Methodological approaches for estimating the costs of violence against women in India

Several authors have studied the prevalence and incidence of violence against women, but there have been few systematic attempts to investigate the financial consequences of the problem, that too mostly in developed countries. But the criminal justice policy debates can no longer ignore the basic economics of public policy choices. Violence against women is unquestionably a public problem because the entire society pays monetarily, as well as non-monetarily. Violence against women is enormously costly – to the women who experience violence directly, to women generally whose lives are constrained by the fear of violence, and to governments whose expenditures are swollen by responding to some of the consequences of this violence. In the Indian context, there has been no comprehensive study estimating the cost of violence against women. Establishing robust estimates are subject to significant data restrictions. Therefore, the present paper is an attempt to investigate the methodological aspects of estimating the costs of violence against women on the victim, family, and the State. The paper is based on desk review and critical analysis of various research studies and reports on violence against women. Measuring the full economic impact of this issue is the key to inspiring greater efforts to reduce the prevalence of violence against women.