Domestic violence and girl child

The deaths of 18 lakh girl children in India in the past two decades have been linked to domestic violence against their mothers.
After examining over 1.58 lakh births that took place between 1985 and 2005, an international team of researchers found that spousal violence against wives increased the risk of death among female children, but not male children, in both the first year and the first five years of life.
The study published in the January issue of the journal “Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine” has been conducted jointly by researchers from Harvard School of Public Health, Indian Council of Medical Research, Boston University School of Public Health and the National Institute for Research in Reproductive Health in Mumbai.
An earlier study done by Harvard on domestic violence in India had made another major finding, children of women beaten up or abused by husbands were 21% more likely to die before turning 5.
According to the current study, the disparity is connected directly with the lower investment in girl children in areas like nutrition, immunization and care for major causes of infant and child death like diarrhoea and respiratory infections.
This neglect of girl children is likely to be most pronounced in families where women’s status is lowest, where women are physically abused by husbands.
According to India’s latest National Family Health Survey-III, which interviewed 1.25 lakh women in 28 states during 2005-06, over 40% of women reported being beaten by their husbands at some point of time. Over 51% of the 75,000 men interviewed didn’t find anything wrong with assaulting their wives.
Around 54% of the women surveyed thought that such violence was justified.
Even with existence of laws enacted to prevent domestic violence, it is disappointing that women continue to be at the receiving end. What is surprising is the many justify such actions. Only with time and emancipation, we can hope for some changes.