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Structural Violence Structural violence is a term commonly ascribed to Johan Galtung, which he introduced in the article "Violence, Peace, and Peace Research" (1969). It refers to a form of violence wherein some social structure or social institution may harm people by preventing them from meeting their basic needs. Institutionalized adultism, ageism, classism, elitism, ethnocentrism, nationalism, specialism, racism, and sexism are some examples of structural violence as proposed by Galtung. Structural Violence against Women and Girls “When one husband beats his wife, there is a clear case of personal violence, but when one million husbands keep one million wives in ignorance, there is structural violence.” (Johan Galtung, Violence, Peace and Peace Research). In Pakistan Context Social media has been abuzz with reports, cumulatively revealing a brutal, consistent pattern of violence against women and girls. This pattern exposes two obvious issues; (1) Firstly, that violence against women and girls is accepted and acceptable. This is because in the real world, beyond the Internet, no real change is, or has, taken place to tackle the issue. The attempt at change has largely been cosmetic. Changes, such as removal of a police officer, if enough attention is given to a case or a tweet by a senior government official does not amount to meaningful and lasting change. The death penalty in child abuse cases will never deter child abuse, as the sentence does not deal with underlying issues around the abuse. In any case, the 2016 Amendments to the rape law already carry the death penalty in cases of rape against a child. (2) Secondly, there is a consistent and long running pattern of violence in our society. Whether such violence is in the name of so called ‘honors’ or due to the rejection of a man’s unwanted advances or because of an animal like instinct that makes men justify rape on a 10-year-old child, all of these examples reveal that the problem of violence and its justification is systemic. Unfortunately, not addressing structural violence and its underlying causes has led to violence such as son preference, child marriage, dowry-related violence, domestic violence, physical, emotional, and sexual violence, Child labor, trafficking, children with disabilities

Impact of Structural Violence on Psycho-Social and Mental Health Structural violence reveals itself through themes of inequality, discrimination, ageism, adultism, poverty, classism, casteism and forced choice, and manifests in several types of direct violence against boys and girls. The literature also indicates that direct violence against children and adolescents is linked with a variety of psycho-social challenges. For instance, domestic violence is associated with a range of adverse physical, mental and sexual and reproductive problems for its victims (Abramsky et al., 2011; WHO, 2013). For example,

Hall et al. (2016)

found that child weavers in Afghanistan, especially girls, reported symptoms in line with mental health issues, such as difficulty sleeping, problems concentrating, restlessness, being sad, lonely, angry, fearful or anxious, lacking an appetite and being forgetful.

In a study

with over 2,000 10–19-year-old adolescents in India, Pillai et al. (2008) found gender discrimination as measured by occurrence of either being treated differently (e.g. compared with a sibling of the opposite gender) or being restricted from certain activities by parents because of one’s gender was associated with anxiety, depression, behavioral problems and attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder – with urban adolescents and girls more likely to report this link .

According to a United Nations multicountry study on the drivers of violence (Maternowska et al., forthcoming), the field of violence has not fully examined how larger structural factors are playing a role at all levels of the ecological model and how this understanding can be used to protect children from violence. 1. The structural level – that is, the outermost level – can be understood as the contexts that make violence more likely to occur (Maternowska et al., forthcoming). These can include casteism, classism, sexism, ageism, etc. Inherent in these contexts are themes of inequality, discrimination and exploitation. 2. Next, the macro level includes societal factors such as media influences, technological consequences, policy/laws, inflation and other socio-cultural factors.

3. This is followed by the community level, which consists of service providers, religious/community leaders and infrastructure access, availability and quality. 4. Following this is the household level, including parents, siblings, marital family members and romantic partners/spouses), who shape an individual’s behavior’s, attitudes and trajectories. 5. Finally, the individual level conceptualizes factors such as biology (e.g. sex of the child) and childhood legacies for children and adolescents that shape their well-being.

References Structural violence against children in South Asia - UNICEF. (2018). Retrieved from https://www.unicef.org/rosa/reports/structural-violence-against-children-south-asia Structural violence against women and girls, (2019). Retrieved from https://tribune.com.pk/story/1995995/6-structural-violence-women-girls/ Structural violence. (2020, January 22). Retrieved from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Structural_violence...