NEW DELHI: Nearly one in three women globally experience physical or sexual violence in her lifetime, said WHO on Monday. Estimates suggest that the South-East Asia Region (SEARO) ranks second highest, at around 33%, in the world where women experience physical or sexual violence.
Stressing that everyone has the right to a life free of violence and coercion, the WHO SEARO regional director Dr Poonam Khetrapal Singh said that most women are at greater risk of being abused by the people they live with. Most of this is in the form of intimate partner violence, she added.
“Violence against women, especially intimate partner violence, has serious health impacts, both immediate and long term. These encompass injuries as well as serious physical, mental, sexual and reproductive health problems,” she said.
The very high prevalence of violence against women and its significant health impacts place it among today’s priority public health issues, she said. Marking the start of ‘16 Days of Activism’ against ‘Gender-based Violence’, she said violence against women is preventable. “It is rooted in gender inequality and harmful gender norms that make violence against women acceptable. In particular, evidence shows that intimate partner violence and sexual violence result from factors occurring at individual, family, community and wider society levels,” Dr Singh said.