Socio-cultural aspects of gender-based violence and its impacts on women’s health in South Asia

This review attempts to shed light on the socio-cultural roots of gender-based violence (GBV) and its impact on women's health with a special reference to reproductive health in the context of South Asia. It also identifies the policy and capacity gaps that impede the implementation of gender-related development goals and makes recommendations in light of the ongoing situation.   Led by the growing recognition of the pivotal importance of women’s and child’s health in national development processes, the issues surrounding gender-based violence (GBV) are being given increasing prominence in the global public health agenda. However, developing regions such as South Asia and Sub Saharan Africa are lagging far behind in this respect and failing to prioritize and implement gender-related development strategies. South Asian nations in their pursuance of gender-related goals are faced with host of infrastructure issues in financing, policy guidance, implementation and legislation terms. This study highlights the fact that GBV is essentially a socio-cultural issue which calls for developing gender-sensitive social policies and making strategic investment to promote social capital tailored especially to promote a more nuanced view of women’s health and human rights. Method: Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, Embase, Ovid MEDLINE, PsycINFO, and Web of Science were searched for original and review articles published between January of 2000 to July of 2015. Boolean search was performed to identify suitable articles relating to GBV conducted on South Asia (Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka) by using the following search terms:  South Asia, GBV, IPV (intimate partner violence), domestic violence, women’s health, reproductive health, risk factors, perpetrator, sexual abuse. Reference lists were searched manually for articles relevant to this study (snowballing). One volunteer from each country included in the study helped in reviewing renowned local media reports and constitutions to gather policy information germane to GBV issues.