Cross Sectonal Assessment Of Violence Against Female Domestic Workers In Gulele Sub-city For Local Level Intervention

There has been growing public and professional concerns in Ethiopia on the issue ofrnviolence against women. Though domestic workers had been among the most vulnerablerngroups to violence in the country, it has hardly got the research attention of the ongoingrnnation wide activities of anti-violence campaign.rnThe present study has tried to contribute to filling in the research gab in the area in therncountry by aiming at undertaking a comprehensive assessment of the context, magnitudernand consequences of violence being committed against female domestic workers inrnGulele Sub-city of Addis Ababa.rnA total of 82 female domestic workers were purposively selected for the study fromrndifferent sites in the sub-city. The assessment was made using adapted Conflict TacticsrnScale (CTS2), Hopkins Symptoms Checklist (HSC-25), structured interview schedulesrnand unstructured interviews.rnThe following were among the major findings of the study: The reasons given by most ofrnthe domestic workers for becoming domestic workers were escape from violence or lackrnof subsistence in their family and marriage life or both. The results of the study on therninvolvement of intermediaries and the use of the un-kept promises (i.e. deception) in thernprocess of turning the target subjects into domestic workers was found to involve -rntrafficking, which was not only gender based violence but also major crime in the penalrncode. It was observed that most of the target domestic workers have experienced sexualrnviolence as well as economic violence by the brokers. The results of the study on thernwork conditions of the domestic workers, the absence of legally binding work agreementrnby the employers and the very meager amount of salary being paid while they werernworking all day long without little or no break seem to demonstrate the prevalence ofrnmajor violation of the rights of the domestic workers. It was observed that the workrnrelationship between the domestic workers and their employers found to be characterizedrnby negative behaviors that strongly suggest the high level of mental cruelty of the latter.rnThe results seem to confirm the violation of the rights of domestic workers i.e.rncitizenship, political, social and cultural rights. The very high prevalence rate resultsrnobserved in all the violence assessment subscales strongly suggest that the targetrndomestic workers had had experienced pervasive violent behaviors examined in the studyrnnamely; psychological aggression, physical assault, sexual harassment/abuse and mentalrncruelty by their employers in the last 12 months. As to the chronicity of violence, itrnobserved that the extent of violent behaviors experienced by the domestic workers overrnthe past year was ‘most chronic’. The statistically significant gender difference observedrnin both the prevalence and chronicity of violence committed against the domestic workersrnsuggest the higher rate of involvement in the perpetration of the violence behaviors byrnfemale employers than male employers The results of the self-ratings of the domesticrnworkers on HSCL-25 showed that most of them have been experiencing the symptoms ofrnmajor depression and anxiety disorders. Likewise the results on PTSD assessmentrnindicated that the majority of the domestic workers (i.e. above 70 percent) experiencedrnthe symptoms of the post-traumatic stress disorders. The study also identified the majorrnrisks and vulnerabilities, social networks, coping mechanisms and strengths of femalerndomestic workers and came up with recommendations

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