Being beaten up at home could be making Indian women and children frail and undernourished. In an interesting research, a team of social scientists from Harvard School of Public Health has for the first time found a strong association between domestic violence and chronic malnutrition among Indian women and children.
Explaining the reason behind the connection between exposure to domestic violence and malnutrition, social scientist S V Subramanian from Harvard’s department of society, human development and health told TOI that two explanations could prove the association, the first relating to empowerment.
According to Dr Subramanian, perpetrators of domestic violence use different types of abuse, such as physical and psychological, to control the behaviour of their family members.
“The withholding of food is a documented form of abuse in Indian households and is likely correlated with the perpetration of physical violence. An inadequate diet resulting from this results in nutrient deficiencies that cause anaemia and underweight. Additionally, domestic violence is strongly associated with a woman’s inability to make decisions for herself including the choice of types and quantities of food that a woman prepares,” Dr Subramanian said.He added: “The second explanation is psychological stress. Women who experience domestic violence tend to have higher levels of psychological stress. Children who have witnessed domestic violence in their homes go through the same.”
According to the team, psychological stress is a risk factor for oxidative stress, a term describing a number of chemical reactions that produce free radicals and other organic molecules capable of damaging living tissue.
This is fascinating, because it shows that it may not simply be a lack of food which causes malnutrition, but stress. A lot of research is coming out now showing how stress negatively impacts a host of bodily reactions, which contribute to making a person unwell.
For those of you unfamiliar with the research on mind/body linkages, here are some links!
Mind-Body Connection
Stress: The Mind-Body Connection
However, I don’t like the article’s opening sentence, which is as usual overly sensationalist. The point is not just about women and children who get ‘beat up’, but the more insidious psychological violence that takes so many forms and is so pervasive.
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