Shraddha was not the only woman who had reconciled herself to abusive relationships

A November 21 HT story by Megha Sood and Gautam S Mengle pointed out that Poonawala started beating Walkar as soon as they first moved in together. While she did discuss it with her family and friends, the relationship “had fallen into a toxic pattern of abuse and reconciliation” they wrote. Data from National Family and Health Survey (NFHS) shows that Walkar was not the only woman to have reconciled herself to an abusive or violent relationship. In fact, a significant share of women in India believe that their husbands are justified in using violence on them for various reasons – the ones specified in the survey range from serving burnt food to refusal to have sexual intercourse. Clearly, there is a larger subconscious surrender to patriarchy at play here rather than the fault or inability of a single woman, in this case Walkar.