BENGALURU: Quest for intimacy is a common phenomenon among human relationships, but that spouses and dating partners, current and former, can end up hurting each other is being observed as a disturbing trend of emerging Intimate Partner Violence (IPV) worldwide.
According to a recent Lancet Psychiatry Commission study on ‘Intimate Partner Violence and Mental Health: Advancing Mental Health Services, Research and Policy’, IPV is emerging as the “most common form of violence worldwide and contributes substantially to the global burden of mental health problems”.
Globally, IPV is most commonly experienced by women and girls above 15 years (27%) and is associated with physical, mental, sexual and reproductive health problems, and death (due to homicide and suicide).
The paper, co-authored by Prabha Chandra, Professor of Psychiatry, Nimhans, and other international mental health experts, resonates the findings of the National Family Health Survey (NFHS)-5, which stated that 29.3% of married Indian women between the ages of 18 and 49 have faced domestic violence or sexual violence.
Karnataka tops the chart in NHFS-5 with 44% of married women surveyed in 2019-2021, claiming that they had faced domestic violence, followed by Bihar at 40% and Manipur at 39.6%.
The report, terming IPV as a “public health crisis that has catastrophic effects on individuals, families, and communities”, has also highlighted the role of technology in facilitating abuse, including on social media and other online platforms, the installation of stalkerware on personal devices, and manipulation of smart meters, locks and cameras.
“Globally, an estimated 27% of women and girls aged 15 or older have experienced physical or sexual IPV, including sexual and gender minorities, people with disabilities, migrants and people from marginalised ethnic or indigenous groups,” it stated.
The experts said exposure to IPV in childhood or adulthood can increase the likelihood of developing mental health problems and suicidal ideation.
Though IPV is endemic, mental health experts have stated that it is not “inevitable”.
The role of early and stage-specific target interventions in individuals, families, communities and societies, can go a long way to minimise the incidence of this disturbing trend.