The final ‘Violence Against Women in South Asia’ workshop took place on 15th March 2017 at the Summit Hotel in Kathmandu. Over 60 participants from Government, NGO and Private Sector organisations came together for the day to share and discuss the findings from the study which covered a range of quantitative and qualitative research activities exploring the connections between Women’s Economic Empowerment and Violence Against Women in a variety of communities in Myanmar, Pakistan and Nepal.
During the workshop Dr Tamsin Bradley, Dr Smita Premchander and Dr Zara Ramsay presented the findings from the three country studies, and researchers from the Nepal in country teams also shared their experiences and key insights gained during the process of carrying out interviews and collecting data. The presentations were complemented by Dr Rajni Palriwala (from University of Delhi) who provided insights into the wider socio-political and economic context through a presentation on ‘Reflections on the challenges facing women in South Asia’. Resources including videos, PowerPoint presentations and briefing sheets shared at the workshop can be viewed and downloaded from www.gendersouthasia.org.
A major focus for the workshop was on ensuring that the study leads to action, and that the key findings inform both policy and practise, help change behaviours and provide an effective resource base from which further research can be initiated. This article focuses on some of the interesting reflections of a group session held at the end of the workshop, where participants were asked to consider the following questions:
- What for you were the striking findings from the study?
- How can the research findings best be used?
- What new questions emerge which require future research?
The groups focussed mainly on the Nepal context, but the points that were raised are in most cases of far wider relevance and applicability! There is so much that was discussed, and what follows draws simply on the participants own reactions and suggestions from the study and presents a synthesis of the points raised.
Striking Findings
Perhaps one of the most striking is the starting point that women from all economic backgrounds seem to accept that some forms of violence against them can be considered ‘normal’ or even in some cases ‘warranted’. Awareness of this leads to a rapid understanding that this is very wrong, and violence whether physical or psychological is unacceptable. However, changing the situation is clearly not easy – there is often a context of fear, distrust and lack of adequate support.
Violence was similarly experiences in all three countries, irrespective of religious background, and women from all backgrounds were noted as vulnerable in both public and private spaces, with no distinction between caste or economic background. Indeed, earning income alone was not enough to lead to a reduction in violence faced, and professional women facing violence at home often lacked the support they needed to change their situation.
Migration, and the effects of Maoist war in Nepal lead to increased vulnerability, and many participants were surprised and concerned at how this had lead to development of an ‘informal entertainment’ sector in Kathmandu, where women escaping from conflict had become sex workers subjected to further forms of violence and economic exploitation as they sought to earn money to look after their children.
Lack of law enforcement and police harassment meant that whilst violence levels are high reporting levels are very low. Distrust and discrimination within households meant that women migrants in particular faced huge challenges in addressing violence and accessing financial and property assets. And women in the informal sector often didn’t seek to develop their skills and increase their income, in part through fear of more harassment if they competed with men for certain jobs.
Against this background of fear, some participants wondered how detailed and correct the research data could be. Were the research team getting the full picture and when faced with such a personal topic as violence against women, could we really get to the truth of what was being shared. These are important questions, but the qualitative insights that have emerged provide a powerful narrative that demands a response.
Use of Research
So what suggestions emerged on how the research can be used to influence positive change?
Firstly, participants pointed to the important role of social networks for mitigating gender based violence, and also thought the mobile app developed in Myanmar, had potential for Nepal as well, in strengthening channels for reporting and mitigating violence. The suggestion was made that mobile apps could be used to inform women about events and raise awareness.
Lobbying government on policy making and raising awareness among men in order to confront normalisation of violence and change attitudes were stressed as important by participants. It was also felt that the study findings could provide an important baseline for programme design. Some specific study findings that were endorsed included the needs to
- Make public transport safer for women and provide and guarantee safe spaces for women in the public sphere
- Motivate and encourage women to opt for better skilled based training and find ways to make this accessible
- Strengthen the implementation of laws, and challenge ineffective responses by police to reported cases violence against women What new questions emerge which require future research?
- Raise women’s awareness of their rights in relation to earnings and access to family income and assets
- Develop action plans to respond to vulnerability of an increasingly large female work force
Questions for Future Research
The research in this project has pointed to striking and at times surprising findings, with strong messages that income alone is not enough, and the role of women’s groups is of major importance in strengthening the social capital needed to mitigate violence. It has also raised many questions which need to be explored further, as evidenced by the following suggestions from the workshop participants. Grouping some of these together, the authors of this article have come up with the following top six questions worthy of further research:
- How are the perceptions of men towards GBV changing over time as women take on new economic activities and roles, and how can they become involved as equal partners in combating GBV?
- What are the impacts of globalisation and migration (in relation to Myanmar, Nepal and Pakistan) in increasing or reducing violence against women from different economic backgrounds?
- How have wars and conflicts (such as the Maoist conflict in Nepal) impacted on women, their lives and those of their children in terms of economic opportunities and related experiences of violence (noting that there are now thousands of so called illegal children who face a very uncertain future)?
- How do women internalise their role in perpetrating violence?
- To what extent are other policies linking to and being informed by gender policies?
- What are the causes and what needs to be done for policy, laws and regulations to be effectively implemented, and for women to feel confident in reporting cases of violence against them
In conclusion, in relation to the Nepal context, it was also felt that more extensive research into ‘Women, Work and Violence’ was needed, drawing on this study and focussing on some of the questions identified above. This research should involve INGOs, NGOs, Government and academia.