rnational Centre for Research on Women found that 45 per cent of the women interviewed had been abused by their husbands. Violence against women is also as widespread in Bangladesh. In his paper, M E Khan of the Population Council identified five factors that triggered violence: managing household work, sexual relationship, dowry demand, poverty and economic dependency of women. Saroj Pachauri, Population Council's Asia director, emphasised the need for research on gender-based violence. Intervention could be successful only when scientific data was available, she said. Gender-based violence considerably increases women's risk of poor health. The World Bank estimates that rape and domestic violence account for loss of five per cent of healthy years of life of women aged between 15 and 44 years in developing countries.Sea-change among women of feudal Bihar By Kalpana Jain The Times of India News Service NEW DELHI: ``If without knowing anything Rabri Devi could become chief minister, then why can't I? I too may be an illiterate, but I can articulate my ideas. As for writing, I can put my thumb impression as well.'' If these comments of a 35-year-old Harijan woman, Sudama Devi, from Chhatra district in caste-ridden Bihar are any indication, then a quiet revolution seems to be taking place in the state. Backward class women are now able to not just voice their views on all subjects, but also bring in social changes - an almost impossible feat till some years ago in feudal Bihar. For Sudama Devi, who was married off when she was just 15 to a rickshaw-puller, life was a daily drudgery of working from morning till evening. At the end of a hard day's work, she earned a pittance of Rs 4 to Rs 5. ``I didn't know what eating a full meal was. There was never enough food, with five children to feed.'' Life has changed in this area after 40-odd women were organised into a group by an empowerment scheme, Mahila Samkhya. These women initially spent the...
