A cross-sectional study on gender-based violence among adolescents attending government colleges in urban area of Tirupati, Andhra Pradesh
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.18203/2394-6040.ijcmph20223267Keywords:
GBV, Adolescents, Physical violence, Sexual violence, Psychological violenceAbstract
Background: Gender-based violence (GBV) is one of the most prevalent forms of human rights violations in the world. Across the globe, women and girls-especially adolescents-face the greatest risk. Age-stratified GBV data on adolescents is lacking in India. Approximately 1 in 3 women worldwide may experience physical or sexual violence in her lifetime. In this background the present study was conducted to find out prevalence of GBV among college going adolescents in urban area of Tirupati.
Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted among college going adolescents aged 16-19 years in four government colleges in urban area of Tirupati, Andhra Pradesh from November 2021 to December 2021. Details on socio demographic characteristics and history related to GBV were collected by personal interview using a pretested, semi-structured questionnaire. Descriptive data was summarized in percentages and Chi-square test was used to test the association.
Results: A total of 263 students participated in the study with mean age of 18.15±1.01 years, majority being females (54%). About 36.5% faced at least one form of GBV so far. The most common form of violence faced by study subjects was physical (28.1%) followed by psychological violence (17.5%). Physical, sexual and psychological violence was found to be 17.8%, 1.9%, 11.0% in females and 10.3%, 0.7%, 6.5% among males respectively.
Conclusion: The present study shows that both male and female are victims of GBV but little higher prevalence was found in females.
References
Gender-based violence. United Nations Population Fund. Available at: https://www.unfpa.org/gender-based-violence. Accessed on 17 Nov, 2022.
National Family Health Survey 5 India Report. Available from: http://rchiips.org/nfhs/NFHS-5_FCTS/India.pdf. Accessed on 01 Nov, 2022.
Gender-based violence in emergencies. Available at: https://www.unicef.org/protection/gender-based-violence-in-emergencies. Accessed on 17 Nov, 2022.
Simister J. Gender based violence is a growing problem in India. Med Res Arch. 2017;6(1):21.
Heise L, Ellsberg M, Gottmoeller M. A global overview of gender-based violence. Int J Gynecol Obstet. 2002;78:S5-14.
Gender-based violence:why does it matters to adolescents?. “The Adolescent Empowerment Toolkit”, New Delhi: UNICEF and Breakthrough. 2016.
Patel V, Andrews G, Pierre T, Kamat N. Gender, sexual abuse and risk behaviours in adolescents: a cross-sectional survey in schools in Goa, India. National Med J India. 2001;14:263-7.
Asgola S, Kaur S. Indicators of sexual harassment experienced by the rural school going adolescent girls in Punjab. Adv Res J Soc Sci. 2017;8(1):15-22.
Suryavanshi N, Naik S, Waghmare S, Gupte N, Khan S, Mave V et al. Gender-based violence screening methods preferred by women visiting a public hospital in Pune, India. BMC Womens Health. 2018;18(1):19.
Michele R. Decker, Amanda D. Latimore, Yasutake S, Haviland M, Ahmed S, Blum RW, Sonenstein F, et al. Gender-Based Violence Against Adolescent and Young Adult Women in Low-and Middle-Income Countries. J Adolescent Heal. 2015;56 (2):188-96
Arnold D, Gelaye B, Goshu M, Berhane Y, Williams MA. Prevalence and Risk Factors of Gender-Based Violence Among Female College Students in Awassa, Ethiopia. Violence Vict. 2015;(6):787-800.
Cohen M, Deamant C, Barkan S, Richardson J, Young M, Holman S et al. Domestic violence and childhood sexual abuse in HIV-infected women and women at risk for HIV. Am J Public Health. 2000;90(4):560-5.
Malik JS, Nadda A. A Cross‑sectional Study of Gender‑Based Violence against Men in the Rural Area of Haryana, India. Indian J Community Med. 2019;44(1):4.
Amelli V, Meinck F, Munthalli A, Ushie B, Langhaug L. Associations between adolescent experiences of violence in Malawi and gender-based attitudes, internalizing, and externalizing behaviors. Child Abuse Neglect. 2017;67:305-14.
Patel R, Gupte SS, Srivastava S, Kumar P, Chauhan S, Govindu MD et al. Experience of gender-based violence and its effect on depressive symptoms among Indian adolescent girls: Evidence from UDAYA survey. Navaneetham K, editor. PLOS One. 2021;16(3):e0248396.
Bhattacharjee P, Ma H, Musyoki H, Cheuk E, Isac S, Njiraini M et al. Prevalence and patterns of gender-based violence across adolescent girls and young women in Mombasa, Kenya. BMC Womens Heal. 2020;20(1):229.
Das M, Ghosh S, Verma R, O’Connor B, Fewer S, Virata MC. Gender attitudes and violence among urban adolescent boys in India. Int J Adolesc Youth. 2014;19(1):99-112.
Sunita E. A study of awareness on legal acts- (with reference to young women). Int J Creative Res thoughts. 2022;10(7):a219-24.
Neelima TM, Abhraham A. The awareness level on POCSO act 2012 among senior secondary students in Kottayam district. Int J Mmultidisciplinary Res Growth Eval. 2021;2(1):06-9.
