Violence Against Women

ICRW program gives young Indian man the confidence to speak up about violence against women.

How You Can Help Support our efforts to involve men and boys in improving women’s lives.     Donate Now »

MUMBAI, India – On a sweltering Saturday in the Shivaji Nagar slum, women in jewel-toned saris squat in the narrow entrances of their homes, washing clothes between their feet. Others bend to place dal papads – a type of flatbread – on baskets to dry in the sun. Meanwhile, countless children run barefoot, their playful giggles filling the humid air.

The children’s melodies mix with the noise of blowing aluminum strips that hang above some of the community’s skinny walkways. The strips are leftover decorations from Eid, a Muslim celebration. When an occasional breeze hits them, they produce a symphony of sound, much like a rainstorm on a tin roof.

One of the walkways here leads to 20-year-old Rajesh Jadhav’s house. A plaque on his family’s front door reading “God Bless Our Home,” greets guests, as does a handshake from Rajesh. The cane stalk-thin young man with soft eyes and a wide smile is part of the International Center for Research on Women’s (ICRW) “Parivartan” program.

As he settles in a chair inside the small square space that he, his parents and his younger brother share, Rajesh describes how certain interactions he observed between boys and girls stung him inside. How they made him feel helpless.

Like that one time on the train.

As is custom, Rajesh explains that women stood in a compartment relegated for them. But the train was packed on this day, so some women were in the general area, alongside men. That’s when Rajesh saw a few men deliberately brush up against women. His eyes caught the pained looks on women’s faces.

Another time – actually, many other times – Rajesh says he was with friends when they harassed girls with lewd comments. He says he’s seen friends do so if they thought a girl was too tall. If they thought her skin was too dark. If she was with her boyfriend, they’d comment about what she did with him sexually.

In India, such behavior by Rajesh’s friends is called “eve teasing.” It runs the gamut, from making suggestive remarks to groping women, and is relatively common in public settings.

“I always used to feel … that we look at women and girls from a narrow perspective, and we make fun of their existence,” says Rajesh, who is pursing a bachelor’s degree in commerce at a nearby college – a rare opportunity in his community. “I’ve seen girls break down and cry and I couldn’t do anything.”

Until now.

These days, Rajesh has the confidence to speak out against mistreating women and girls. Sometimes, he even intervenes to stop it. He admits to being pressured to harass girls, too – and has in the past – but no more. “I know now that is harming someone’s dignity.”

As a participant in ICRW’s Parivartan program, Rajesh has become an ambassador of sorts, preaching to his peers that women shouldn’t be controlled, and that men need to learn how to handle problems without using violence.

Parivartan – which means “change for the better” – helps boys and young men see women and girls as equals, and treat them respectfully. The program attracts participants through the popular sport of cricket. It challenges them to question traditional beliefs around manhood – for instance, that men don’t do housework and they never cry – as well as notions about women’s roles in society.

Rajesh serves as a Parivartan mentor to a cricket team of 10- to 16-year-olds called the New Generation Sports Club. Like Rajesh, the young athletes hail from Shivaji Nagar, which has some 600,000 residents, most of them Muslim.

Through a series of workshops, Rajesh is learning how to pass on the messages of Parivartan to young cricketers. A set of 12 training cards offers some guidance. Each card addresses a certain subject, provides sample language to spur a discussion, questions for players and guidance on how to wrap up discussions. The cards explore topics such as the affects of using insulting language, social expectations for men and the harm men can cause by bragging about their sexual relationships with women.

Rajesh has started talking to his athletes about some of the program’s principles. He thinks it’s making a difference – evident, Rajesh says, by how his team behaved during a recent cricket tournament sponsored by Apnalaya, an organization that partners with ICRW on Parivartan.

“None of my boys uttered a bad word during the match,” Rajesh beams. “I’m so proud to be there to see some changes in them.”

They’re not the only ones experiencing a transformation.

Before Parivartan, Rajesh seldom helped around the house and didn’t listen to anyone, says his mother, Shanta, as she sits on the floor of their home where framed pictures of Jesus and Mary hang. “I can’t tell you how much he’s improved,” she says. “Now he tries to listen, tries to understand and resolve the situation in a much more peaceful way.”

“He’s has become more loving and caring.”

Rajesh’s 17-year-old brother, Rahul, agrees. He says they’re much closer now. They talk more. “He’s become more respectful,” Rahul says. “I want to be like him.”

Rajesh says he feels he now has a role to play in his community, particularly as it relates to preventing violence against women. He feels a responsibility to talk to his friends about how they treat and view women, even if much of what he says may go against what is socially expected of Indian men.

“It will be a struggle,” Rajesh says. “But I believe there will be a break in it, and my friends will come to understand me and why I respect girls and women.”

“I have a strong feeling,” he says, “that I can change them.”

Gillian Gaynair is ICRW's writer/editor.

Challenging traditional ideas about what it means to be a man can prevent violence against women worldwide, according to Gary Barker of the International Center for Research on Women (ICRW).

“Violence against women is a gross violation of human rights and a threat to a woman’s health and well-being,” Barker, ICRW’s director of gender, violence and rights, told the U.S. House of Representatives Human Rights Commission on April 15. “We must acknowledge that men’s use of violence against women is, in much of the world, rooted in women’s limited social and economic power.”

Barker’s testimony came two months after the U.S. Congress reintroduced the International Violence Against Women Act (IVAWA). The legislation, in part, underscores the importance of working with men and using research evidence in efforts to curb violence worldwide.

Global research shows that one in three women faces physical or sexual violence at some point in her life. However, decades of analysis by ICRW proves there are solutions that can reverse this trend, including engaging men and boys as partners, rather than as perpetrators of violence.

In his testimony, Barker explained to the commission that ending violence against women requires more than a legal response. Instead, it demands complementary efforts that promote more equitable relationships between women and men and that address societal notions around manhood.

“We have to teach boys that being a man really means respecting women and accepting them as equals,” Barker said. “Research suggests that well-designed group education with boys and men, particularly when combined with community outreach and mass media and communication strategies, can help change men’s attitudes about violence against women.”

Gillian Gaynair is ICRW's writer/editor.
 

For Haiti to recover from the devastating Jan. 12 earthquake, for it to reinvent itself and reposition itself regionally, more than new buildings need to rise. The island nation requires a new social foundation. International donors gathering in New York on March 31 to discuss innovative ideas for Haiti’s future will do well to recognize that their efforts will go farther, faster if women are the center of Haiti’s renewal.  

Every nation’s greatest asset is its people, and in Haiti, women’s activities – such as farming and commerce – make up more than three-quarters of the country’s informal economy. That’s significant, because in Haiti, the poorer the household, the more dependent it is on revenue generated by women, regardless of whether that household is headed by a man or a woman.  

Yet despite women’s contributions and strong presence – they are more than half of Haiti’s population – the inequities of Haitian society remain extreme.  Almost 60 percent of Haitian women cannot read or write. Early marriage is common, with 24 percent of girls wedded before the age of 18. Haiti’s fertility rate is the highest in the region, and its maternal mortality rate leads, too, with 670 deaths for every 100,000 children born. Haiti also holds the region’s highest rates of violence against women, which is among the highest in the world.

This was the landscape before the earth shook.

Now, Haiti has the opportunity to reverse inequities, and build a better nation for all of its citizens. It will require creating targeted opportunities for women to participate fully in Haitian society, and have a meaningful role in what stands to be a decades-long reconstruction of their country. But Haiti’s women cannot contribute wholly if they’re not educated and healthy and if they can’t give birth safely or stay free of violence. With that, it’s imperative that the international community make committed investments in Haitian women as central actors in every phase of Haiti’s recovery. Indeed, research conducted during the past 30 years demonstrates that women can play a critical part in social and economic development when they have access to economic resources – such as the right to earn a living, access to credit or the ability to own land; when their education levels rise and their nutrition and health improves; and when the threat of domestic violence diminishes.  When these types of conditions are met, women are better positioned to make a difference.

Given the evidence, it’s critical that officials make Haitian women an integral part of their discussions at the United Nations’ international donors’ conference about Haiti’s future. A call to do this already exists in the Millennium Development Goals and was reiterated earlier this month when the UN convened its 54th Commission on the Status of Women.

What’s more, there are models of practical approaches for creating more equitable societies in developing countries like Haiti. Rwanda is just one example of a country that did it right by using reconstruction as an opportunity to promote gender equality. How? Following the genocide of 1994, Rwanda created one of the world’s most gender equitable constitutions, with mechanisms to support women’s rights at the local, regional and national levels. Lawmakers endorsed legislation and made commitments to end violence against women.

Today, 56 percent of the country’s parliament members are women – the highest representation of female elected officials in the world. Rwanda also created a monitoring body called the Gender Observatory that ensures that equality between women and men is upheld in government at all levels. With a commitment to advancing women’s educational and business skills, Rwanda’s economy has stabilized to what it was before the genocide. In 2008, the country even registered record-high economic growth of 11 percent.

Haiti, too, could experience similar outcomes.

Rebuilding its society without leaving half its people behind – women – but rather, working in partnership with them, can help Haiti have a better chance of emerging from the rubble with a stronger foundation for its renewal.
 

Sarah Degnan Kambou is chief operating officer of the International Center for Research on Women in Washington, D.C. A globally recognized expert in gender relations, she focuses on issues related to health and development. Degnan Kambou holds a doctorate in international health policy and a master’s in public health from Boston University.