Tamil Nadu has the tag of a ‘progressive State’ because of its achievements in various human development indicators. However, the recently published findings of the National Family Health Survey (NFHS) have revealed some deep-seated contradictions that necessitate collective soul-searching.
Consider this data: 44.7% of ever-married women experienced physical or sexual violence in the State, the second-highest in the country. Nearly 80% of the women think a husband is justified in hitting his wife, the third-highest in the country. 81% of women never sought help and never told anyone when they faced domestic violence. Even among the remaining who sought help, 81.6% sought help from their own family, while only 2.8% went to the police. The fact that only a tiny percentage of women sought help from the police is corroborated by the extremely low number of cases registered in Tamil Nadu under Section 498A of the IPC, which deals with cruelty by husbands. The previous NFHS surveys have also indicated the same.
While a contradiction of such a degree between educational and financial indicators and the indicators on gender-based violence is almost unique in Tamil Nadu, activists and experts say it need not come as a surprise.
