Violence against women and girls (VAW) occurs all over the world, regardless of age, class, ethnicity, and culture. It can include physical, sexual or psychological violence and can have serious implications for a woman’s physical and mental health. Gender-based Violence (GBV) also contributes to the cycle of poverty for many women, children, and families by disempowering women, restricting their participation in the community, and degrading the health status and economic capacity of the family as a whole.  

While both men and women experience violence, the risk factors, patterns, and consequences of violence against women are different than violence against men. Referring to violence as 'gender-based' highlights the need to understand violence against women in the context of the behaviours, norms, and attitudes that legitimise and perpetuate the subordinate position of women in South Asian Society. Women and girls around the world experience countless acts of violence throughout their lives, simply because they are women. 

GBV - a public health concern

Violence against women has been recognised as a major public health and human rights issue. In the context of sexual and reproductive health (SRH), GBV has been linked to an increased risk of unwanted pregnancies, pregnancy complications, gynecological disorders, unsafe abortions, miscarriages, and sexually transmitted infections (STIs), including HIVand AIDS. Fear of violence may also hinder women's ability to seek and access treatment and care.           

Why should SRH service providers address gender-based violence?

• Women who experience GBV are at increased risk for a variety of SRH-related problems. Violence can limit a woman's ability to negotiate the use of condoms or other contraception, thereby increasing her risk of unintended pregnancies and STIs.
• Providers may misdiagnose clients or offer inappropriate care if they do not ask about violence. Without knowing a woman's experience of violence, it can be difficult for providers to properly diagnose or treat conditions such as re-occuring STIs and chronic pain, or provide effective and appropriate counselling.
• Health care providers are strategically placed to identify women at risk of GBV. Health programs-especially those that provide SRH programs-are often among the few institutions that have routine contact with most adult women in developing countries.
• Health professionals can help to change societal attitudes about violence against women because they can reframe violence as a health problem instead of just a social custom or private family problem. Conservative elements of society that tolerate or justify violence against women sometimes change their views when health professionals demonstrate the negative consequences of GBV for women's health and children's health.

Health professionals can inadvertently put women at risk or increased risk, if they are uninformed or unprepared. This could happen by:

• Expressing negative attitudes to clients about women who are beaten and raped.
• Responding poorly to a disclosure of violence (e.g., blaming the victim).
• Breaching patient confidentiality by sharing information about a client's medical history without her consent or discussing a woman's injuries in an environment where a potentially violent partner can overhear.
• Missing warning signs that woman is in danger of suicide or homicide and failing to offer crisis intervention.

- adapted from Improving the Health Sector Response to Gender-based Violence: A Resource Manual for Health Care Professionals in Developing Countries, IPPF Western Hemisphere Region, 2004.

Our Work in the South Asia Region

Sexual and reproductive health settings present unique opportunities to address gender-based violence. Because family planning clinics are often the primary providers of health care to women in this region, they may be among the few sites where women experiencing can seek support.

In many South Asian countries, including Bangladesh and Nepal, entrenched gender inequality and discrimination limits women's awareness of their right to a life free from coersion and violence. It also restricts their ability to access medical care, advice and counselling and to turn to law enforcement agencies for protection. Between 2004 and 2008, IPPF South Asia Region worked with its Member Associations in Bangladesh and Nepal to address GBV through the project, Working Towards Safe Motherhood in South Asia: Combating gender-based violence during pregnancy in Bangladesh and Nepal. For more information about violence against women in Bangladesh and Nepal, please click here.