"It's circular. Gender violence is an expression of patriarchy," said Manali Desai, the head of the Department of Sociology at the University of Cambridge. "We find that single explanations — like crisis of masculinity or poverty or financial insecurity — cannot explain such a complicated phenomenon."
Desai runs a project that is comparing patterns and causes of violence in Delhi with Johannesburg, South Africa. She finds that, in spite of rapid urbanization and high crime in both regions, the conversation around gendered violence is very different.Â
"In South Africa, we didn't find that women had any problem talking about violence," Desai said. "They were very open about it. It's a problem right up front — in contrast with India, where everybody's pretending this is not a problem that they'll ever come across."
The group's work suggests that suppression is one of the issues preventing India from finding viable solutions to violence against women. There is also evidence to show that violence, at some levels, may be accepted by many.Â
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