DOMESTIC VIOLENCE AND HARASSMENT AMONG YOUNG WOMEN DURING THE PANDEMIC SITUATION IN SRI LANKA

Abstract

Domestic Violence and Harassments are human rights violations that harm survivors. Although both men and women are impacted, and severity of domestic violence and abuse is substantially higher among women. The World Health Organization has estimated that one-third of women worldwide will experience domestic violence and harassment during their lifetime. The aim of this study is to investigate violence and harassment among young women in Sri Lanka, and sub-objectives are to explore the prevalence of violence and harassment among young women in Sri Lanka. This study is an exploratory investigation with a mixed approach of qualitative and quantitative analysis. For the purpose of data collection, simple random sampling and snowball sampling methods were employed. Through the qualitative approach, the factors influencing personal factors, economic factors, social factors, and relationship factors were identified by the use of past literature. In the quantitative approach, the questionnaire was distributed among 384 participants. The study recognized region, family type, husband’s education, husband’s employment, economic pressure, marital type, number of children, culture as the dimensions of domestic violence against women and awareness respectively. The findings designate personal factors, economic factors, social factors and relationship factors have significant impact on domestic violence among young women during the pandemic situation. In addition, proactive control mechanisms are proposed to control the domestic violence and harassment among young women in Sri Lanka