Anatomy of Domestic Violence and Suicide in Kashmir

Abstract

The daily timeline of news and happenings around us persistently has the depressing snippets of cases of gender based violence cases all over. This dark reality of witnessing the rising of domestic violence related cases are very concerning and signifies the regressing perception of societal psychology on the whole. This internalization has the ubiquitous nature having the layered dimensions attached to it with women facing the agonizing consequences. Domestic violence is a fairly common occurrence in most of the parts of Kashmir region mainly from husbands or family members and broken relation with in-laws, Wife abuse, marital violence, family issues, and harassment dominance of male structures. This results in bouts of ‘aimlessness’ prompting women to find the meaning in ending her life. In Kashmir region, those females who are victim of domestic violence suffer from unavoidable mental health issues with flashbacks and stressors filled with negative life experiences such as stressful relationships, marital discord, and family troubles, forced marriage, economic crisis and lack of personal choices. There is direct relationship between female suicide and domestic violence. Females who experience physical or/and sexual violence in their marriage are significantly more likely to have suicidal thoughts. In the above mentioned context, it becomes significant to delve into how domestic violence trigger women to commit or attempt suicide and as such the study titled ‘Anatomy of Domestic Violence and suicide in Kashmir’ was undertaken. The study has focused on female suicide survivors who are married women aged from 20–35 and have faced domestic violence. The purpose of the study was to examine the profile of women who have attempted suicide. The present study highlights the spectrums of domestic violence and suicide in Kashmir by focusing on a number of key sociological aspects.