Spousal Violence against Women and Help Seeking Behavior of Abused Women in Dhaka Slum Kausar Parvin, icddr,b Ruchira Tabassum Naved, icddr,b

Background Spousal violence against women (VAW) in Bangladesh: - National rate 60% (BDHS, 2009) - Rate in urban slum 66% (UHS, 2008) 44% ever disclosed their experience - 7% of them sought help - 2% from formal sources (Naved et al., 2006) 39% of male and 48% of female slum dwellers justified VAW (UHS, 2008)

Objectives To indentify: Attitudes of women and men regarding gender and VAW Prevalence of different forms of VAW in the slums covered by SAFE Help seeking behavior of abused women

Women and men agreeing or strongly agreeing to statements related to gender and VAW, % Items Women (n=4458) Men (n=1617) People should be treated the same whether they are male or female A woman’s most important role is to take care of her home and cook for her family Men should share the work around the house with women A woman should obey her husband A man should have the final say in all family matters A woman should tolerate violence in order to keep her family together If someone insults a man, he should defend his reputation, with force if he has to A woman cannot refuse to have sex with her husband Men need sex more than women do A man should be outraged if his wife asks him to use a condom When a woman is raped, she is usually to blame for putting herself in that situation It is a woman’s responsibility to avoid getting pregnant There are times when a woman deserves to be beaten A women should have the right to divorce

Attitudes regarding gender and VAW Opinion regarding gender and VAW revealed highly gender-inequitable attitudes across gender Women held more gender equitable attitudes than men Both women and men had conventional notions of masculinities 100% women and men agreed with at least one gender inequitable statement presented to them

Examples of items used in measuring VAW Controlling behavior - restricting access to health care Emotional Violence - humiliating; intimidating; insulting etc Economic violence - prohibiting from work Physical violence - slapping, pushing/ shoving, kicking/dragging/beating etc Sexual Violence - physically forced sex, sex out of fear etc

Different forms of VAW during the last 12 months reported by women and men, %

Disclosure of violence and help seeking behavior 21% of the physically abused women disclosed their experience 19% sought help 6% of sexually abused women sought help Main reason for help seeking was inability to endure more Main reason for not seeking help was high acceptance of VAW

Source of help for physically abused women

Source of help for sexually abused women

Reasons for not seeking help for physical violence from institutions

Reasons for not seeking help for sexual violence from institutions

Recommendations Change violence condoning attitudes of women and men Work with community for creating space for abused women to share their problems Ensure informal and institutional support Make available services sensitive to the needs of abused women

Thank You