BY DAVID MAFABI
MBALE
Ms Olivia Nabutsale was relaxing at home in her small grass thatched house in Bufukhula village in Bududa district last year when she heard a knock on the door.
The 38 year-old mother of four had been married for close to eighteen years and was looking forward to starting life as a grandmother of two girls.
Upon opening the door, she came face to face her husband and without waiting to be asked in, he pushed her roughly inside the house and grabbed her by the neck, demanding that she leaves his home.
“He kicked me, punched and shoved me to the floor in a fit of rage. When I realized that he would batter me to death if I resisted or screamed, I lay quiet on the floor, gritting my teeth to keep myself from screaming,” the mother of four recalls.
“I never recovered full use of my ears and some of the scars you see me having today are part of the battering I used to go through daily at my marital home, which are an effect by the blows and sharp objects to my face,” she explains.
“I walked out of my marriage and moved on amidst talk from my parents that it was against their culture and today I thank God that I am staying alone and nobody beats me and I believe that I would have suffered even more serious injuries, or possibly even died, had I continued staying in marriage with my husband,” added Ms Nabutsale.
She explains that when she went back to her parents, she went for treatment at Bududa hospital and was admitted “My parents had no choice but to sell the only piece of land I had acquired from doing small businesses before marriage to provide treatment,”
Stories of horrific scenes that take place in homes around in Uganda are also among the educated, eloquent and articulate graduates with stable careers, an indication that gender-based violence (GBV) affects the learned just as much as it affects the illiterate.
And Ms Nabutsale’ s story is one that reveals that most girls and women will have a story – from being objectified and harassed in the street, to being raped or forced to marry as a child and like they says everything has a price, and violence is not different.
Incidence of GBV
The recent crime statistics released by police in March, 2017 indicate that crimes committed against women and children between 2010 and 2016 have increased as a result of domestic violence, women trafficking, defilement, rape, incest, and child desertion among others.
In 2010, 109 women died as a result of domestic violence compared to the 163
that lost their lives in 2016, defilement cases rose from 14,973 in 2010 to
17,567 in 2016, rape cases shot up from 898 in 2010 to 1,572 in 2016 while
child desertion increased from 1029 in 2010 to 1,525 in 2016.
The 2016 Uganda Police Force report put Gender Based Violence statistics at 58 per cent in northern Uganda, 60 per cent in Karamoja, 56 per cent in western Uganda, 24 per cent in central Uganda, 54 per cent of Internally Displace People, 41 per cent in Kampala region and 74 per cent in eastern Uganda.
The Assistant Inspector General of Police (AIGP) and police political commissar Mr Asan Kasingye said the statistics literary mean that every weekmore than 4 women in Uganda become victims of intimate partner violence.
“GBV is a serious human rights violation that affects many women in Uganda and for each of these individuals, domestic violence – physical, sexual, verbal, emotional or psychological abuse against an intimate partner – could be the underlying cause of distress in women,” said Mr Kasingye.
Financial burden
A Report by the Uganda Network on Law, Ethics and HIV/AIDS (UGANET), an NGO involved in the fight against GBV and HIV/Aids says government of Uganda loses close to Shs 77 b on Police, health care and courts of law every year to handling Gender Based Violence across the country.
The paper entitled “The economic Cost of Domestic violence presented at a high level police institution dialogue on GBV and HIV held at Imperial Royale Hotel 14 November adds that GBV often takes a considerable financial toll on government, women and their families, resulting in a decline in economic stability and household well-being.
The UGANET executive director Ms Dorah Kiconco Musinguzi said statistics in Uganda indicate that 68% of the married women aged between the ages of 15-48 have experienced some form of domestic violence.
“And the effects of domestic abuse run the spectrum from bruises to homicide, and everything in between and GBV epidemic costs many things—marriages, childhoods, lives—it also has very real, and very significant, monetary costs as well,” said Ms Kiconco.
The former Chairperson Parliamentary Committee on gender Ms Margret Komuhangi said the broader economic effects of GBV are described as economic multiplier effects and include increased absenteeism; decreased labour market participation; reduced productivity; lower earnings investment and savings and lower intergenerational productivity.
Ms Komuhangi explained that although GBV is very expensive, it is mainly funded by development partners to 80% while the government of Uganda puts in only 20%.
She said although the government has tried to respond to the high incidences of GBV by integrating prevention and response strategies in the National Development Plan, the results are still very minimal.
“Several legal and policy reform against gender violence and discrimination such as the Domestic Violence Act, 2010, the Anti-Trafficking in Persons Act, the recent amendments to police form 3 and 3A have also been passed but even with all these, GBV still remains high” said Ms Komuhangi.
Prof Grace Bantebya, head of school of women and gender studies at Makerere University said women and girls across the country experience brutal acts like such as rape, sexual harassment, sustained injuries from domestic violence, abusive relationships.
She explained that GBV is a human rights issue and that more needs to be done beyond adoption of legal and policy frameworks, government needs to allocate more funds and step up efforts to protect women and girls against the evils of GBV.
“I know that a lot of money is lost, time is lost and work is abandoned as women seek treatment as hospitals and seek help from police and courts of law, GBV takes toll on our finances, family and work,” added Prof Bantebya.
Ms Irene Ovonji Odida, the chief executive officer of the Uganda Association of Women Lawyers [FIDA], said GBV has been described as the most common human rights violation that both reflects and reinforces inequalities between women and men.
“The costs of treating GBV complications consume significant resources of women and their households in Uganda., it is also true that women continue to pay much more money on chasing cases related to GBV in Uganda,” said Ms Ovonji.
Ms Regina Bafaki, the director Action for Development says there was need for bringing access to justice closer to communities by allowing clinical officers and midwives to examine survivors of sexual violence, the post-traumatic care needs of survivors to be adequately responded to.
“GBV has been identified as a significant driver of HIV/AIDS infections in women in Uganda and organizations are increasingly focusing on the elimination of violence against women as key in the battle against the spread of HIV/Aids,” said Ms Bafaki.
Mr Joshua Wamboga, the executive director Uganda Alliance of Patients’ Organizations [UAPO] says violence increases the risk of HIV infection in women as a result of physiological and psychological reasons.
Mr Wamboga said the broader economic effects of GBV are described as economic multiplier effects and include increased absenteeism; decreased labour market participation; reduced productivity; lower earnings investment and savings and lower intergenerational productivity.
“And costing studies generally examine the cost of GBV in terms of prevention, response and opportunity costs,” said Mr Wamboga.
UTILITY:
According to UGANET, the costs of GBV include the following;
Direct tangible costs are actual expenses paid, representing real money spent.
These costs can be estimated through measuring the goods and services consumed and multiplying them by their unit cost. They also include expenditure on prevention and service provision across sectors, including justice, health, social services and education.
Indirect tangible costs have a monetary value in the economy but are measured as a loss of potential. An example is lower profits resulting from reduced productivity. These costs are measurable, although this involves estimating opportunity costs rather than actual expenditures.
Direct intangible costs result directly from the violent act but have no monetary value. Examples are pain and suffering. These costs may be approximated by quality or value of life measures, although there is some debate as to whether or not it is appropriate.
Indirect intangible costs result indirectly from the violence, and have no monetary value. An example is the negative psychosocial effect on children who witness violence.
