Study reveals link between warming climate and rising domestic violence in THESE 3 countries
2 min read 01 Jul 2023, 06:43 AM ISTA new study has found a link between a 1-degree Celsius rise in average temperature and a 4.5% increase in intimate partner violence in South Asia. The study predicts a 21% increase in family violence in the region by the end of the century.
PremiumA new study has revealed a link between a 1-degree Celsius rise in the yearly average temperature and a 4.5 percent increase in intimate partner violence (IPV) in a research of almost 1,95,000 ever-partnered women across three South Asian countries including India.
Ever-partnered women are defined as those who have had sex, been married or been in a romantic relationship, according to PTI reports.
Researchers have predicted a 21 percent increase in family violence in the region by the end of the 21st century. According to the report, India is estimated to experience the highest increase of 23.5 percent among the three countries, the other two being Nepal and Pakistan.
The study -- 'Association of Ambient Temperature With the Prevalence of Intimate Partner Violence Among Partnered Women in Low and Middle-Income South Asian Countries' -- has been published in the medical journal JAMA Psychiatry.
In an email, the corresponding author of the study Renjie Chen, Fudan University, China said, “Given the higher prevalence of IPV in South Asia compared to the global level, and the region's recent history of more frequent and intense heatwaves."
“We conducted this study to evaluate the association of ambient temperature with IPV prevalence, including its types -- physical, sexual, and emotional -- among partnered women," Chen told PTI.
The study included ever-partnered women in the 15-49 age group from India, Nepal, and Pakistan and used self-reported data from the Demographic and Health Survey (DHS) Programme, collected from October 1, 2010, to April 30, 2018.
The study found physical violence to be the most prevalent at 23 percent, followed by emotional at 12.5 percent and sexual at 9.5 percent.
Further, the study projects increases in physical and sexual violence stemming from hotter temperatures to 28.3 percent and 26.1 percent, respectively, far greater than the projected rise in emotional violence at 8.9 percent, by modeling changes in IPV prevalence under various future climate change scenarios through the 2090s, PTI reported.
It is estimated that in the 2090s, India will experience the highest IPV prevalence increase at 23.5 percent, followed by 14.8 percent in Nepal, and 5.9 percent in Pakistan under an unlimited carbon emissions scenario, the study said.
Chen said the heat-aggression hypothesis is likely to be behind such violence stemming from hot temperatures.
(With PTI inputs)
