“Continuum of Gender-Based Violence”
Gender-based violence begins imperceptibly: taking birth at home, growing up with siblings and stereotypes (Give your father the chicken leg), soon co-opted by institutional control (gender wage gap, sexist hostel curfews) and the family, stripping women of their autonomy both financially (bank accounts in the husband’s name) and emotionally (You’re crazy. No one will believe you). And finally manifests physically as rape, acid attacks, honour killings, dowry deaths, and domestic violence.
Social deterrents punish the extreme (prisons, death penalty, surveillance), but fail to address the gendered prejudice that leads to a feeling of entitlement.
To do that, we need to work at the foundation, in the early years at home and school, to mould attitudes before they become abusive patterns.
That’s where Anahat comes in.
