Prevalence of Gender Based Domestic Violence (A Case Study) with the Special Reference to Eravur Pattu Divisional Secretariat Division, Batticaloa District, Sri Lanka

Abstract

Despite numerous violence emerged and recognised in most part of the world, gender based violence causes severe impact on both mentally and physically to both the genders which ultimately threats the future of younger generation. As whole, it is evidenced by various Government and Non-Governmental activities in order to minimize the impacts towards the evolution to a peaceful nature from the household level. Violence against women is a widespread problem in Sri Lanka where cultural values and norms serve to highlight the abusive practices against women. The present study was conducted in Eravur Pattu Divisional Secretariat Division (Chenkalady), Sri Lanka in order to evaluate the current situation with the clinical based signs of the affected ones. Primary and secondary data were collected from the Primary Health Care Centres which is widely distributed in the study location of the Eravur Pattu Divisional Secretariat Division, Sri Lanka. According to the statistical responses derived from the records from the local authorities, more than 70% of the total women were victimized in broad terms of physical, sexual and psychological abuses. It was relatively higher (90%) in the villages named as Marapalam (78%), Karadiyanaru (75%), Sinnapullumalai (83%), and Periapullumalai (80%). Moreover, physical abuses (81.5%) including slapping, pinching, kicking, burning etc were slightly higher while comparing with the sexual abuse (unwanted sexual contact- 48%) and emotional abuse (verbally humiliated/ illegal- 67%) at the identified locations. However, the present study indicates that there is a significant reduction while comparing with the yester years which might be due to the proper awareness on the basis of compromising and facing problems supported by the services carried out by the local organizations in Sri Lanka. The random sampling method has been used while interviewing the samples, and the available records from the authorities have been used for analysing.