Violence against Women: An Important Global Health Priority

Sarah Simpson
USA

Violence against women is a major health problem around the world and continues to be an important cause of morbidity and mortality among women.  Women suffer violent deaths either directly or indirectly, and this violence is also can important cause of morbidities such as mental, physical, sexual and reproductive health outcomes and is also linked to important risk factors for poor health, such as alcohol and drug use, smoking and unsafe sex.  The problem is so widespread that it has its own Millennium Development Goal 3 which seeks to “promote gender equality and empower women” along with Millennium Development Goal 5 which seeks to “improve maternal health”. However, in the light of several publicized acts of violence against women, this important issue is once again at the forefront of everyday discussion. Some key facts about violence against women from a United Nations factsheet:

·         A WHO multi-country study found that between 15–71% of women aged 15- 49 years reported physical and/or sexual violence by an intimate partner at some point in their lives.

·         These forms of violence can result in physical, mental, sexual, reproductive health and other health problems, and may increase vulnerability to HIV.

·         Risk factors for being a perpetrator also include low education, past exposure to child maltreatment or witnessing violence in the family, harmful use of alcohol, attitudes accepting of violence and gender inequality.

·         Risk factors for being a victim of intimate partner and sexual violence include low education, witnessing violence between parents, exposure to abuse during childhood and attitudes accepting violence and gender inequality.

In the wake of the world-wide Valentine’s Day  One Billion Rising events calling people everywhere to unite and bring an end to violence against women, The Guardian’s “Global Development podcast” has recently released a podcast proceeding  the United Nations Fifty-seventh session of the Commission on the Status of Women.

podcast

In this podcast, deputy editor of Guardian global development Liz Ford speaks with Irene Khan, head of the International Development Law Organization; Korto Williams, country director of ActionAid Liberia; Andrew Long from the U.K. Foreign Office's prevention of sexual violence in conflict initiative; and Lakshmi Puri, deputy executive director of U.N. Women, about current global efforts to stop violence against women. 

Against the backdrop of these movements to unite people world-wide, all eyes will be on policymakers at this upcoming session of the UN Commission on the Status of Women to produce and deliver results abroad and even in the United States.  Recently, two UN experts addressed the US State House of Representatives to approve the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) which lapsed in 2011. Overall, the impact of violence against women needs to continue to be researched and explored from a public health perspective.

Sarah Simpson is an aspiring global health professional currently pursuing her Master of Public Health, Epidemiology degree at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey.

PROTECT THE POLIO VACCINATORS FROM BARBARIC KILLING DURING POLIO CAMPAIGNS

 Eradication of polio is just a matter of time now. And the history is on the making.

This is going to be another epoch-making step of the human race after small-pox eradication towards a world worth for better living.

Polio looks to be gone from most of countries except Nigeria, Pakistan and Afghanistan. Unfortunately, chronic political unrest and social conflicts in those countries have equal negative impact on the on-going polio eradication initiatives, leaving behind the deadly virus alive and active to attack and paralyze innocent children.

The newest and probably the toughest challenge of polio drives in those countries is episodic killing of the polio vaccinators by unknown assailants due to reasons not yet known.

Two such heartbreaking incidences already took place in Pakistan and Nigeria respectively with the span of few months. At least 20 – 25 innocent polio vaccinators including women were shot dead while they were in the vaccination campaign in the field. One of them was as young as 14 years.

Why they were targeted and slain, who were behind this barbaric act and what remained to be their purposes –all these questions are still unanswered.

But the damage has already been done.

The vaccinator force has lost moral strength ‘to seek and immunize every child below five years in the community’ - the prestigious task conferred on them during the polio drive campaigns which is essential to ensure polio eradication.

The situation is alarming and tends to provide the virus rare opportunity to survive and spread the disease debilitating the gallant efforts made in series of polio campaigns of those nations.

And we should also remember about the mammoth global level investment after polio eradication campaigns that might well go for a complete waste if polio virus continues to exist in few countries keeping the threat of transmission across the globe viable, especially to those countries where eradication is achieved with limited or no polio vaccination drive happening at present, thus left with a large cohort of unprotected and vulnerable children.

So, can we sit back and see our polio vaccinators being killed off and on during the polio drives?

Polio vaccinators function as the army infantries of the war. They are tasked to carry out the final assault on the virus by meticulously including every single targeted child into the periodic polio campaigns. They are extensively taught to overcome socio-religious resistance, geographic barriers and conflicting situations with a smiling face and logical mind.

But we never teach them how to stay away from the bullets that can be very well sprayed on them by the unknown and hidden killers.

And the most ill-fated ones have paid the heaviest price for that.

The incidences are not only detrimental to the polio eradication efforts of the globe but display nakedly a gross violation of the rights of the development workers.

If those workers were deployed to work for door-to-door campaign in sensitive or politically disturbed zone whether adequate security measures were undertaken to protect their lives?

If not, then why the polio campaign was conducted in those areas without proper security measures?

Polio vaccinators do have the right to demand for adequate protection if the polio campaign needs their support to cover terror-stricken or politically unrest areas.

The vaccinators do have the right to refuse their services if the security measures are not in place or inadequate in those places.

The honorarium of the vaccinators is still not at par with the amount of workload they shoulder during the polio campaigns. Many vaccinators hail from the low socio-economic classes of the society. A large fraction of them are students and unemployed youth. We also find a good number of rural healthcare professionals providing services as vaccinators in the remote villages.

During multiple field level interactions with vaccinators it was observed that most of them appreciate the social cause attached to their work, not much bothered about the honorarium.

It is those vaccinators who actually nailed the last coffin of polio virus in India; it is those vaccinators who were about to convert the dream of a polio-free society into reality in Pakistan, Nigeria and Afghanistan.

Those are the most critical field workers we have who vow to keep our children absolutely safe from the threat of polio.

It will be a crime if we sit peacefully at home to see them being helplessly killed while instilling polio drops into the mouth of the children.

We made polio drops popular in the name of ‘do bund zindagi ka.’

Why not we care a bit more for the invaluable ‘zindagi’ of our irreplaceable polio crusaders who are committed to the core to exterminate the deadly agent causing crippling paralysis forever?