Breaking the Silence: A Look at Domestic Violence and the Need for Trauma-Informed Support in India

Maitrayee Sen is pursuing her research under the supervision of Dr. Simantini Ghosh at the Department of Psychology at Ashoka University. As a passionate and dedicated researcher in India, Maitrayee is deeply committed to addressing the widespread issue of domestic violence against women. Motivated by a commitment to gender equality and social justice, she aims to unravel the complexities of this problem through rigorous research. Her work focuses on understanding the various forms of relationship violence faced by Indian women, with a special emphasis on Intimate Partner Violence (IPV), which remains a grave concern worldwide.

In India, Domestic Violence is a bigger problem than just violence between spouses (Intimate Partner Violence, IPV). Domestic Violence in the South Asian context is deeply rooted in cultural norms that give men more power than women. This is similar to what happens in other parts of the world.
However, the nature of abuse extends beyond the conventional understanding of IPV, as Indian women often cohabit with not just their spouses but also marital relatives who can be perpetrators. Additionally, violence is also perpetrated by the natal family members before marriage or any cohabiting relationship.

Research often frames domestic violence in episodes, which misses the deeper psychological effects of ongoing, repetitive abuse. Maitrayee’s work argues for using a continuous trauma framework to better understand the chronic nature of domestic violence in India. Complex trauma theory, originally developed for survivors of childhood sexual abuse, is a useful way to understand the layered trauma experienced by Indian women. This theory suggests that long-term, inescapable trauma leads to psychological issues beyond those defined by Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. For Indian women, a lifetime of control, oppression, and abuse fits the criteria of complex trauma.
Currently, there is no unified or structured program in India to help survivors of long-term domestic violence beyond providing legal aid and temporary relief from anxiety or depression. Once the complex trauma theory is proven effective, several stagewise, structured intervention programs that have been formulated with the help of this theory can be standardized and scaled up to help survivors in a culturally and contextually sensitive manner.

Edited by Yukti Arora and Kangna Verma (Academic Communications, RDO)