Sexual and Gender Based Violence (SGBV) is defined as an act that is perpetrated against a person’s will based on established norms and unequal power relationships with respect to gender. This includes threats of violence which can be physical, emotional, and psychological. It is harmful for men, women, and all other genders in between . Underdeveloped, developing and even developed countries are incarcerated by this . Since the olden times, this tactic has been used as a weapon in war for revenge. At present, domestic violence, male chauvinism , rapes, discrimination against people of LGBT community etc. can all be considered to be SGBV acts that plague our society.
People in positions of authority like police, security officials, landlords etc. often abuse their power and inflict SGBV upon people. The police and military are supposed to protect the citizens and administrative officials are supposed to bring out new policies for the betterment of the nation as a whole. However, sometimes they end up doing the opposite of this and get involved in SGBV themselves.
Silvia Dominguez, Assistant Professor of Sociology at Northeastern University, recently visited Liberia to help develop a national mental health policy related to SGBV. Describing Liberia’s history of SGBV she said that the systematic raping of women was a war strategy. This involved traumatising victims and targeting women who were pillars of the community. The society is still affected by this history. SGBV becomes a way of curtailing the education of girls as well. As a result, many parents try to marry off their daughters at a young age, before they may get raped.
Along with providing psychological aid to the victims of SGBV, appropriate laws should be implemented and strict punishments like death penalty should be given to the criminals: a kind of death that people would not want to have under any circumstance. Safety zones in schools are necessary and establishment of zero tolerance policy on the violation of human rights is also required. Implementation of unbiased rules across all genders is required to protect the rights of people against SGBV.
Vibhor Bhatnagar