Staff Correspondent:

Intimate Partner violence (IPV) remains widespread for women in Bangladesh, with 70% women having experienced at least one form of it-physical, sexual, emotional, and economic violence as well as controlling behaviours – in their lifetime, finds a recent national survey.

According to the study, for 41% of women, this violence occurred in the past 12 months.

The Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS), in collaboration with the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) Bangladesh, presented the key findings at the dissemination event for 2024 Violence Against Women (VAW) Survey’s key findings.

These figures are based on UN standard measures, which are widely used, among others, for global monitoring of prevalence of Violence Against Women.

The corresponding figures are even higher when considering additional acts of violence relevant to the national context of Bangladesh (76% lifetime and 49% last 12 months prevalence).

According to the study findings, while lifetime IPV prevalence remains high at 70%, the rate of IPV in the past 12 months was 41%.

The corresponding figure were 73% and 55% respectively in 2015.

The survey also highlights intimate partner violence (IPV) to be a more prevalent form of violence than non-partner violence.

For the purposes of this survey, ‘intimate partners’ are defined as current or former husbands, and ‘non-partners’ refer to any individuals other than a current or former husband with whom the respondent has come into contact since the age of 15.

More than half of all women (54 per cent) had experienced physical and or sexual violence from their husbands in their lifetime, with 16 per cent facing such violence in the past year. Controlling behaviour and emotional violence were found to be the most prevalent forms of violence, according to the key findings, highlighting that psychological violence is a critical concern.

More than half of all women (54%) have experienced physical and/or sexual violence from their husbands at some point in their lives, with 16% facing such abuse in the past year.

The key findings also reveal that controlling behavior and emotional violence are the most common forms of abuse, emphasising psychological violence as a major concern.

Additionally, the survey revealed that women are three times more likely to experience physical violence and over 14 times more likely to suffer sexual violence from their husbands than from anyone else. This suggests that the risk of physical and sexual violence is overwhelmingly higher in the context of marital relationships.