The National Family Health Survey (NFHS-5) presents a sobering picture of the pervasive violence against women in India. Almost 30% of women between the ages of 18-49 years have experienced physical violence beginning at age 15; 6% reported sexual violence. Evidence indicates that violence and mental health conditions have a reciprocal, cause-and-effect relationship, and both factors significantly heighten the risk of homelessness. In the three decades of working with homeless women with mental health conditions at The Banyan, we have witnessed this recursive interaction between violence against women, homelessness, and mental health almost universally.
Findings of relevance
A survey of 346 women accessing outpatient services at The Banyan found that relational disruptions, often in the background of violence, predicted homelessness, even when women had accessed care for their mental health — a finding that is mirrored in other studies globally. Another qualitative research that examined user accounts of trauma drawn from women with histories of homelessness showed that descriptions of experiences relating to violence in social relationships, experience of alienation and shame, and poverty did not entirely match with the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders conceptualisations of trauma.
