Unpacking the hidden link: gender-based violence and women’s economic empowerment

Imagine an expert seamstress, Rani, who left her job at a garment unit. It was not because she was not talented or fast enough. It was not even because the pay was bad.

She left because of fear and pressure that was routine for her, but barely noticed by others. It hid in the threat of harassment from her floor supervisor and instances of sexual harassment she faced as she travelled home by bus.

These barriers were worsened by physical and verbal abuse from her in-laws and husband for not spending enough time on childcare and household work. While Rani's case is hypothetical, in reality, thousands of women like her exit the workforce not because they want to, but because workplaces, public services, communities, and familial structures have not been built to women’s specific needs and ambitions.

What is gender-based violence?

Gender-based violence (GBV) refers to harmful acts directed at an individual or a group of individuals based on their gender. It is rooted in gender inequality, the abuse of power, and harmful norms. While men and boys can also be victims, women and girls often face a higher incidence of physical, psychological, or sexual harm in public and private spheres. This disproportionately impacts their health, education, and access to economic resources and assets.

Globally, one in three women has faced physical and/or sexual violence, including from intimate partners. These numbers are often under-reported due to social stigma, lack of awareness, and access to support mechanisms. GBV also intersects with systemic and social inequalities related to climate change, lack of healthcare access, and many other spheres. For example, globally, every 1 degree Celsius rise in temperature is associated with a 4.7% increase in intimate partner violence. In South Asia, intimate partner violence, female genital mutilation, and early and child marriages remain prevalent forms of GBV.

Why does this matter?

GBV restricts individuals’ fundamental freedoms to participate fully in education, the economy, society, and decision-making and has an impact on society and the economy. Women's economic participation is adversely impacted by incidence of violence as women who face violence are more likely to miss work, leave jobs early, or avoid certain workplaces altogether.

This is because women who face violence are more likely to miss work, leave jobs early, or avoid certain workplaces altogether. Even when they stay employed, survivors often earn less due to absenteeism, trauma, or being forced into lower-paying, “safer” jobs. For instance, available data suggest that Indian women lose five days of work for each incidence of intimate partner violence, and households lose two weeks' worth of earnings.

According to a 2016 study, the country also loses nearly 1–2% of its GDP each year due to GBV, amounting to billions of dollars in lost income and productivity. Unless this is checked at scale, it will significantly impede the women’s labour force participation and risk inclusion of the 145 million women needed in the workforce to make India a USD 30 trillion economy by 2047.

The costs and impacts of GBV are also inter-generational. Children growing up in violent homes are more likely to drop out of school or struggle with poor health, perpetuating cycles of lost productivity and poverty. Cumulatively, these invisible costs could weigh heavily on India's economy and society. 

Green shoots and ways forward

In the past two decades, India’s legal, institutional, and financial structures have strengthened substantively to curb these negative impacts. Fast-track courts, safe-city projects, support helplines and help desks, one-stop centres providing integrated legal, medical, and counselling support, and broader initiatives to address harmful norms through educational curricula and community-based interventions have marked a shift toward a more coordinated, systematic, survivor-centred approach. However, meeting the ambitions outlined in the UN Sustainable Development Goal 5 on gender equality, including on bodily autonomy, effective representation, and economic agency, requires a three-pronged approach.

Firstly, it requires recognising the changing drivers of GBV in local contexts (for example, climate events and tech-facilitated abuse) and reaching women most affected at a faster pace. Secondly, there has to be a significantly greater focus on prevention strategies. Finally, sustained investments are needed to shift the underlying narratives and norms to address the nub of these issues.

Philanthropy can play a catalytic role in complementing government efforts to address contextually relevant priorities by bridging the gaps between policy, legislation, intent, and lived reality. Gender-based violence (GBV), in particular, demands an ecosystemic response that spans awareness-raising, legal reform, and practical interventions for prevention, response, and rehabilitation. According to Accelerating Gender Equality: Financing for SDG 5 in the APAC Region report, GBV is the least funded thematic area under non-public (philanthropic and private) financing: of the estimated USD 8.5 billion non-public SDG 5 financing across 17 APAC countries, only USD 0.223 billion (less than 3%) is earmarked for tackling GBV.

This significant underinvestment underscores the strategic importance of philanthropic capital: it can inject flexibility (unrestricted or catalytic grants), innovation (piloting norm-shifting curricula, community-led safe spaces, technology-enabled prevention), and community ownership, strengthening linkages between grassroots actors and public institutions (police, justice, health). By doing so, philanthropists can help build a resilient ecosystem, one that addresses root causes (gender norms, social infrastructure), supports survivors, and enhances prevention capacity, in ways that purely public funding often struggles to do.

Such capital can help test new models of prevention and response and fund under-resourced areas that reduce the burden of GBV impacts, such as through investments in developing pilots within education, health, and climate systems. Such pilots offer opportunities to approach the reduction in incidence of harm in a more consolidated way. For instance, strategies to reduce violence against women in supply chains in climate sectors can improve the gender responsiveness of health, education, and local transport systems and make jobs safe and dignified for all.

Another key role that philanthropic capital can play is in bridging data gaps to identify emerging trends and in narrative building to shift perceptions and reduce acceptability of violence in homes, workplaces and communities. Besides women and girls, this could also benefit other vulnerable or marginalised groups overall.

Because this issue is still deeply underserved, philanthropy must go beyond funding prevention and rehabilitation. It needs to rally peers, mobilise capital, and build partnerships across funders, markets, supply chains, corporates, government, and international forums.

GBV remains pervasive and is a wicked problem. However, its reduction in this is not unachievable. With intentionality, strategy, and approaches to afford all individuals, including women and girls, access to safe, productive, and healthy lives, we can create secure and resilient economies that work for everyone.

(Dr Seema Bhatia Panthaki is Director, Gender Equality Platform, AVPN)

(Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of YourStory.)