Delhi
Most Indian women who have been abused say that wife-beating is okay, according to a U.N. report released this week. Fully 70 percent of Indian women whose husbands have beaten them said such violence is “sometimes justified.” Withholding sex or being late with dinner were among the acceptable justifications cited. The U.N. Population Fund ranks India third in the world in tolerance of domestic violence; only Egypt and Zambia are worse. The problem is not a result of poverty and ignorance alone. A 2003 study found that Indian women’s chances of being abused actually rose with their level of education.
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