RSG Links Mental Illness Among Women To Domestic Violence

The Rivers State Deputy
Governor, Dr Mrs Ipalibo Harry Banigo, has said that the prevalence of mental illness among women would be reduced by 50 per cent if domestic violence is reduced.
In  a statement signed by her press secretary, Paul Damgbor, recently, Dr Banigo decried the rising spate of violence against women in the state, the country and the world at large. She expressed sadness that one in every three women worldwide have experienced physical or sexual violence. Mostly by intimate partners while about 120 million girls have been forced into intercourse or other sexual acts.
Dr Banigo also expressed worry that about 60 million persons forcibly displaced are women, an unsettled reality that puts them at higher risk than their male counterparts.
Regretting that past efforts made to raise awareness on the risk of the violence daily faced by women have not yielded the desired result, she calls for adequate information through sensitization and campaigns to help reduce cases of domestic violence among women, as she beckons on stakeholders for more co-operation towards tackling the menace of domestic violence in the state.
Meanwhile, in line with the perception of many people that laws that tend to protect women against all forms of violence in the society have been relaxed and inactive giving rise to the prevalence of violence against women.  Dr Ipalibo Harry Banigo has called for a  review of laws on violence against women and its subsequent implementation, while charging those responsible for its implementation to carry out to the later whatever penalty the convicts deserve.
She, therefore, urged women to always report cases of violence against them by violators so they could be brought to book.

Sylvia ThankGod-Amadi