In the largest multi-country survey of violence against women using data from 2000 to 2018, the most striking feature is the scale of intimate partner violence. The study, conducted by the World Health Organization with a special working group of the United Nations, found that around 736 million women are subject to violence, and 641 million women have experienced physical or sexual violence from their partner. This begins early: a quarter of 15- to 24-year-old women have been subject to it by their mid-20s. Women in developing countries have it worse, with 37 per cent of 15- to 49-year-olds having been beaten up or sexually violated by their spouses; in some regions this goes up to one woman in two. Violence against women worldwide is hardly a secret; this report exposes the rate at which male partners in relatively better-off and apparently gender-equal countries hurt women. Yet the study excludes the Covid-19 period, when housebound violence grew worse.

That no law or education is effective in curbing the desire to perpetrate violence on a woman partner suggests that men’s desire for control and domination remains unchecked. The prevalence of intimate-partner violence also indicates the endorsement of this by the Establishment. A silent belief seems to be that marriage — when that happens — means possession. This is demonstrated clearly in India, where there is no law against marital rape and where a member of the highest judiciary can ask in court whether violence by the husband can be called rape. India is one of the leading countries in violence against women; violence by strangers is as common as violence within the family — and not by the spouse alone. Dowry deaths and honour-killings show that marital and natal families are equal participants in lethal cruelty, while spousal violence, suggests the National Family Health Survey-5, is far more widespread than is recorded. Stigma, financial dependence, the children’s security, lack of support from the natal family and society, poor education leading to joblessness — all compel Indian women to bear untold torture. The WHO report can be useful for comparisons: conditions in countries with less familial violence may be studied to see which bits they got right. Unless the socially accepted, gender-based logic of power undergoes a change, of course.