We must act to stop the "shadow pandemic" of violence against women.
· Violence
against women has increased globally as a result of COVID-19.
· According
to recent research, approximately one-fourth of all girls had experienced
gender-based violence by the age of 19
· To
stop this, we urgently need to ensure that women's rights are upheld and
safeguarded globally.
Globally,
violence against women and girls has gotten out of control. According to a
recent UN estimate, 736 million women globally, or one in three, have
experienced physical and psychological abuse. These numerous forms of abuse,
from sexual harassment to intimate partner violence, are extremely destructive
to women. And regrettably, since COVID-19 began, the problem has only become
worse.
Eradicating the violence against women
A
thorough examination of the data reveals that gender-based violence against
women begins at a young age: if they have been in a romantic relationship,
almost a quarter of all girls have experienced it by the age of 19. The threat
of physical and sexual assaults on women's well-being has reached epidemic
levels in recent years.
Eliminating
violence against women will be one of the most important moral issues of our
time. It is also feasible.
The key solution is to focus on survivors.
Connecting
women in at-risk communities with legal and personal safety experts can be a
crucial role for civil society organisations. These communities include
impoverished rural locations where victims of gender-based abuse frequently
have nowhere to turn. As a result, sexual assault frequently goes unchecked. As
a measure of responsibility and prevention, we must give priority to expanding
women's access to legal services. To make up for prior neglect, civil society
organisations with the necessary resources must be encouraged to interact with
women survivors and their communities.
Violence against women
There
are additional places where victims of traditional justice systems may exist.
To assist women and girls in this situation, we need local experts. The public
leadership hierarchy in places with traditional justice systems, like Eastern
Africa, starts with village elders. Service and advocacy organisations should
enable discussions regarding persistent stigmas and stereotypes with respected
elders.
Elders
must be shown the devastating first-hand experiences of sexual assault
survivors in order to humanise them. Women survivors may also receive
assistance with their mental health from civil society. Together, we must
demonstrate that treating survivors with care, rather than marginalising them,
is the proper course of action.
To
encourage women to consider sharing their stories, international organisations
should work with local government officials. Offering survivors protection is
essential, and lower-income areas should receive appropriate material support
from the international community to construct gender-based violence shelters.
Promoting access to feminine care is essential for empowering women as well.
Educating the next generation
Priority
must be given to educating the next generation to support women and girls.
Effective early education can help reduce violence against intimate partners,
according to research funded by the WHO. The message should be localised by
domestic women's rights organisations once international institutions have
provided guidelines on gender equality education reform. Boys and men should
start learning at a young age how to treat women with respect by using
appropriate language and body language. In other words, men and boys ought to
actively participate in the prevention drive.
It
is essential to safeguard the safety of women and girls travelling to school in
addition to putting fair and just educational strategies into place. School
buses should have ticket inspectors to confirm IDs in areas with a high risk of
crime. Education is a key component in the journey out of poverty, according to
a case study in Tanzania. Defeating the cycle of poverty and enabling women to
comprehend their human rights are both made possible by ensuring women's rights
to high-quality education.
Moral action is also smart economics
It
is crucial to remind hesitant people of the high economic repercussions of
gender inequality in order to motivate decisive action. Humans who are
subjected to physical and sexual abuse will see a reduction in their general health
and begin to skip work. Every day that abused women miss work, a nation's
productivity and overall economic production suffer. Therefore, every
government should take action and address violence against women.
Anyone
can be harmed by gender-based violence, although some groups are more
susceptible than others. For instance, it has a disproportionately negative
effect on women and girls who reside in underdeveloped areas. According to UN
Women, women in the so-called "least developed nations" have experienced
a startling 13 per cent increase in the rate of intimate partner violence over
the previous year. This shows that a disproportionate proportion of women in
underdeveloped areas experience abuse that may prevent them from advancing the
local economy, thereby sustaining a cycle of violence and destitution. The
poorest regions of the world will play a major role in the fight against
gender-based violence. Poor nations have the chance to accelerate economic
growth and reduce poverty by participating in the global movement to end
violence against women.
Human rights also include women's rights and vice versa.
Human
rights are also the rights of women and vice versa. People dared to envision a
more inclusive and compassionate 21st century when this idea was announced
during the Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing in 1995. We must act
quickly to enhance women's rights because violence against women is once again
on the rise.