kutte ri tarah vou vou kare, aadmi ke saamne to chup rehna chahiye (if a woman speaks in front of a man she is compared to a dog and is advised to stay silent in front of him). 
---
Click HERE to read full report

Comments

TRENDING

Irrational? Basis for fear among Hindus about being 'swamped' by Muslims

I was amused while reading an article titled "Ham Paanch, Hamare Pachees", shared on Facebook, by well-known policy analyst Mohan Guruswamy, an alumnus of the John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University, and the Graduate School of Business, Stanford University. Guruswamy, who has also worked as an advisor to the Finance Minister with the rank of Secretary to the Government of India, seeks to probe, as he himself states, "the supposed Muslim attitude to family planning"—a theme that was invoked by Narendra Modi as Gujarat Chief Minister ahead of the December 2002 assembly polls.

Why's Australian crackdown rattling Indian students? Whopping 25% fake visa applications

This is what happened several months ago. A teenager living in the housing society where I reside was sent to Australia to study at a university in Sydney with much fanfare. The parents, whom I often met as part of a group, would tell us how easily the boy got his admission with the help of "some well-meaning friends," adding that they had obtained an education loan to ensure he could study at a graduate school.

Tracking a lost link: Soviet-era legacy of Gujarati translator Atul Sawani

The other day, I received a message from a well-known activist, Raju Dipti, who runs an NGO called Jeevan Teerth in Koba village, near Gujarat’s capital, Gandhinagar. He was seeking the contact information of Atul Sawani, a translator of Russian books—mainly political and economic—into Gujarati for Progress Publishers during the Soviet era. He wanted to collect and hand over scanned soft copies, or if possible, hard copies, of Soviet books translated into Gujarati to Arvind Gupta, who currently lives in Pune and is undertaking the herculean task of collecting and making public soft copies of Soviet books that are no longer available in the market, both in English and Indian languages.

Gujarat slips in India Justice Report 2025: From model state to mid-table performer

Overall ranking in IJR reports The latest India Justice Report (IJR), prepared by legal experts with the backing of several civil society organisations and aimed at ranking the capacity of states to deliver justice, has found Gujarat—considered by India's rulers as a model state for others to follow—slipping to the 11th position from fourth in 2022.

Punishing senior citizens? Flipkart, Shopsy stop Cash on Delivery in Ahmedabad!

The other day, someone close to me attempted to order some goodies on Flipkart and its subsidiary Shopsy. After preparing a long list of items, this person, as usual, opted for the Cash on Delivery (popularly known as COD) option, as this senior citizen isn't very familiar with online prepaid payment methods like UPI, credit or debit cards, or online bank transfers through websites. In fact, she is hesitant to make online payments, fearing, "I may make a mistake," she explained, adding, "I read a lot about online frauds, so I always choose COD as it's safe. I have no knowledge of how to prepay online."

A conman, a demolition man: How 'prominent' scribes are defending Pritish Nandy

How to defend Pritish Nandy? That’s the big question some of his so-called fans seem to ponder, especially amidst sharp criticism of his alleged insensitivity during his journalistic career. One such incident involved the theft and publication of the birth certificate of Masaba Gupta, daughter of actor Neena Gupta, in the Illustrated Weekly of India, which Nandy was editing at the time. He reportedly did this to uncover the identity of Masaba’s father.

Of lingering shadow of Haren Pandya's murder during Modi's Gujarat days

Sunita Williams’ return to Earth has, ironically, reopened an old wound: the mysterious murder of her first cousin, the popular BJP leader Haren Pandya, in 2003. Initially a supporter of Narendra Modi, Haren turned against him, not sparing any opportunity to do things that would embarrass Modi. Social media and some online news portals, including The Wire , are abuzz with how Modi’s recent invitation to Sunita to visit India comes against the backdrop of how he, as Gujarat’s chief minister, didn’t care to offer any official protocol support during her 2007 visit to Gujarat.  

Area set aside in Ahmedabad for PM's affordable housing scheme 'has gone to big builders'

Following my article on affordable housing in Counterview, which quoted a top real estate consultant, I was informed that affordable housing—a scheme introduced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi—has deviated from its original intent. A former senior bureaucrat, whom I used to meet during my Sachivalaya days, told me that an entire area in Ahmedabad, designated for the scheme, has been used to construct costly houses instead. 

Just 5% Gujarat Dalit households 'recognise' social reformers who inspired Ambedkar

An interesting survey conducted across 22 districts and 32 villages in Gujarat sheds light on the representation of key social reformers in Dalit households. It suggests that while Dr. B.R. Ambedkar's photo was displayed in a majority of homes, images of Lord Buddha and the 19th-century reformist couple, Savitribai Phule and Jyotiba Phule, were not as commonly represented.