Volume 17, Issue 2, July 2016, Pages 388–393
Padma Bhate-Deosthali1
1 Centre for Enquiry Into Health and Allied Themes, Mumbai and Tata institute of Social Sciences, Deonar, Mumbai - 88, India
Original language: English
Copyright © 2016 ISSR Journals. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
The medical literature from India repeatedly reports burns deaths to be high among young married women mostly as kitchen accidents due to stove blasts or cylinder blasts leading to deaths. The interviews with survivors and their families indicate that there is a deliberate attempt by women to report all burns injuries as result of accidents in order to avoid any police investigation. This is true in cases of suicides as well as homicides. Almost all women reported experiencing domestic violence and therefore the linkages of burns injuries and domestic violence are strongly established. This studied silence hinders the development of any concerted response for prevention of burns injuries. The paper argues for development of a comprehensive health system response to domestic violence in order to address the issue of high burden on intentional burn injuries amongst young women in India.
Author Keywords: Burns Injuries, Kitchen Accidents, Suicide, Homicide, Domestic Violence.
Padma Bhate-Deosthali1
1 Centre for Enquiry Into Health and Allied Themes, Mumbai and Tata institute of Social Sciences, Deonar, Mumbai - 88, India
Original language: English
Copyright © 2016 ISSR Journals. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Abstract
The medical literature from India repeatedly reports burns deaths to be high among young married women mostly as kitchen accidents due to stove blasts or cylinder blasts leading to deaths. The interviews with survivors and their families indicate that there is a deliberate attempt by women to report all burns injuries as result of accidents in order to avoid any police investigation. This is true in cases of suicides as well as homicides. Almost all women reported experiencing domestic violence and therefore the linkages of burns injuries and domestic violence are strongly established. This studied silence hinders the development of any concerted response for prevention of burns injuries. The paper argues for development of a comprehensive health system response to domestic violence in order to address the issue of high burden on intentional burn injuries amongst young women in India.
Author Keywords: Burns Injuries, Kitchen Accidents, Suicide, Homicide, Domestic Violence.
How to Cite this Article
Padma Bhate-Deosthali, “Busting the Kitchen Accident Myth: Case of burn injures in India,” International Journal of Innovation and Applied Studies, vol. 17, no. 2, pp. 388–393, July 2016.
