essay

Contemporary Social Issues 

Sociology 

 Introduction
Worldwide violence and discrimination is carried out on the basis of three fundamental factors; class, caste and gender. Out of these three, the two former factors are prone to change and are changing because of present day development, especially the upward social mobility allowed through one‟s ability to achieve economic prosperity. However, on the contrary, Gender based violence (against women) and discrimination has remained without little change over the centuries of development facets, which the world has gone across.
Gender based violence is internalized in certain cultures such as most Asian and Middle east countries, which pave way for people become ignorant that there‟s a such problem is in existence. On the other hand, the situation of women and related violence and discrimination is not very different even in cultures known to be more liberal such as in Western cultures, mainly because women are a group physically deprived of strength against men.
The Universal phenomenon of violence against women is the result of historically unequal power relations between men and women, which have led to domination over and discrimination against women by men and to the prevention of women‟s full advancement. Violence is "the intentional use of physical force or power, threatened or actual, against oneself, another person, or against a group or community, which either results in or has a high likelihood of resulting in injury, death, psychological harm, mal development, or deprivation.
But Now-a-Days Violence affects the lives of millions of women and girls in all socio-economic classes around the world. It cuts across cultural and religious barriers and takes a variety of forms, from domestic abuse to the child marriages and female circumcision. Violence against women is largely unreported. Fear and stigma often prevent women from reporting incidents of violence or seeking assistance. In fact, 80 percent of women who have been physically abused by their partners have never informed the Police, NGOs or shelters. In December 1999, at the 54th Session, the UN General Assembly adopted a resolution declaring that November 25th the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women and Girls.
Overall, the world from beginning to the present has remained a patriarchal society, vesting men with power over women, both physical and otherwise, which has driven to these unceasing states of violence and discrimination against women. Accordingly, no woman in any country has escaped at least facing one form of violence despite their various differences of age, culture, ethnicity etc. the womanhood has bind them in their status of being prone to violence and discrimination.
While violence is generally thought of as illegitimate and illegal, by contrast with the „legitimate‟ force exercised by the state, the most destructive and extensive instances in recent history have been state organized and sanctioned. States have organized violence both as a means of punishment but also of entertainment and glorification of its power as with the Ancient Roman „games‟.
Further, violence is not only descriptive of a form of behavior, but is always normative in that it evokes a negative evaluation such that attempts to legitimate violence will use terms such as „force‟, „defense‟, „resistance‟, and so forth. „To call something “violent”‟ is often to give at least a prima facie reason why it is morally wrong‟. As Marvin and Ingle point out, people rarely accept responsibility for violence to own or enjoy it is taboo except for the most ritually circumscribed conditions. Moreover, since violence is intimately interconnected with the body, pain invulnerability, its discussion evokes fundamental issues of security, embodiment, culture and power.
Having such an understanding of the nature of Worldwide violence and discrimination carried out against women, this research is done by taking two newspapers of three weeks into consideration to gain a clear understanding of the nature of violence against women carried out in the Sri Lankan Context.

Topic
„VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN IN SRI LANKA‟
Problem of the Study
The research problem of this study that , at present There are various type of violence against women is increasing in Sri Lanka.
Place
Based on Sri Lanka wide
Time duration
From Second week of May 2014 to First week of June 2014
Objective of the Study
Primary objective
There are important objectives were planned to reach regarding in this research
To Demonstrate various type of violence against women in Sri Lanka
Secondary objective
To find out the causes for the violence against women
To find out the solution to eliminate the violence against women.
Data collection
Secondery Data collection:
Uthayan and Tamil mirror news papers were collected.
Definitions And Types Of Violence Against Women
Human rights and Fundamental rights of people convey much as a topic in the social conversations in the present era. Human Rights articles are declared to bring equality to „human beings‟ despite their gender or any other differentiations. This fact is evident in the Human Rights Articles which are in current usage. According to the Article 3, “Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of person” while Article 5 states that, “No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment”. Although the theory suggests the above particulars, worldwide situations of violence against women have proved the practice to be quite contrary to what is mentioned. In fact, in certain cultures, people, both men and women do not even recognize that there is a serious issue called violence against women is in existence.
The term "violence against women" means any act of gender-based violence that results in, or is likely to result in, physical, sexual or psychological harm or suffering to women, including threats of such acts, coercion or arbitrary deprivation of liberty, whether occurring in public or in private life (UN declaration article 1). According to CEDAW general recommendation 19 (1992) “gender-based violence is a form of discrimination that seriously inhibits women‟s ability to enjoy rights and freedoms on a basis of equality with men”. “CEDAW defines gender based violence as “violence that is directed against a woman because she is a woman or that affects women disproportionately”. Violence happens when one individual attempts to dominate another individual. War happens when a leader of one nation or faction attempts to dominate the other. Environmental destruction happens when people, nations and cultures attempt to dominate nature. Violence, war, and environmental destruction all result from the idea that one actor is dominant and one is submissive, the battle is constant over which role will be played by whom.
Such matters are internalized in both parties‟ mindset through their cultures and numerous social backgrounds, thus making people oblivious to the problem. A woman being violated is accepted as something, which comes part with their womanhood and thus alluding to the „fate‟ of being a woman. Does this means the woman is deprived of the status of a Human being, and therefore rather someone lower than the status of the man and the personhood? Such grave questions need be considered and answered accordingly, so as not only to make the status of women better but also for the betterment of society, for the woman is the fundamental person who is handling the family; the unit of origin of the society. Today, however, gender-based and sexual violence have become weapons of warfare and one of the defining characteristics of contemporary armed conflict. Examples of such worldwide brutality, specifically sexual violence against women abound. The social context for both the performance and understanding of violence is of central importance. One often hears the term „senseless violence‟, in cases where a serious violent incident was apparently unprovoked or has arisen from „insignificant‟ insults or altercation. The notion of „senseless‟ violence is, by implication, contrasted to some other „reasonable‟ kind, or perhaps suggests that what we find repugnant needs to be placed beyond the bound of sense.
Violence in its simple terms suggests “Behavior involving physical force intended to hurt, damage, or kill someone or something”. However , this definition is rather narrow to derive the meaning of Violence against women. Violence whereas women are involved, does not only mean physical damage such as domestic violence, rape, assault, sexual harassments and other types of harassments but also includes psychological violence, which can be equally or even more crucial, for neither facts or results are seen and shown to the outside. Thus violence against women can be mainly categorized in to four types as following.
Domestic violence
Domestic area is where violence against women is carried out most acutely. Although unknown and unreported, family is the area in which women are most discriminated and violated against most. The safe heaven thus becomes not the pleasant place when violence is carried out in the limited and secured area of the household. Domestic violence is also of several types; intimate partner violence, battering, marital rape and other sexual harassments, honor killing in certain cultural contexts, physical aggression, sexual coercion, psychological abuse and controlling behaviors. In fact, domestic violence includes almost all types of violence, physical to psychological violence. Although the degree of violence may differ from culture to culture and especially based on persons‟ ethical knowledge and social backgrounds, it is now acknowledged that most of the women
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in general are prone to domestic violence. However domestic violence against women can be called the most pathetic of the types, because the very place and people who are entitle to ensure the safety of women are the ones who carry out such acts. If the safe domesticity is such violated, it leaves no hope to ensure non-violence in the public phase of the society.
Sexual violence
Sexual violence is defined as “any sexual act, attempt to obtain a sexual act, or other act directed against a person‟s sexuality using coercion, by any person regardless of their relationship to the victim, in any setting”. It includes rape, sexual innuendo, insults and harassments. Women, regardless of their age, from infant to the old are prone to rape and sexual harassments due to their physical formation. Rape is the most crucial of sexual violence and although various laws are enforced in theory, the increasing number of news articles regarding rape all over the world prove that the laws has been of little or no use. Sexual insults and innuendoes are also frequent. The current society is such that, it would be a difficulty to find a woman who has not atleast subjected to sexual insults or innuendos. And no laws are even acknowledged to put a stop to such sexual insults. In most contexts, either West or East, the common call which is used to justify such insults is that “boys will be boys”. It is also pathetic that, such social phrases are used not only by men, but also by women themselves. Thus, a change of mind set along with strict laws and regulations are needed to the present society in order to answer these forms of violence.
Physical violence
“The most common form of violence experienced by women globally is physical violence inflicted by an intimate partner, with women beaten, coerced into sex or otherwise abused.” A woman battered is regarded as a natural phenomenon in most of the cultural traditions, especially in Eastern contexts. Physical violence is included in all forms of violence carried out except in the psychological violence. Even in not so traditional cultural area, the mere physical delicateness of a woman makes her a prey to physical violence.
Psychological violence “In a first approximation, psychological violence may be defined as the sort of violence which involves a psychological damage on the part of the agent who is being violated.”(Article: Psychological Violence). Psychological violence is the most
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crucial because, unlike other forms violence, there may not be signs to indicate the degree of violence to the outside. Psychological violence also includes degrading, harsh use of words and even negligence. A woman in a family being a victim of any form of psychological violence is quite common, yet this may pave way to various negative consequences. A woman‟s peace violated may also violate the entire well-being of the family. Although psychological violence is given little prominence in comparison to other forms of violence, calling forth a proper solution is nonetheless important, for a sound and peaceful mind is crucial in one‟s well-being.
The economical violence
The economical violence is the least known, but it must still be taken seriously. This form of violence can be defined by the total control of the finances of the family `s aggressor . He monitors how women spend their money. He decides where money should be spent or saved. He forces her to give him her earnings and may even stop her from working. All this leads the woman to be dependent on her spouse. Economic violence is when one domestic partner or spouse controls the money within the relationship and gives you a small allowance from your paycheck, that they demand be given to them, each payday. By controlling the money within the relationship a domestic abuser, also controls your actions by limiting them.
The spiritual violence
The spiritual violence is not negligible The aggressor can prevent the woman to go to the church, he can denigrate religious beliefs or even require a religious practice other than his own top of page. Spiritual violence occurs when someone uses your religious or spiritual beliefs to manipulate, dominate, or control you. Spiritual violence includes, but is not limited to, the following: trying to prevent you from practicing your religious or spiritual beliefs; making fun of your religious or spiritual beliefs; forcing you to raise your children in another religion or spiritual choice; and sing your religious or spiritual beliefs to manipulate, dominate or control you.
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3 Violence And Social Theory
Violence has not been a topic of central concern to sociological theory. It has of course been a major topic of research, especially in relation to violent crime and social conflict. But theoretically it has tended to be regarded as residual to questions of social integration, the state, power and conflict. Delanty (2001) points out that sociology emerged in relatively peaceful times and was animated by a vision of social order within a world of internally pacified nation states. Violence is what happens when integrative institutions and values breakdown. Even Marx, despite his generally unsentimental references to the inevitability of violence as a „cleansing force‟ in revolutionary change did not theorize violence per se, even less explore its potential as an agent of social formation. Subsequent Marxists spent a great deal of energy developing theories of social order and cohesion (ideology, hegemony, reified consciousness, etc.) rather than of violent struggle.
Weber not ably contrasted legitimate forms of domination to physical force and assumed that to persist for any time a social order would have to be based on legitimate (non-violent) domination. In such approaches the significance of violence (or its threat) in everyday life may have been neglected. The „recourse to violence and war‟ Giddens commented, „is an extraordinary blank spot in social theory‟ (1996), although he proceeds to discuss military and not interpersonal violence. Durkheim is something of an exception here and developed an analysis of violence that in some ways points towards the significance of violent scapegoating in later writers such as Freud and Girard. Durkheim‟s (2001)description of „peculiar rituals‟ (that deal with death and calamity) prefigures Girard‟s concept of the mimetic dynamics of violence. Graham (2007) points out that in Durkheim‟s account of these rituals, sadness is exalted and amplified by its contagion from consciousness to consciousness, and is then expressed outwardly in the form of exuberant and violent movements.
The result is something like a „panic of sadness‟. This panic turns to anger, and Durkheim says, „one feels the need to break and destroy something, and this is taken out on one self or on others‟ (Durkheim 2001) . Participants imagine that outside are evil beings whose hostility can be appeased only by suffering – which can be directed against scapegoats. This insight suggests an idea that was to be central in Girard (1977) that
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violence is not inimical to civilization but on the contrary lies at the core of social bonding. Collective killing, subsequent lyre-enacted through sacred rituals and myths establishes social unity, at least fore time, while emerging legal codes address that which must be prohibited to maintain that peace. However, the obligation to follow a law involves a radically different kind of social bond than the totemic ritual, a distinction that will be addressed here.
While attempting to place war and violence at the Centre of social theory, Giddens (1996) discusses violence in terms of military power and the „monopoly of violence‟ in the nation state. Following Elias, he focuses on the civic„ pacification‟ of the social spaces bounded by nation states and non-states auctioned violence (para-militaries, irregulars, civil conflict, domestic and other criminal violence) is mentioned only in passing (Giddens, 1985). This is done partly on the grounds that secessionist civil wars still have the creation of a nation state as their objective, and are therefore part of the historical trend towards the national monopoly of violence. Nonetheless, not only does this ignore the extent of violent interactions within „pacified‟ civil societies, but it avoids the question what if the very processes of national remembrance and identity invokes and sustains potentially violent sociality? What if the idea of the nation is founded upon the sacrificial death of those who have fought in wars, as Marvin and Ingle (1999) argue, in which case violence lays at the heart of modern social collectivities.
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4 The Methodology used and its Limitations
This research is carried out through examining newspaper articles of three week‟s duration. It was required to make an analysis based on the various types of articles collected under the topic “Violence against women”. Although examination of two newspaper‟s articles were called enough, in this research, two newspapers were selected, „Uthayan‟, „Tamil mirror‟, during the period of May 2014 to first week of June 2014.
I have confined this research into studying two Tamil newspapers. I was expecting to study Two Tamil and one English newspaper to widen its scope of research, so that different strata represented through the two languages can be grasped. However this was prevented due to sheer lack of or no availability of articles of gender-based violence in English language newspapers. This exclusion does not by any means suggest that violence against women is not carried out in the domains of English speaking community. A newspaper, regardless of the medium of language is required to portray a fair and truthful account of the public.
However, sadly in Sri Lankan context, most of these English newspapers seem to represent and address the upper strata of society, whereby they also try to create a certain superiority complex. Thus their news articles provide information on country‟s economy, politics and art and literature and nothing beyond except a few Political and Social mishaps. Although the women belonging to these levels of society may undergo gender-based violence even on daily basis, their representative newspapers will have nothing to do with such unfortunate phenomenon, since their motive is to maintain a certain facet of superiority.
Another fact to notice is that, Government oriented newspapers has more articles on Violence against women whereas anti-government newspapers allocate most of their space on articles on drawbacks of the Government. Thus, does it means that such articles on violence against women have become just filling in blanks but not without the weight, it should be given? This „fill in gaps‟ attitude is clearly evident by the fact that the difficulty of collecting a considerable number of newspaper articles on violence against women during
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the period of collected data. Such attitudes and facts may be responsible for the fact of increasing violence against women even though not deliberate.
Furthermore, there are number of other limitations in this research, apart from the facts mentioned above. Analysis of just two newspapers confined to three weeks‟ time is not enough in either analyzing or coming in to conclusions. Sri Lanka being a multi-cultural country, a study of two Tamil newspapers does not provide the reader with the contents of the other ethnic groups of the country. However, the time and material of study had to be limited in order to answer practical purposes. On the other hand, as mentioned in the analysis to follow, most of the articles did not cover all levels of society or all forms of violence. Forms of violence such as psychological violence were entirely ignored or not given importance enough, and the upper strata of the society were entirely neglected.
For an instance, Violence against women carried out in professional domains was never mentioned and in the domesticities of the learned or upper classes of society were excluded. This exclusion does not guarantee that these domains are devoid of violence against women, but on the contrary, most people in such reputed situations of society are reluctant to reveal their personal problems to the public due to prestige issues. Thus usually newspaper articles contain information on either lower or lower-middle classes of society. Therefore, clearly, these articles do not mirror the issues of the entire society.
The examination of newspaper articles, although not without limitations, nonetheless gave an insight in to the nature and type of violence against women taking place in Sri Lanka. Essentially, they open our eyes to the immediate reality around us. The existence of such violence against women in the familiar reality strikes the reader thus making an effective impact on him/her.
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5 Analysis of the Study
The analysis of the newspaper articles proved that women undergo violence without boundaries of age, race ethnicity, profession, economic background etc. Their common gender makes them a prey in this patriarchal society. It was a pathetic incident to notice that there were several news articles where infant girls as young as few months old were subjected to violations and rapes. On the other hand, even women of their retirement age were no spared either. Women as old as eighties were also subjected to various violations and rapes. The Age seems to make no difference to the molesters yet the feminine gender alone is enough to make any as their prey. In the two newspapers examined, there was an article of a Muslim girl been raped by a three-wheeler driver on her way home from tuition class and also about Tamil women in estate sector being subjected to various harassments from their drunken husbands and even estate officials. Thus, women belonging to all three major ethnicities of Sri Lanka are exposed to one or other forms of violations, irrespective of their age and race.
Furthermore, it was striking to notice the number of violence against women carried out through the intimate partners. More than 80% of the entire count of news articles carried information about violence caused against women by their intimate partners. Fathers, husbands and lovers, brothers and even other male relatives of the close circles, such as uncles and grandfathers are involved in few or many violence against women, varying only in slight degrees. There were number of murders of women carried out by their husbands. If this is the nature of the relationship offered to the woman within his or her own households, what other promise of security or protection can be made of the outside society? A woman by her vary nature is devoted to her family. She may be a housewife or a professional, yet their priority is vested with the family. However, these instances of domestic violence prove that although she strives to give her family everything in her power, there‟s nothing that ensures her happiness, yet alone the protection. It is a pity that people of these domesticities do not recognize that the violation of the woman at home causes disruptions not only between the two individuals but in the family itself causing negative impact on their children.
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On the other hand, there were certain other news articles uncovering violations of women and especially teenage girls carried out by people in other close circles of their day-to-day activities. It was pathetic to note that girls were raped and molested by their school or tuition masters, school van „uncles‟ and even by priests! Where is the society heading even if the priests, who have taken religious oaths are indulge in such degrading acts. The very people who are appointed to preach and ensure well-being of the laymen without discriminations are going to the degraded levels of violating women. However it is important that such articles should be published so that women may take care to be protected from encountering such unfortunate situations. And especially mothers of teenage girls should be provided with knowledge enough, so that not to give unnecessary trust upon school van drivers and other male teachers, no matter how good and moral they may seem to be. Thus women and girls should be made aware of their immediate situations and to give due notice to people but not to place an unnecessary trust on them.
Regarding those news, The way the police take action with regard to the cases of violence has become controversial matter. Actually the police do not play a productive role here. Similarly there is no particular law dealing with domestic violence in the Sri Lankan legal system. Therefore these cases are taken under the criminal law in the penal code. However action with regards to domestic violence cannot be taken under the criminal law as there is not a separate law with regard to domestic violence.
The police does not show the attitude that is shown to offences other than domestic violence to the cases regarding domestic violence. The importance and the seriousness of violence is not considered properly just in the same way other offences committed in front of the public are considered by the police. The attitude of the police towards violence is that it is a private matter and they should not interfere in it. The police do not consider them as offences that come under the criminal law and they are reluctant to their Action against them under the criminal law. As a result of this tendency, the police usually try to play the role of an arbitrator and bring about an amicable solution to the problem. The police fail to understand the treat to the life of the woman who has been subjected to domestic violence both physically and mentally.
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As a result of this unfortunate situation they do not get the necessary support from the police. The way the police act in a situation like this cannot be changed unless the police officers are educated on this issue. The institutional structure of the police can be strengthened by giving a better training to the police officers to handle these types of cases methodically and establishing a special unit in the police station for this purpose. Eventually special units for women and children have been established in police stations, they need further development.
How women negotiate their situation in the society will vary depending on the ability or capacity of a woman to risk changes to the way her life has been lived. It is highly unlikely that violence will prevail or be tolerated in a domestic environment where equality and independence of each member is guaranteed, as violence is linked to dominance and power. Recognition by the state that violence committed within the domestic sphere as an offence is definitely a significant milestone in the Sri Lanka legal regime. It needs to be realized however, that a statute alone cannot be expected to achieve a huge social transformation, and as described before this extensive task also requires major attitudinal and structural changes. Recent Sri lanka prevalence figures indicate that 35% of women have experienced either intimate partner violence or non-partner sexual violence in their lifetime .According to this report, between 0.3–11.5% of women reported experiencing sexual violence by a non-partner since the age of 15 years.
Rosy Senanayake recently revealed in parliament that only 600 perpetrators of sexual abuse had been remanded in Sri Lanka out of 300,000 cases, or 2%. There have been a spate of shocking statistics about violence against women and children in the country recently, including the fact that a women is raped every 90 minutes in the country, 95% of women who use public transport experience sexual harassment, and 3-5 children are raped every day. The larger percentage of non-governmental organizations harnesses community support to address issues of gender based violence. Although largely undocumented as a nationwide process, community organization resulting in community action and support to address gender based violence has been used repeatedly by organizations as an effective mechanism to address gender based violence.
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An approach that provides a key entry into addressing the issue of stigma, secrecy and lack of adequate institutional support ,organizations have harnessed the potential of communities effectively to address gender based violence. Individual programmers gave identified that the strengthening of community leadership, the creation of space for problem and information sharing, brainstorming for responses to community problems, and the joint identification of more effective ways of coping and fostering bonds of mutual support have resulted in true community empowerment where women‟s groups in the community have formed themselves into informal small units acting as community watchdogs for gender based discrimination issues and for addressing issues of gender based violence.
Almost all the newspaper articles consisted news of families belonging to either middle or lower classes of society. Most of the women subjected to murder were those who have returned from their middle-east service as housemaids. They were subjected to suspicion and jealousy of their husbands and ultimately ended by paying from their lives. There was various other violence against women caused by drunkard husbands, all belonging to either lower middle or low social strata of society. Yet this does not provide a yardstick to ensure that there‟s no violence carried out in among the upper classes of society. Most of the upper class people are engrossed with ideas of prestige and respect. They are not used to their domestic issues being published in common newspapers.
Communities in Sri lanka is strong and stable, with firm hierarchies reflecting respect for age, religion and social class. Values are passed from old to young within the community and the social order is generally maintained. Conversely, the relationship among communities of different types is weak and communal and sectarian violence among them is commonplace. Power relations based on hierarchy and gender, caste, religion and ethnic group lead to discrimination, exclusion and violence. Communal violence keeps the community boundaries in place but can turn into organized violence with political and social objectives. In this inter-communal violence, millions of children have suffered .A single incident can be fuelled by memories of past events and long-held grudges.
Communal violence keeps the community boundaries in place but can turn into organized violence with political and social objectives. In this inter-communal violence, number of Women has suffered. As societies in Sri Lanka feel the pressures of globalization
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and urbanization, there has been an increase in gang violence in the cities. The main victims and perpetrators are adolescent males and young men. Peer influence is strong and „falling in with the wrong friends‟ is associated with violence in young people. There is also a link between violent behavior and having friends who use drugs or are involved in armed gangs. Girls and boys living in high crime neighborhoods are more likely to be involved in violent behavior than those living elsewhere.
Thus, absence of violation against women in the areas of upper class of societies does not simply provide information that such acts are not carried out there. On the other hand a particular article provided information about how people in the media and film sectors such as producers and directors deceive innocent village girls promising them a chance to enter in to the cinema field and various roles to act, but ultimately end up misusing their ambitions and molesting them. Such film producers and other people, undoubtedly belong to the upper class of Sri Lanka. They would not violate their women at home but would seek other means, such as making economically poor and socially helpless girls as their victims. They will play the role of perfect and loving husband, father and relative role to his immediate members of the same social levels yet that would be a mere mask in the face of the society. Their acts would be just rumors in the society yet no one will be willing to take measures due to their economic power and social position.
As mentioned before, these newspaper articles consisted violence against women carried out in the social groups belonging to lower social strata of Sri Lanka. Hence the indication about their education level was of meager type. Most of the women murdered and the girls who were exposed to various violations were children of parents belonging to lower middle class. One major fact where girls were exposed to violations was mainly due to the ignorance of the mother. In most situations where the mother is abroad, children were left without proper care.
The father, or in most situations, the care of the grandparents were not sufficient to look after the young teenage girls. Articles on violations of women or girls of parents having privileged education were not much to be found. However, by education I do not mean to express that the education one receives should be sophisticated. It was pathetic to note that
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most of the young girls were exposed to violations due to the ignorance of the mothers. Accordingly education provided should be not merely school based but more practical and society oriented and give necessary information to women and girls on how to prevent violence taking place against them.
Having analyzed the above particulars, one other criterion was taken in to account-- the nature of punishment given to the crimes committed against women. As in most of the situations in Sri Lanka, it was at a very unsatisfactory level. Most of the time, the victim is further victimized when she tries to get the help of the law, while the culprit escapes through the gaps of law. According to Mario and Shyamala Gomez report in their article, “Law‟s response to Women victim of Violence” has the following to say. “„Who the Victim is‟ has affected the social and legal response to violence. Class, professional affiliations, race ethnicity are few factors. Sex workers or prostitute, a domestic may equally gain different treatments”
In Sri Lankan contexts any article on prostitutes were mentioned only with condemn and sarcasm. Any acts of violence against sex workers were justified based on the prejudice that these women were ready to undergo any such violence. However most of the researches carried out based on sex workers, have found out that there are very poignant reasons as to why these women indulge in such professions. However, without much regard not only the society but even the law tents to discriminate them. On the other hand, as mentioned previously in the research number of men with social and other powers are indulged in violence against women. They can obviously use their powers to escape the law. Moreover, most of the punishments enforced are far from practicality. Some punishments even tend to be humorous. For an instance, a father who has violated his two daughters was entitled to an imprisonment of 120 years. Such news evokes hum our rather than the pathos of the reader. These nature of punishments can be a main reason why there are increasing rate of violence taking place against women. Accordingly, these lapses of law and legal system should be avoided in order to establish equality and ensure omen‟s security.
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6 Causes, Consequences and Remedies
There are countless number of causes as to the constant occurrences of violence against women. First and foremost the place given to the woman and the ideologies plays an important role. All societies of the World are patriarchal and the woman is essentially given the second place, next to man. Sri Lanka hosts three major cultural groups, Sinhala, Tamil and Muslim. The place of all three of these cultures is secondary. Not only men but women themselves asserts that whatever the hardship endured by women are due to their „fate‟ of being a woman. These ideologies should be essentially changed and women should be treated with equality and respect as a fellow human being.
On the other hand, women of these cultures used to enjoy a better place within their confined socio-cultural groups. Yet the exposure of these cultures to the world and concepts like Globalization and modernity has paved way to create a certain corruption within these hitherto constrained cultures. Such causes have paved way for a change in the place enjoyed by the woman. Nonetheless by one way or the other, place of the woman has seen a reduction in their position. These have paved way for violence against women to increase, either directly or indirectly. Thus it is important to move towards achieving more equal and peaceful attitudes and cultural norms.
Stigmatized rape and other forms of violence is another fact which accelerates the rate of violence against women. In most of the cultural contexts, a woman subjected to rape is looked down upon and is condemned. She becomes an untouchable thing in the society. Not only her but her entire family becomes a subject of discrimination. These attitudes discourage the woman and her family from seeking the help of the law to punish the culprit. As a result the culprits are encourage to go on committing violence against women as he pleases for he knows that non would go to the law. Hence it is evident enough that such attitudes of society should be avoided and people should become more open-minded in order to put a stop to violence against women.
Certain psychological issues too are a fact where violence against women are committed. Various mental and character disorders in the part of the male are reflected by
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causing violence against women in various forms. For an instance, verbal sexual insults and innuendoes too are found to be resulting from sexual disorders. Sri Lanka is a country such that any mental disorders is looked down upon and are condemned. People are reluctant to acknowledge that they are suffering from any mental disorder, let alone going for treatments. Not only the individual himself but his family too may be reluctant to acknowledge such situations. These would result in negative impacts not only in the part of the affected individual but as a social cost as well. People should be made aware of such situations and to seek treatments and proper consultations, especially one‟s family can be a great impact on making such situations better since the person may not be much aware of his actual state. Ultimately a betterment of one individual not only helps him but the society he resides in.
For unaccountable years of time, sex has been a place of power play in the patriarchal society. Men tend to ensure their power display through their physical strength since the delicateness of the woman deprives her of physical strength in comparison to that of the man. Various Researches have found that when the man is incapable of ensuring his superiority through economic conditions, education or any other field than the woman, they tend to use physical strength as a mark of superiority. This has found to be the cause behind most of the domestic violence especially the economic inferiority of man causing domestic violence against his wife and family. Most of the intimate partner violence too results from jealousy derived due to this insecurity of feeling by the man which is displayed through committing violence against his partner. These stigmatized power play should be avoided in order to ensure the safety of the woman and the society.
Owing to the fact that the present era is the technological period other than previous times, the representation of the woman through media has become one of the major causes of increasing violence against women. Simply, an attentive look at the way the woman is represented in today‟s advertisements would be enough to get a clear picture of how these women are represented. They are reduced in to a mere physical object to gain pleasure even by gazing. It is not the person who is employed in advertising the product, but her body only. Such instances reduce the personhood of the woman, making her a mere object. Media at present is the form which reaches people most fastly and on daily basis. Even the young
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are exposed to the media. The message which the young boys would receive is such that the woman is an object to be used and their morality would be shaped accordingly. They would tend to give no respect for the woman once they grow up but to treat them as what they have seen and learnt through their early childhood. On the other hand, the young girls would receive the message to suit accordingly. The woman has always been viewed and judged through male perspective and it would continue to be so. The women themselves would lose their notions of self-respect and would not hesitate to take a look out like the model woman. These would result in increasing the rate of violence against women committed.
Furthermore, most of these articles examined have narrated the incidents of violence against women in a very graphic and dramatizing manner. They do not highlight the poignancy of the situation but gives the feeling of watching an exciting movie. Therefore evidently such narration would not help in bringing forth any benefit to the womankind to reduce the rate of violence committed against woman but would ultimately increase the rate at which they take place. Hence, in these areas of media, it is high time that proper regulations and especially to enforce moral yardsticks are to be used in order to control such rash acts of media thus paving way to reduce the rate of violence against women.
Moreover the absence of effective laws and regulations too are a major cause for the unceasing rate of violence against women. The police and most other law enforced areas are primarily patriarchal. The women hesitate to seek help in such situations. On the other hand, laws are with numerous lapses and impractical that the culprit is not given proper punishment. These in turn encourages them the carry on their acts of violence. Therefor it is essential that proper and effective laws should be introduced and put in to practice, regardless of social positions and power in order to answer this dire issue of violence against women.
In Sri Lankan context women are given a place subordinate to the man. The Ministry appointed to empowering women is the „Ministry of Child development and Women‟s affairs‟. Obviously children and women are two different sectors of the society. Children will have to be raised as dependents while women are capable of independence and empowerment. Inclusion of these two different categories in one sector would prevent
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helping the both by maximum levels. Although empowerment of women is talked all over the country, the reality is quite different. On the other hand, the ministry is led by a male minister. Why the authorities cannot appoint a female minister as the head? A woman as the head would have been more practical in answering the issues regarding not only women but in the area of children as per this ministry goes. Evidently, the efforts taken by the country and authorities are inadequate in answering the issues faced by women and the violence caused against them. Hence it is of importance to take necessary steps by the authorities in effective answering of the problems.
Actions to end violence and protect Women begin with developing a solid platform for action that is based on international agreements, national plans and a legislative framework that has children at its heart. These provide a context and a structure in which government and civil society can work together with children and their families and on which common understanding and commitment can be built. A number of programmes address violence by attempting to empower Women, building their self-esteem and providing them with information and options so that they know where to seek support. Other programmes empower and mobilize various groups to protect and support children: parents, teachers, care-givers and government employees.
They are trained both to intervene to protect Women and also to report and deal with cases of abuse .More education needs to be implemented to start reconstructing dominate cultural roles, More supervised half way homes for abusers need to be established. If the abuser is able to keep their job, they will still have the opportunity to provide for their families, Empowering women is the number one way to resolve the problem Educating the society as a whole comes in a close second. Providing victims with a variety of different services to rehabilitate. Ex: legal assistance, transitional housing and supervised visitations. Allowing more involvement of the community and authorities. Violence against woman is a macro sociological issue.
Education at all cost is of immense importance. Education of the people should be shaped in such a way that they will be morally strong, liberal and open-minded. At most instances as where attitudes are in play in such cultural contexts as Sri Lanka, people of the
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present generations, with the exposure to the outer world, should be morally educated and enhanced. The schooling system should be shaped not only to provide a person with technological subjects but also of ethics and humanities. On the other hand, ignorance of the woman was a major cause for certain violence they faced and which their daughters underwent. Thus this ignorance on the part of the parents should be avoided so as to answer the violence against women. Furthermore a checked attitudinal change is required in order to bring a stop to the violence against women. No other change would be capable of making the expected result if no the attitudes are shaped accordingly.
Violence against women carried out in Sri Lanka is at a grave level, calling forth immediate actions to correct the errors. In fact the violence may take various forms such as psychological violence, sexual verbal harassments and so on, not only the commonly known physical violence. Not only women, but men and children are also should be made aware of the existence of the problem and to avoid the circumstances. More importantly, the social stigmas pertaining to this violence against women should be avoided and removed and a re-thinking should be set in order to answer this issue of violence against women.