Nature of domestic violence against women in a rural area of Bangladesh: implication for preventive interventions.

This paper reports finding from a study carried out in a remote rural area of Bangladesh during December 2000. Nineteen key informants were interviewed for collecting data on domestic violence against women. Each key informant provided information about 10 closest neighbouring ever-married women covering a total of 190 women. The questionnaire included information about frequency of physical violence, verbal abuse, and other relevant information, including background characteristics of the women and their husbands. 50.5% of the women were reported to be battered by their husbands and 2.1% by other family members. Beating by the husband was negatively related with age of husband: the odds of beating among women with husbands aged less than 30 years were six times of those with husbands aged 50 years or more. Members of micro-credit societies also had higher odds of being beaten than non-members. The paper discusses the possibility of community-centred interventions by raising awareness about the violation of human rights issues and other legal and psychological consequences to prevent domestic violence against women.