Abstract
By the time I realised I wasn’t delusional, it had been too late. Overwhelmed with exertion due to prolonged physical and mental torment, the lady with the burnt arm in the neighbourhood had already succumbed to her injuries. Her relentless efforts to camouflage the various atrocities life had subjected her to endure had failed; however, more importantly, I had failed her; we had failed her.
Having spent about twenty-two years of my existence on this planet, I have had my fair share of encountering news of such gut-wrenching incidents time and again, either through newspapers, the internet or the spoken word. And each of those times, I was bewildered, more than I was dejected, as to how even after considerable years of development, we still have not succeeded in eradicating forms of violence against the women of our nation, which I understand to be one of the most significant requisites in transforming our country for the better. This article ventures into this thought-provoking dilemma , delving into how the issue of Gender Based Violence has intricately sculptured the very essence of democratic ethos.
Since time immemorial, gender-based violence has been swathed by the dusk of silence and tolerance which made it difficult to find credible statistics on the same. More so, it is the appalling reality of fate that due to inevitable stigmatisation, shame and fear of reprisal, violence against women continues to be unreported. An outright threat of such acts, coercion and arbitrary deprivation of personal liberty are also forms of gender- based violence.