Domestic violence: profile of married women availing institutional help

Background: In India, women are not keen to seek formal help to solve the issue of domestic violence (DV). Aim and objectives: Current study attempted to understand the profile of women who sought or availed institutional help (legal/counselling services etc.) to address DV. Material and methods: Data were collected from sixty women aged between 18 years and 50 who faced domestic violence from their husbands. Results: Most of the respondents were young, unemployed and not well educated. They faced physical, emotional & verbal, sexual and economic types of violence from husbands and husbands' family members. Their children also witnessed DV. Perceived causes for DV were; husbands' exposure on their parental violence, psychoactive substance abuse, dissatisfied sexual life, extra marital relationships in husbands and influence of other wife-beating family members. Most of them felt that DV as their fate and had attempted suicide. Even though many of them received legal help; many felt that, legal help was not adequate in addressing DV. Conclusion: Importance of mental health approach to address DV has been discussed.