By Jose Kavi
New Delhi, Nov 28, 2921: A Catholic woman theologian says a recent national survey has revealed how deeply entrenched are patriarchal attitudes in Indian women.
The National Family Health Survey shows that around 80 percent women in three Indian states justified men beating their wives. More than 30 percent women from 14 of the 18 states and Union Territories surveyed justified men beating their wives under certain circumstances, while lesser percentage of men rationalized such behavior.
The Indian women “accept their secondary status and they even say their first priority is taking care of their husband, children and home,” says Virginia Saldanha, reacting to news reports on the survey.
Saldanha, a leader of the Indian Christian Women Movement, regrets that women accept that it is correct for their husbands to beat them if they disrespect their in-laws and neglect children and housework.
The survey found that 84 percent women in Telangana accepted domestic violence, followed by Andhra Pradesh (84 percent) and Karnataka (77 percent).
Saldanha expressed surprise that 52.4 percent women in Kerala that tops literacy among Indian states, accepted domestic violence. In Manipur, a tribal state in northeastern India that practices matriarchy, 65.9 percent women found nothing wrong in husbands beating them.
“This could be their Christian religious background which teaches that man is the head of the family,” Saldanha told Matters India.
Other states where a large number of women justified domestic violence are Jammu and Kashmir (49 percent), Maharashtra (44 percent) and West Bengal (42 percent).
Only 14.8 percent women in the northern Indian state of Himachal justified husband beating their wives.
The highest number of men justifying wife-beating was in Karnataka, 81.9 percent, and least was in Himachal Pradesh, 14.2 percent.
The survey put forward the probable circumstances under which a husband beats his wife: if he suspects her of being unfaithful; if she disrespects in-laws; if she argues with him; if she refuses to have sex with him; if she goes out without informing him; if she neglects the house or the children; if she doesn’t cook good food.
Saldanha says the younger generation in cities will accept domestic violence. “They would rather not be married. If they are married, they would walk out at the first signs of violence. That is the only way men will learn that they have to behave themselves and change, to make their marriage a partnership of equality rather than dominance,” she added.