The U.N. health agency and its partners have revealed a staggering study claiming that 1 in 3 women worldwide has experienced physical or sexual violence in their lifetimes. The World Health Organization published the report on Tuesday based on what the agency called the largest-ever study of the prevalence of violence against women.
The report findings also suggest that such violence begin early, saying that a quarter of women who have been in a relationship go through violence by their intimate partners by the time they reach their mid-20s. The figures mentioned track a period from 2010 to 2018, which doesn’t cover the impact of the coronavirus pandemic.
The studies reveal a rise in domestic violence against women as lockdowns were in place and other restrictions forced people to stay indoors at home.
“Violence against women is endemic in every country and culture, causing harm to millions of women and their families, and has been exacerbated by the Covid-19 pandemic,” WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said, urging governments, individuals, and communities to help address the problem.
The study which the WHO initiated in 2013, surveys both violence by intimate partners of women and sexual violence by non-partners. The findings show that about 736 million women and girls over the age of 15 have come across at least one of these forms of violence.
Dr Claudia Garcia-Moreno of WHO's sexual and reproductive health and research unit said, “Globally, when we look at the combined effect of intimate partner violence and non-partner sexual violence, we have ... one in three women who have experienced at least one of these forms of violence.”
Violence by an intimate partner is a more common form of violence women around the globe experience says the agency, which affects nearly 641 million people.
However, 6 per cent of women reported that they have been sexually assaulted by someone other than their partner and that estimated number could be lesser in comparison to the real number owing to stigma about the incident and underreporting of sexual abuse.
The study found such violence disproportionately affects women in low- and lower-middle-income countries, with some countries showing a prevalence of about half of all women.