Ending Gender-Based Violence is Critical: Breakthrough India's Pan-Asia Summit

BEIJING,March 3,2022 --Breakthrough India's Pan-Asia Summit 'Reframe' kick-started today with an insightful discussion on what it will entail to end Gender-Based Violence in the next 10 years. The 3-day Pan-Asia summit 'Reframe' has brought together non-profit organizations,industry experts,thought leaders and media to discuss ways to create a future without Gender-based Violence.

Sohini Bhattacharya,in her welcome address,said, "The aim of this regional summit is to co-create a future agenda in the Asian context,including setting priorities,sharing of strategies for achieving and measuring progress on preventing Gender-Based Violence and Discrimination. Leveraging the opportunity provided to us with the launch of Generation Equality Forum,in 2020,advancing a shared agenda on Gender-based Violence specifically for Asia is important in the current context".

The surge of violence has disproportionately affected those who were already most likely to experience GBV – those facing intersecting and compounding oppressions on the basis of gender,race,class,ability,sexual orientation and other characteristics. Adolescent girls,in particular,have faced a range of issues that are likely to increase their risk of facing GBV across their lifetimes.

Wangshu Lian,an LGBTI activist with Common Language and Chinese Lala Alliance,"Building agency and leadership are two critical components at the heart of combatting Gender-Based Violence. Feminist civil society organizations supporting marginalized communities should be empowered with agency and technical know-how to tackle Gender-Based Violence. Additionally,funding needs to be prioritized for these organizations to drive social change."

An Oxfam International analysis in 70 countries over 40 years has found that the most vital and consistent factor driving policy change has been feminist activism. Feminist movements and organizations have changed the way we think about GBV,drawing attention to the issue and stirring hearts and minds globally,while also deepening our understanding of its root causes and the interventions that are most effective in addressing it.

World Health Organization's (WHO) regional estimates suggest that South Asia and South-East Asia regions have the highest rate of intimate partner violence (IPV) in the world,at 43 percent and 33 percent respectively. Four South Asian countries (Bangladesh,India,Pakistan and Nepal in order of prevalence) feature among the top fifteen countries with the highest national prevalence of physical intimate partner violence as reported by the Demographic and Health Surveys.