Children's Vulnerability to Domestic Violence

Mohan K. Tiwary, International Institute for Population Sciences (IIPS)

From this paper an attempt has made to study the impact of domestic violence on 126 children aged 8 to 17 years living in a lower middle class family in a suburban of Mumbai. The median age of the children was found to 12 years. Majority of them had studied up to STD IX. Parents were educated up to middle school level. The children opined that in most of the cases violence takes place when father is drunk and or mother does something not liked by the father. Due to such incidents children drop out from the school, lag behind lose concentration in studies. The children desire to have a violence free atmosphere in the family and wish not to indulge in such cases as when they would acquire their families. The study indicates that the domestic violence acts as a hindrance in overall development of the children.