Sexual violence has a profound impact on physical and mental health of an individual. Not just that it also has both immediate and long term consequences. It can have an impact on mental health as on physical as well. Sexual violence can also profoundly affect the social life of the victim. In India especially, with the orthodox mentality prevailing strongly in the rural parts, individuals may be stigmatized and detested by their families and others in the society and the neighborhood.

Sexual violence, especially in domestic violence, is usually a result of the expression of power and dominance of one sex over another in most cases, dominance of the husband over his wife. The problem aggravates when men think that their actions are legitimate just because they are married and that they have full control and power over their wives. Also in our country, women really do not talk about domestic sexual violence because they too think that their husbands have a right to torture them and rape them and that all they can do is shed some tears. This is seen in remote rural areas of the country. Many of the women and men are also be raped when in police custody or in prison. The common consequences of sexual violence are those related to mental health and social wellbeing being disrupted.

Women coming from rural background in India are more vulnerable to domestic violence compared to their counterparts in urban areas. This is because of their vulnerability due to lack of education, exposure and opportunity – and the nature of Indian society.

The Indian state of Bihar tops the list of women, who are physically abused by their spouses. Married women from the state of Himachal Pradesh are found to be less likely to face violence at home, compared to other states in India.

Thirty seven percent of women Indian rural women have faced abuse and violence at home according to a new survey (survey 111) done by National Family Health body. They were found to be more vulnerable to violence due to lack of education. Rural women with no education are more easily violated by their spouses and in laws, but very few report this in public. However, it has been found that rural women with secondary or higher secondary education are also abused by their marital families more often, than those who are born and bred in urban areas and given less education.

It has also been observed that illiterate women face more violence from their husbands compared to literate women. According to National Family Health Survey-111, 37.2 per cent Indian married women have experienced violence and abuse by their spouse.

The survey states that 40.2 per cent Indian women from rural areas are facing more violence from their husbands compared to urban regions where the percentage is 30.4 except Bihar. In Bihar women from urban areas faced more violence then their sisters from rural areas. This was a strange phenomenon sited in the lawless state of Bihar. 62.2 per cent of its women were subjected to the trauma of domestic abuse in urban areas compared to 58.5 per cent of women from villages. The two big metros Delhi and Bombay were more humane in their treatment of women compared to other areas. 16.3 women emerged as battered in Delhi and 19.5 per cent in Mumbai.

The percentage of domestic abuse and violence perpetrated on women in other Indian states was found to be as under :-

46.3 – Rajasthan

45.8- Madhya Pradesh

44.1 – Tripura

43.9- Manipur

42.4 – Uttar Pradesh

40.3 – West Bengal

38.8 – Arunachal Pradesh

India is in its villages and even after sixty years of independence, Indian women are facing social slavery. A Nation which calls itself liberated and independent, still allows its woman to be physically, mentally and sexually abused by man. Indian husbands can hold their heads high in their society even after beating their wives, especially in rural regions.

Economic dependence and the ritualistic and regressive nature of village society have made rural Indian married women more vulnerable to violence in their homes. They almost never report the violence to a legal body and keep a tight lipped silence for life. They are raised to believe that it is normal to be violated by their men after marriage.