Domestic Violence Against Married Dalit Women in Pokhara Metropolitan City, Kaski, Nepal

Abstract

This study aimed to explore and analyze the forms, causes, consequences, and coping strategies of domestic violence against married Dalit women in Pokhara Metropolitan City (PMC), Kaski, Nepal. This research is guided by feminist standpoint theory, socialist feminism, and power theory. Accordingly, forty-three married Dalit survivor women were selected (Kami, Damai, Sarki, and Gaine) from six wards of PMC aged 15 to 61, who have been suffering from domestic violence. The methodology was based on the use of exploratory and descriptive research design through a purposive sampling method. Accordingly, tools and techniques for data collection used in this study included forty-three in-depth interviews, observation, and fourteen key informant interviews with the identified respondents. The nature of the research was qualitative as well as narrative analysis. The findings revealed that there are mainly three forms of violence found in the survivor woman's life, such as physical, emotional/psychological, and sexual. Accordingly, out of the forty-three survivor women, more than half of them were abused by physical violence, about two-fifths of them were abused by emotional/psychological violence (some of them included under the physical violence category as well), and about one-fourth of them were sexually abused. The main causes of violence are the low economic and educational status of the survivor woman and her husband; alcoholic nature of husband, husband's suspicion towards his wife, sexual dissatisfaction of husband, early marriage, and extra-marital relationship that were the major factors that facilitated the emergence of domestic violence to the married Dalit women's life. Thus, ix

the main consequences of survivor women are continued physical injury, gynecological problems, anxiety, mental health problems, panic attacks, suicide attempts, and often the resultant flow of such problems passed down to the children. I found that the majority of the survivor women tried to dismiss and usually ignore the violence. Instead, they persuaded themselves by crying, engaged in housework, wage labor, and taking care of innocent children, and were reluctant to follow the required series of steps including government bills, laws/acts and regulations, and the perpetrators‟ attention to the survivor women. The findings of this study well highlighted the fact that survivor women usually avoid protesting against their husband‟s violence, mainly because they are unaware of their basic rights and legal provisions. Therefore, the findings of this research are considered to be essential for analyzing, comparing, and extracting the overall situation of violence faced by married Dalit women in Pokhara Metrpolitan City, Kaski, which is equally important for proper policy formulation and planning as they vary in nature. For example, the majority of the survivor women kept silent, few women seek for help from neighbors/Tol Development Committee, and also few women reach to maternal home. Moreover, the survivor-woman tries to self-negotiate all kinds of torture instead of defending the perpetrator and filing the case to the concerned authority. The findings of this study have aided sociological studies, particularly those focusing on married Dalit women's issues. The socioeconomic and educational status of women and their perpetrators has a direct impact on the extent and types of violence they face. The findings emphasize the importance of social order and structural approaches to changing norms as well as improving women's status because the coping strategies in place x

provided by legal provisions do not appear to be effective. Study findings also supported the fact that patriarchal social structure, established social norms, values and unequal power relation between husband and wife are the reason of domestic violence among married Dalit women.Thus findings of this study are thought imperative in formulating appropriate policies and implementing proper planning.