Context

This editorial is based on the news “Violence, homelessness, and women’s mental health” which was published in the Hindu. There is a recursive interaction between violence against women, homelessness, and mental health almost universally.

Violence Against Women in India: Statistics

• Violence Against Women in India: As per the National Family Health Survey (NFHS-5) almost 30% of women between the ages of 18-49 years have experienced physical violence beginning at age 15 and 6% reported sexual violence. 

Violence Against Women in India, Mental Health and Homelessness Are Intertwined

• A cycle of harm: Violence and mental health issues are deeply intertwined. 
  • Violence can worsen mental health problems, and existing mental health conditions can further increase a woman’s vulnerability to violence. 
  • Both factors heighten the risk of homelessness.
• Beyond Clinical Definitions: Women’s experiences of trauma related to violence often aren’t fully captured by the definitions of mental health conditions as outlined in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders.
• Homelessness as a complex choice: For many women, homelessness, even with its dangers, becomes a form of escape from a cycle of violence within the family or from intimate partners.
• A historical tool of oppression: It’s vital to recognize that the label of “madness” has long been used to control and silence women.
• Madness as resistance: Some women facing both violence and mental health challenges find agency by reclaiming “madness” on their own terms. 
• Multiple understandings: Madness isn’t one-size-fits-all. 
  • It can be solace, an attempt to transcend social suffering, a spiritual quest, or an inward journey.
  • Contrast this with the biomedical model’s focus solely on symptoms and diagnoses.

Way Forward: Adopt a Multifaceted Approach

• Recognizing and compensating women for their unpaid labour in household roles and creating space for women to find supportive networks and alternate family structures outside of typical heteronormative relationships.
• Ensuring access to basic income, housing, and land ownership to offer economic independence and reduce vulnerability to homelessness.
• Embedding a curriculum in the education system that helps adolescents interrogate and challenge harmful gendered norms, fostering a generation that values egalitarian norms and rejects all forms of violence against women.
• Addressing the role of childhood adversity-abuse, neglect, and poverty-and its profound effects on the developing brain, as emphasised by biological scientist Robert Sapolsky. This underscores the need for policies and interventions that reduce violence beginning in the formative years.