EFFECTS OF INTIMATE PARTNER VIOLENCE ON WOMEN’S SOCIO-ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT IN SOKOTO STATE

Abstract

Women in Africa, like their counterparts the world over, suffer intimate partner violence (IPV) irrespective of class, age, religion or social status. It is estimated that one in every four women suffers this violence at the hands of those who claim to love and protect them. It has been proved that 33% of every married woman, aged 15-45 years experienced emotional, physical or sexual violence committed by their current or most recent husband/partner in Sokoto State. The recent data on intimate partner violence in Sokoto State indicated that 725 reported cases were recorded from March 2020 to June 2021. Sadly enough, this has a multiplying effect on the socio-economic status of the affected women. It’s against this background, that the study aims to examine the effect of intimate partner violence on women's socio-economic development in Sokoto State. The research is purely qualitative. While data from the secondary source were derived from books, journals, the internet and relevant sources, Focus Group Discussion (FGD) was adopted to generate the primary data. The response from FGD was analyzed thematically according to the research objectives and transcribed into the language of the research. Ministry for Women Affairs was hand-picked to generate the survival list, and forty survivors were purposively selected to collect pieces of information on the effect of intimate partner violence on women’s socio-economic development in Sokoto State. the results indicate that Intimate Partner Violence (IPV) has high economic costs on Sokoto state women's socio-economic growth, lower labour supply, reduced productivity, and less investment in human capital among others. It also shows that IPV has a great impact on women’s participation in education, employment and civic life thereby undermining poverty reduction efforts etc. The paper recommended that governments and institutions should put in place mechanisms to address persistent Intimate Partner Violence in rural areas and come to the aid of victims. Similarly, tougher sanctions should be put in place by necessary government agencies to bring to book perpetrators of this heinous crime against women.