Assessment of violence against women in Kano metropolis, Nigeria.

Background: Violence against women, in its various forms, is endemic in communities and countries around the world, cutting across class, education, race, age, religious and national boundaries.

Aims And Objectives: This descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted to identify various forms of gender based violence affecting women in Kano metropolis, determine factors responsible for gender based violence and use this to suggest ways of preventing gender based violence.

Subjects And Methods: Respondents for this study were selected from the eight metropolitan Local Government Areas of Kano State, Nigeria. Six hundred adult males and females were selected through a multi-stage sampling technique by the use of questionnaire as the data tool.

Results: More than three quarters 436 (75.7%) of the respondents knew that women are subjected to various forms of verbal abuse in their homes by their spouses. Deprivation of assess to health care and education was identified by 454 (78.8%) and 490 (85.15) respondents as challenges faced by women at homes. Majority of the respondents 498 (86.4%) identified financial reason, four hundred and forty (76.4%) respondents mentioned unfaithfulness and three-quarters 434 (75.3%) of the respondents said refusal of sexual advance is a reason for violence activities witnessed by women in their respective homes. There was a statistically significant relationship in opinion of male and female on coercion of wife for sexual activities when she is tired and when she is not in the mood (p-value=0.0000).

Conclusion: Government and Non Governmental organisation should intensify activities to promote awareness and advocacy on violence against women. Involvement of males in all programmes relating to violence against women should be done especially since the perpetrators in most cases are men.