How frontline workers tackle gender-based violence in Uttar Pradesh

The National Family Health Survey – 5, released on November 24, showed, for the first time, that India is no longer a country of “missing women”— a term used to describe a shortfall in the number of women accounted for compared to the expected number of women in a population.

In fact, now the sex ratio is skewed in the favour of women in India, with 1,020 women for every 1,000 men. 

However, India has a long way to go in terms of women's empowerment. What does the NFHS-5 data reveal about gender specific issues in the country, especially in the state of Uttar Pradesh? And, how do frontline workers in the region tackle gender-based violence cases? 

Amid the 16 Days of Activism against Gender-Based Violence, an annual international campaign, which runs from 25 November - 10 December, HerStory spoke to the change-makers in Uttar Pradesh. 

“Data is the biggest indicator of change. Recently, the NFHS-5 report was released so if we compare key pointers of gender-based violence in this report with NFHS-4 (2015-2016), we’ll see that while there is a slight difference but it’s so slight that it’s difficult to take it seriously,” Abhishek Pathak, Program officer- Adolescent Health - UP, Population Foundation of India tells HerStory.

“For women aged 18-49 who ever experienced spousal violence, the percentage was 36.7 percent in NFHS-4, it came down to 34.8 percent in NFHS-5,” Abhishek adds. 

Pathak said that the difference is there for us to see but it is insufficient and dissatisfactory. He also mentioned that there are some indicators that are showing growth such as education and nutrition value among girls which have seen significant progress. While 63 percent of women aged six and above attended school as per NFHS-4, the percentage of girls aged six and above attending school increased to 67 percent.

The latest crime data shows that the state recorded the highest increase in crime against women, at 66.7 percent, in four years to 2019. UP alone registered nearly 15 percent of all registered crimes against women in India. In more ways than one, UP has clearly wreaked havoc in committing gender-based violence. 

Challenges in girls’ education

However, frontline workers are seeing changes in the state. Jyoti Verma, the counsellor at Parsendi block in Sitapur, UP, helps parents and adolescents on various important issues such as gender-based violence, the importance of education for girls, family planning and the importance of contraceptives. 

Verma comes across several cases of families discontinuing girls’ education due to safety concerns, the distance between home and school, etc. 

“Since we get such cases day in and day out, we try to find out the reason behind it. Girls approach us when their parents refuse to allow them to go to school or college. Many times, it is the fact that they have a younger brother who needs to be taken care of or that the school after class five or eight, is in another village far off from the girl’s home. In such cases, we try to counsel the parents and show them the brighter side of the issue. Education is key to any child’s progress and when they see that, they allow their girls,” says Jyoti.

“There is still a lot of work that needs to be done to eradicate gender-based violence in Uttar Pradesh. The government needs to work on it with extreme diligence and sensitivity only then can we see some real change in mindset,” she adds.

While education and nutrition aren’t majorly surrounded by taboo, crimes against women are far more complicated to talk about. Usually, cases of crimes against women in villages are dealt with and counselled by frontline workers available in villages like the Anganwadi workers and ANMs (auxiliary nurse-midwife). 

Annapurna Dixit, ANM in Sitapur recounts the case of a 14-year-old girl in her village who was raped and impregnated by her uncle. 

“She was scared and had a stomachache for a couple of weeks when her mother approached me. I spoke to the girl privately and convinced her that it wasn’t her mistake. It took some time when she told me that her uncle misbehaved with her. She was four months pregnant at that time. Her mother and I got her aborted soon enough. The girl is still undergoing counselling, so she can come out of the trauma. We didn’t tell her father, or he would have honour-killed his daughter,” says Annapurna, adding that in such cases it is important to understand how to deal with a situation without causing more harm.

Frontline workers like Annapurna and Jyoti undergo training workshops from gender rights professionals, scholars, and researchers so they can be more gender-sensitive while dealing with people on the ground.

The NFHS-5 fieldwork for Uttar Pradesh was conducted between 13 January and 21 March 2020 before the nationwide lockdown and from 28 November 2020 to 19 April 2021 post lockdown by Academy of Management Studies (AMS) and Research and Development Initiative (RDI) Pvt. Ltd. Information was gathered from 70,710 households, 93,124 women, and 12,043 men.