Recent murder of Indian wife by husband, demands soul searching amongst Indian community

– By Dr. Manjula O’Connor –

Sargun Ragi was burnt to Death at the hands of her separated husband in October 2012. That was the fourth family murder-suicide as a result of domestic violence.

12 people were killed in three family murders-suicides in 2012 in the Victorian Indian community. This led some leaders of Indian community to pronounce that there was no need for too much concern as this was an aberration and unlikely to be repeated.

How wrong they were!

In 2013 there was 5^th story of attempted beheading of a wife by her husband who then tried to kill himself. It was a huge shock. Luckily both the wife and the husband survived.

Last week we heard with deep sadness and worry of Indian wife, Deepshikha, being murdered by her husband Sunil who then went on to commit suicide. This was the 6^th Indian family caught up with murder due to domestic violence in two years.

Homicides and murders due to domestic violence reflect a deep and widespread problem with domestic violence in our community.

Domestic violence is men’s behaviour problem the brunt of which is borne by the women. Sadly the older women, usually of the husbands family become allies of male perpetrators. The older women become enemies of younger women.

Deepshikha’s murder demands a deep soul searching by the Indian community of Australia.

Recently United Nation Population Fund conducted a study on domestic violence in India. The findings go a long way towards explaining why we are experiencing in Victoria such high rates of domestic violence in Indian community.

The study explores what is the average Indian male image of himself and how does the Indian man interpret what types of behaviour are