At a tender age of 10, Neha (name changed) became a victim of domestic violence, a fallout of differences between her parents.
Though she was not subjected to any physical abuse, the mental trauma she went through pushed her into depression.
In majority of cases, more than spouses becoming victims of violence, it is the children who suffer the most.
Though there are many NGOs providing support to women abused in domestic violence, there is no such support system for traumatised children and also men.
Neha is the daughter of Navin Rolands, who runs a small software firm in city and also works for the Children's Rights Initiative for Shared Parenting (CRISP). It has been seven years since Navin separated from his wife after he caught her having an extra-marital affair ever since his daughter was three or four years old.
Navin told Deccan Chronicle “I could bear the burden. But the emotional and mental violence my daughter had to go through almost every day was too much to see.
After we separated when Neha was 10 years old, I had to be both father and mother to Neha. She was a lovely child, but because of the trauma, she was depressed for some time. I had to reschedule my work and be there to drop her and pick her up from school. She is now 17 and is in her second PU."
Recently, CRISP counselled Manjunath (name changed to protect the identity), who had parted ways with his wife because of her extramarital affair. Their two children – 12 year old son and nine-year-old daughter – were traumatised by the incident.
Kumar Jahgirdar, President, CRISP said: “In almost all cases of domestic violence, generally the emotional and mental trauma the children face is not taken into account or discussed. Of the total number of domestic violence cases that we deal with, in about 10% of the cases the children are abused physically and emotionally.”
It is not just women, men too become victims of domestic violence. “More than the physical violence, it is the emotional and mental trauma that married men have to go through that push them into depression and suicide.
According to the National Crime Records Bureau, in 2011, the number of married men committing suicide was almost double the number of women resorting to the extreme step. Last year, 32,582 married women committed suicide as against 62,433 men.”