Gender-based Violence in an Indian Resettlement Colony Threatened with Re-eviction

ABSTRACT Od tribals who migrated to India during the Indo-Pakistan partition of 1947 were resettled by the Government of India in 1987 in the Bhatti Mines area near Delhi, India. However, in 1991, the area was declared a wildlife sanctuary, and the tribals were threatened with eviction a second time. We studied gender-based violence (GBV) in this community subjected to repeated displacement. A systematic randomized sample of 200 households was studied. The revised Conflict Tactics Scale (CTS2) questionnaire was used to identify victims of GBV. Correlation with age at marriage, education, household income, deprivation score, and alcoholism were investigated. About 33% of women were married before the legal age for marriage – some as young as 10 years. Approximately 26% of households were multidimensionally deprived. About 50% of women reported GBV and 44% reported GBV in the preceding year. Low income and alcohol abuse were independently related to GBV. We did not find an association with underage marriage or the education of the partners. GBV in the area far exceeded the national average of 30%. The relationship we found between GBV with poverty and alcoholism has been reported in studies from different parts of the world. It may be speculated that the increased GBV in this area could be the result of the hopelessness induced by repeated involuntary displacement suffered by this community. Methods to tackle the menace of GBV, even in the adverse circumstances of this community, are discussed.