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The Department of Women, Youth and Persons with Disabilities (DWYPD) will use the ongoing Disability Rights Awareness Month (DRAM 2024) to shine a spotlight on the often-overlooked prevalence of gender-based violence (GBV) on women living with disabilities.

This is according to the Minister of Youth and Persons with Disabilities, Sindisiwe Chikunga, who on Monday received the first South African National Gender-Based Violence Prevalence Study: A Baseline Survey on Victimisation and Perpetration, conducted by the Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC).

The study revealed that overall, 7.7% of women aged 18 years and older had a disability.

The study noted that a higher proportion of ever-partnered women with a disability compared to those with no disability had experienced lifetime physical violence (29.3%) for women with disabilities compare to 21.7% for women with no disability.

About 31.2% of women with a disability have experienced physical and/or sexual violence (31.2%), emotional abuse (31.9%), economic abuse (16.3%) and controlling behaviours (60.0%) by a partner in their lifetime.

The study also noted that the prevalence of sexual violence from a partner was twice as high with (14.6%) for ever-partnered women living with a disability compared to 7.2% of women who did not report a disability.

With regards to the prevalence of recent forms of intimate partner violence (IPV), the report found no significant differences observed between ever-partnered women with a disability and women without a disability for recent physical violence which was 4.3%, including 3.6% of sexual violence, physical and/or sexual violence was at 6.9%, emotional abuse 9.6% and economic abuse which was at 4.4%.

“The high rates of violence experienced by women, with even higher rates experienced by women with a disability, underscores the need for government, professionals and service providers to play a crucial role in identifying women affected by GBV and to ensure that women with disabilities are included in prevention plans,” the report recommended.

Reacting to the figures on women with disability, Chikunga said heinous crimes are being committed against women who can neither hear, see, nor talk, noting that “for these women, justice is almost always denied”.

The report comes as the country continues to observe Disability Rights Awareness Month.

Chikunga said the final week of DRAM 2024 will focus on the security of persons with disabilities, addressing both natural and human-made disasters, including the pervasive threat of GBVF.

“With the 7th administration in full swing, our message is clear: the master's tools will not destroy the master's house. We need new tools, and we need them urgently. We will not tinker on the edges,” Chikunga remarked.

DRAM runs from 3 November to 3 December.

READ | Chikunga launches Disability Rights Awareness Month

Immediate action

Chikunga said the findings of the study, which revealed that that about 7 310 389 million of all women aged 18 years and older have experienced physical violence in their lifetime, should serve as a source of shame but also a call to immediate action.

She said the findings and recommendations will contribute to government’s ongoing focus on prevention, enhanced protection for victims, and ensuring that perpetrators are held accountable.

Additionally, the department is currently preparing for its five-year strategic planning session and will not only invite the team behind the study to present at the session, but also incorporate their recommendations into the five-year strategic plan.

“We need community intelligence on this complex subject—researchers, scholars, advocates, and activists who will go beyond reproducing mainstream narratives and get a granular picture from communities that face violence at a community or even street level, to ensure that justice is served.

“One of the first actions required is to challenge and deliberately repurpose all values and practices across educational, religious, cultural, sporting, and creative environments to support the fight against patriarchal chauvinism in all spheres of life. 

“We must influence the content and delivery of school curricula to nurture youth who reject the patriarchal script and the violence it perpetuates in every aspect of life,” Chikunga said.

In addition, the department will be responsible for integrating the study’s findings into the National Strategic Plan on GBVF. This includes recalibrating existing policies and programs to align with the evidence presented in the study.

The National Strategic Plan was adopted in 2020 as a society-wide programme to end gender-based violence and femicide.

The department will also benchmark from how others have fought GBVF in their contexts. 

“For example, in their 2023 study, Marco Colagrossi and colleagues drew from high-frequency data from the Italian anti-violence helpline, police reports of domestic abuse, and a unique geospatial dataset on killings of women to show that news coverage of a femicide triggers an increase in help-seeking behaviour.  They also found that help-seeking increases more when the general interest and news coverage are higher.

“We need more work in this area of research. We will also continue to mobilise funding from both public and private sector sources to ensure that our interventions against GBVF are adequately resourced. Support for civil society will be crucial in this regard,” the Minister said. – SAnews.gov.za