Abstract

Objective: Poverty, overcrowding, and inadequate resources are major factors in the vulnerability of women in slums. Women are victims of verbal, psychological, and physical abuse from their partners. The hostile condition of urban slums, social marginalisation, and subdued jobs in a patriarchal world make women easy targets for such abuses. This review paper aims to explore the multifaceted dimensions of violence, underlying causes such as Physical, Sexual, Emotional, or Psychological harm, Verbal, and it also shows how poverty and the constructed subjugation of women are prevalent in such an urban and modernised part of a city. Social marginalisation, patriarchal norms, and subdued economic opportunities reinforce women’s subjugation, while children growing up in such households face intergenerational risks. Addressing violence against women in slums requires an anthropological perspective to understand how cultural norms, socio-economic conditions shape women’s resilience and access to support systems. Methodology: This research was searched on PubMed, Scopus, WHO, Google Scholar, and other relevant search engines to identify articles that focused on violence against women in urban slums of India. This research includes 47 studies that satisfied the inclusion criteria for this review. Narrative Review and thematic &content analysis were used for detecting themes, which gives a theoretical and analytical perspective of the study. Results: The prevalence of any form of violence against women, as reported in the studies, ranged from 15% to 59.3%. Violence can lead to physical and mental health problems, including injuries, anxiety, and depression. The major risk factors identified were husband’s alcohol abuse, women justifying the violence inflicted on them, low educational levels of women and men, dowry issues, and age differences between the spouses. It is evident from the review that urban slum women experience persistent violence.

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