New Delhi: Global warming can also have an impact on domestic violence. Highly unthinkable but apparently the two are linked and India might experience the highest rate of violence against women A study published in the journal JAMA Psychiatry, on Wednesday found that an increase in temperatures leads to a substantial rise in domestic violence against women.
The South Asia-based study looks at three countries, India, Pakistan, and Nepal between 2010 and 2018, where thousands of girls and women spoke about their experience of emotional, physical and sexual violence. The study also noted that without any steps taken to limit emissions, which contribute to global warming and climate change, in the 2090s, India might experience the highest rate of violence against women among the three countries studied.
The findings of the study
- One degree Celsius rise in average annual temperature was linked to an increase of more than 6.3 per cent in incidents of physical and sexual domestic violence across the three countries.
- Researchers tracked 194,871 girls and women aged between 15 and 49 to study the prevalence of intimate partner violence (IPV) and its types which include physical, sexual, and emotional violence across India, Pakistan and Nepal.
- A significant association was found between high ambient temperature and the prevalence of IPV against women.
- For every one degree Celsius increase in the annual mean temperature, a total of 4.49 per cent IPV prevalence was noted.
- IPV prevalence would increase by as much as 21 per cent by the end of this century under the “unlimited emissions scenarios.”
- However, if steps are taken to curb emissions contributing to climate change and global warming, the IPV prevalence would “moderately increase.
- Physical (28.3 per cent) and sexual violence (26.1 per cent) were significantly higher than emotional (8.9 per cent).
How does climate impact domestic violence?
- Many potential pathways, both physiological and sociological, through which higher temperature could affect risk of violence,” said Michelle Bell, a professor of environmental health at Yale University and a co-author of the study.
- Extreme heat sets off a chain reaction of socio-economic effects like crop failures, and effects on income, and forces people to stay at home without any means to earn a daily wage, which puts a lot of pressure on households and gives rise to violence against women.
- IPV is significantly more prevalent in lower-income and rural households when compared to heat-related increases in violence in higher-income groups.
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