Domestic Violence: What Hospital Records Tell Us

Abstract

Domestic violence against women is increasingly recognised as a major health and social problem in India. It is also a concerns for public health. Not only is violence against women widespread, deeply entrenched, silently borne, and relatively impervious to women's situation, but also attitudes uniformly justify wife-beating, and only a few women would opt out of an abusive marriage. At the same time, there is a dearth of information on the magnitude and patterns of domestic violence against women in India, particularly by way of community based data. Facility based data-from police, court, hospital and NGO records-do exist, but remain scattered, poorly maintained, and seldom used.