Gender Based Violence and Reproductive Health (GBV-RH) Facts

International Facts and Figures:

• Around the world, as many as one in every three women has been beaten, coerced into sex, or abused in some other way — most often by someone she knows, including by her husband or another male family member; one woman in four has been abused during pregnancy.
  
• In Australia, Canada, Israel, South Africa en de United States 40-70 % of the female victims of homocide, has been killed by their partner.
  
• One in four women has been mentally or physically abused during pregnancy.
  
• Physical violence in intimate relationships is almost always accompanied by severe, mental and physical violence. In one in every four cases of domestic violence the woman also is sexually abused.
  
• In the developing world, 33 -50% of women report being beaten by their partners.
  
• Worldwide, between 100 million and 140 million women have undergone some form of female genital cutting and suffer from its adverse health effects.
  
• According to WHO, 85 million to 115 million girls in the world’s population have undergone “forced” sexual debut, percentages range from 7% in New Zealand to 46% in the Caribbean.
  
• At least one in three women globally has been physically or sexually abused at some time in her life.

Regional Facts and Figures:

• Among ever-married women, 40% in Dhaka reported physical violence; 37% in Dhaka reported sexual violence by their husbands, ever in their lifetime.
  
• Combined data for physical and sexual violence, 53% of ever married women in Dhaka had ever experienced physical or sexual violence.
  
• 10% of ever pregnant women in Dhaka were physically abused during at least one pregnancy. Of these, 37% in Dhaka were punched or kicked in the abdomen.
  
• More than 80% of the women who were beaten during pregnancy had also been beaten by the same person before their pregnancy. Among the women who had been abused before their pregnancy, 12% in Dhaka said the abuse got worse when they were pregnant.

National Facts and Figures:

• Every second women in Pakistan is victim of violence, according to reports by human rights groups.
  
• The gender based violence situation in Pakistan is alarming. Recent estimates indicate 70-90 percent of women in Pakistan suffer from some form of (domestic) violence.
  
• Consequently, violence is responsible for 0.9. percent of the deaths of women aged between 20-49 years in Pakistan. Of these most deaths are attributed to rural settings rather than urban.
  
• A study in Pakistan concluded that nearly one quarter of the women were subjected to some form of violence during pregnancy; it could range from slapping to forced sexual intercourse.

*** Source: WHO, USAID, Population Council and WPF