That rising global temperatures and subsequent heat waves could fuel domestic violence against women in South Asian countries, particularly India, followed by Nepal and Pakistan, said a study published in the medical journal JAMA Psychiatry. The heatwave could see an increase of 23.5 per cent in family abuses against women in India.
The researchers have linked a 1-degree Celsius rise in the yearly average temperature with a 4.5 per cent increase in intimate partner violence (IPV) in the study -- ‘Association of Ambient Temperature With the Prevalence of Intimate Partner Violence Among Partnered Women in Low and Middle-Income South Asian Countries” of almost 1,95,000 ever-partnered women across three South Asian countries including India.
Ever-partnered women are defined as those who have had sex, been married or been in a romantic relationship.
The authors of the study, said, “Given the higher prevalence of IPV in South Asia compared to the global level, and the region’s recent history of more frequent and intense heat waves, we conducted this study to evaluate the association of ambient temperature with IPV prevalence, including its types -- physical, sexual, and emotional -- among partnered women.”
The cross-sectional study included ever-partnered women in the 15-49 age group from India, Nepal and Pakistan and used self-reported data from the Demographic and Health Survey (DHS) Programme, collected from October 1, 2010 to April 30, 2018.
Active in more than 90 countries, the DHS Programme is responsible for collecting and disseminating accurate, nationally representative data on health and population in low and middle-income countries, routinely conducting surveys at intervals of 3-5 years.
Among the women surveyed, the study found, physical violence to be the most prevalent at 23 per cent, followed by emotional at 12.5 per cent and sexual at 9.5 per cent.