Living in a Protracted Conflict Area: Mental Health Burden of Women in Manipur, India
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RESEARCH IN PROGRESS
Living in a Protracted Conflict Area: Mental Health Burden of Women in Manipur, India Prashant Kesharvani1 • Kalpana Sarathy1
Received: 17 February 2019 / Accepted: 7 October 2020 National Academy of Psychology (NAOP) India 2020
Abstract There is an increase in mental health burden globally and this sharp rise is equally true for India. Such burden can double in areas that are affected by violence or protracted conflict. People residing in protracted conflict area face numerous challenges due to their intermittent exposure to traumatic events. Women are often the worst sufferers due to several reasons. Manipur, India has witnessed conflict since several decades and both developmental and humanitarian organizations categorize the nature of conflict in Manipur as protracted. The nature of the conflict in Manipur is complex due to involvement of several actors. This paper explores mental health burden of women living in protracted conflict area of Manipur, India. This quantitative study employs a cross-sectional interview-based survey to understand mental health burden on a randomly selected sample of 666 respondents, of whom, 359 were women (53.9%). The mental health burden was assessed through four dimensions namely affective, behavioural, cognitive, and physiological. The analysis explored mental health burden of women in comparison to men. While, there was no significant gender difference in exposure or experience of conflict, women reported significantly higher mental health burden as compared to men, both overall as well as on each dimension. This study validates the results of other studies that report higher mental health burden in conflict areas. There is higher prevalence of mental health burden among women living in a protracted conflict area.
& Prashant Kesharvani [email protected] 1
Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Guwahati Off-Campus, Guwahati, Assam 781013, India
Keywords Women Mental health burden Protracted conflict Violence
Introduction Persons living in protracted conflict areas are undeniably, affected due to ongoing violence and the repercussions of such violence on populations are numerous. The consequences of such exposure affect not only day to day living of the population, but it also affects the economy, development, livelihoods, health and most importantly mental health. Arguably while the entire population remains affected, vulnerable groups such as women, children and older person are amongst the most severely affected. In general, there is a growing consensus that the mental health consequences of protracted conflict on a population require to be addressed.
Mental Health Burden Mental health burden has become a global priority only in recent years. The World Development Report by the World Bank (1993) drew sharp attention to the morbidity associated with mental health burden and the need for its recognition among policymakers and across nations. The Global Burden of Disease Study (GBD 1990), ‘‘showed that neuropsychiatric disorders—a grouping
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