GDHS Report: Child neglect is reason for spousal beating

The 2022 Ghana Demographic and Health Survey (GDHS) report reveals that about 13 per cent of women and 10 per cent of men in Ghana have justified child neglect as cause for wife beating.

Fewer than one in five women, 19 per cent, and men, 16 per cent believe a husband is justified in hitting or beating his wife or partner she neglects the children, goes out without telling him, argues with him, refuses to have sexual intercourse or burns the food.

The 2022 Ghana Demographic and Health Survey (GDHS) report revealed that one-third of Ghanaian women aged 15-49 had ever experienced physical violence since age 15 and in the last 12 months while 12 per cent of women experienced physical violence.

These were made known at the zonal and final dissemination of the 2022 GDHS report workshop, organised jointly by the Upper West and Savannah Regions held in Wa to share different aspects of the survey to policymakers and stakeholders.

This was to bring the information and data to the doorstep of data users and practitioners with the relevant statistics at the regional level.

In a powerpoint presentation, Mr Iddrisu Andani Abdulai, the Savannah Regional Statistician said by marital status, 26 per cent of never-married women, 34 per cent of women who had been married or living with an intimate partner and 53 per cent of women who had divorced, separated, or widowed had ever experienced physical violence.

Seven per cent of women experienced physical violence during pregnancy and by region, experience of physical violence in the last 12 months ranges from eight per cent in Greater Accra to 21 per cent in Upper East.

Among women who had ever been married or had an intimate partner, the most common perpetrators of physical violence were current and former husbands and intimate partners.

Mr Abdulai explained that mothers, stepmothers, fathers and stepfathers were the most common perpetrators of physical violence among women who had never been married nor had an intimate partner.

He said 14 per cent of women aged 15-49 have ever experienced sexual violence by any perpetrator, including six per cent of women who had experienced sexual violence in the last 12 months.

Thirteen per cent of never-married women, 15 per cent of women who were married or living with an intimate partner, and 21 per cent of women who were divorced, separated or widowed had ever experienced sexual violence.

The report revealed that current and former husbands and intimate partners were the most perpetrators of sexual violence against currently or previously married women.

The Savannah Regional Statistician said among women who had ever experienced physical or sexual violence, 38 per cent sought help to stop violence, and 10 per cent did not seek help but did tell someone about the violence while 51 per cent women who experienced physical or sexual violence never sought help and never told anyone, and 10 per cent never sought help but did tell someone.

The most common sources of help women seek are their own family and the husband’s or intimate partner’s family and more than one-third 36 per cent of ever-partnered women had experienced violence committed by their current or most recent husband or intimate partner, whether physical, sexual or emotional.

The Survey showed that in the last 12 months, 28 per cent of ever-partnered women experienced violence by any husband or intimate partner; that included 26 per cent who experienced emotional violence, 10 experienced physical violence, and six percent experienced sexual violence.

“By region, recent experience of violence by any husband or intimate partner is as high as 47 percent among ever-partnered women in Savannah and is lowest in Bono at 18 percent,” the report indicated.

Mr Kwadwo Asante Mensah, Director of Administration at the Ghana Statistical Service (GSS) Head office in Accra, said the GDHS was a nationally representative survey designed to monitor and assess progress in the utilisation and management of healthcare services.

The GSS selected 18,540 households across all the 16 regions of Ghana, of which 17,933 households participated in the survey. These households were made up of 15,014 women aged 15-49, 7,044 men aged 15-59 and 4,935 children aged 0-5 with different questionnaires administered to each category.

“In essence, the GDHS would provide essential information and data which would help in our understanding of the demographic and health trends in Ghana and would assist in making meaningful comparisons with both our historical data and similar studies conducted in other countries,” Mr Mensah said.

Mr Mensah said the GDHS findings would help stakeholders to design the appropriate and relevant interventions to improve the quality of life of the people as the statistics were disaggregated by region, locality type, and focuses on specific demographic characteristics such as gender, age, education and wealth.

“The GSS envisage that the insights derived from the report would help in your implementation, monitoring and evaluation strategies and strengthen your policies and programmes aimed at enhancing the overall public health and specifically address reproductive, maternal and child health”, he said.