Differences in the acceptance of wife abuse among ethnic minority Garo and Santal and mainstream Bengali communities in rural Bangladesh

Abstract

Studies on wife abuse in Bangladesh predominantly include the mainstream Bengali population, although there are at least 27 ethnic minority communities including a few ‘female-centered’ matrilineal groups living in the country. This study explored ethnic differences in the attitudinal acceptance of wife abuse among matrilineal ethnic minority Garo , patrilineal ethnic minority Santal , and mainstream patriarchal Bengali communities in rural Bangladesh. Adopting a cross-sectional design, the study included 1,929 women and men randomly selected from 24 Garo , Santal , and Bengali villages. Multivariate Poisson regression was performed to predict the number of contextual events, where the respondents attitudinally endorsed wife abuse. Of the sample, 33.2% were from Garo , 33.2% from Santal , and 33.6% from the Bengali communities. The acceptance of wife abuse was high in the sample; specifically, 34.1% of the respondents accepted physical wife abuse, 67.5% accepted emotional abuse, and 71.6% accepted any abuse (either physical or emotional) at least on one contextual reason provided in a 10-item scale. The mean for accepting any abuse was 3.0 ( SD = 2.8), emotional abuse 2.3 ( SD = 2.2), and physical abuse 0.8 ( SD = 1.4). The study showed that the rates of accepting any abuse and physical abuse were respectively 16% and 56% lower among Garo as well as 14% and 33% lower among Santal than that of the Bengali community. Data also revealed that individual level factors like younger age, higher education, prestigious occupation as well as family level factors such as higher income, female mobility, and female family authority were inversely associated with the acceptance of wife abuse in the sample. It appears that the gender regime of a society has a great influence on the attitudes toward wife abuse. We argue that a comprehensive socio-cultural transformation of the patriarchal societies into a gender equal order is imperative for the prevention of widespread wife abuse in the country.

Gender differences in marital violence: A cross-ethnic study among Bengali, Garo, and Santal communities in rural Bangladesh

“…Source: Field notes of the research team members and other sources were used to prepare the table [13,28,29]. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0251574.t001…”

“…Many societies support or tolerate husbands’ abusive behaviors against wives [ 13 ]. Thus, MV is viewed as a gendered issue prevalent in a patriarchal society [ 14 ].…”

“…Previous studies have also not incorporated the ethnic minority communities living in the country, while it is often assumed that MV is less common among them, particularly among the matrilineal communities [ 13 , 23 ]. Previous studies offered little evidence in elucidating how the socio-cultural differences among the ethnic minority and mainstream communities may influence men’s and women’s experiences of MV.…”

“… Source: Field notes of the research team members and other sources were used to prepare the table [ 13 , 28 , 29 ]. …”

Ethnobotany of Medicinal Plants Used by Rakhine Indigenous Communities in Patuakhali and Barguna District of Southern Bangladesh

“…Although the Government of Bangladesh has officially recognized a total of 27 ethnic groups (1.8% of the country’s total population), various rights groups have claimed that there may be more than 45 minorities living in different parts of the country. 5 , 6 Ethnic communities are supposed to be a rich source of ethno-medicinal information because of their indigenous traditional knowledge regarding the therapeutic uses of plants. Indigenous communities have utilized plants as a source of a medicine from the past based upon centuries-long conviction and perceptions throughout the world.…”