Violence against women (VAW) has been on the rise in Zambia in the past years. The root causes of VAW in Zambia can largely be narrowed down to gender inequality for women and associated violent, harmful and controlling aspects of masculinities that are the result of patriarchal power imbalances. This imbalance, it is argued, has led to pervasive cultural stereotypes and attitudes that perpetuate the cycle of violence.
The Zambia Demographic Health Survey (ZDHS,2018), indicated that 36% of women aged 15-49 have experienced physical violence at least once since age of 15 and that 52% of these never sought help and never told anyone about it. This shows that the actual incidence of VAW is likely to be higher given that many women do not report. The impact of VAW resonates in all areas of health and social programming. The survivors of violence experience increased rates of morbidity and mortality and studies have shown that the transmission of HIV/AIDS is exacerbated among other health conditions.
According to the Zambia Police Victim Support Unit, as at the end of the third quarter of 2020, a total of 7,640 cases of gender-based violence (GBV) were reported countrywide. Compared to the number of cases reported in the same period in 2019, there was a 19.8% increase in the number of reported cases in 2020. Of the total cases reported, 24.2% were against children with more cases recorded among girls (73.7%), 58% and 18% were recorded among women and men respectively. This shows that the cases of GBV reported are mainly against women and girls. The statistics further indicate that cases of VAW are higher in urban areas as compared to rural areas, the urban Provinces of Lusaka and Copperbelt continue to top the list. Another prevailing violation against women and girls in the country is child marriage.
According to the 2018 Zambia Demographic and Health Survey (ZDHS), 29% of women aged 20 to 24 years reported having been married before age 18 and this prevalence rate is considered one of the highest in the world. However, owing to several interventions aimed at curbing the scourge, the cases of child marriage in Zambia have reduced from 42% in 2007 to 31.4% in 2013/2014 to 29% in 2018. The causes of child marriage include poverty; limited access to a range of programmes, information and services, few opportunities for leisure and recreation, skills development and employment; prohibitive cost of sending children to secondary school; marriage as a response to teenage pregnancy; inadequate care for orphans and stepchildren; risk management strategy for difficult or ‘hard-to-manage children and inadequate child supervision or social support.
