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‘If They Beat You and Your Children Have Eaten, That Is Fine…’ Intersections of Poverty, Livelihoods and Violence Against Women and Girls in the Karamoja Region, Uganda

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The Palgrave Handbook of Intersectionality in Public Policy

Part of the book series: The Politics of Intersectionality ((POLI))

Abstract

Violence against women and girls (VAWG) is a common occurrence, but the daily struggles to meet survival needs take precedence over rights, entitlements and freedoms. As such, violence against women and girls thrives on deprivation, poverty, acceptance and concealment coupled with women’s dependence on men and male-dominated decision-making in most spheres of life. Even with increased awareness about VAWG, there was a fear to lose ‘care’ among women and custody over their children, which kept violence unreported and hidden. In practice, for policies and programmes to be effective, the multiple vulnerabilities of being female, mothers, poor, illiterate, married and the limitations on access and control over household and communal resources as intersectionalities need to be addressed. It is important for policy makers and programme implementers to continuously develop and adapt interventions and approaches considering the multilayered lived experiences of women and girls that expose them to and sustain violence.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Paediatrics and Child Health, College of Health Sciences, Makerere University, Kampala, Uganda

    Joseph Rujumba

  2. Department of Sociology, Kyambogo University, Kampala, Uganda

    Japheth Kwiringira

Authors
  1. Joseph Rujumba
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  2. Japheth Kwiringira
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. School of Public Policy, Institute for Intersectionality Research and Policy, Simon Fraser University, Vancouver, BC, Canada

    Olena Hankivsky

  2. Providence College, Providence, RI, USA

    Julia S. Jordan-Zachery

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Rujumba, J., Kwiringira, J. (2019). ‘If They Beat You and Your Children Have Eaten, That Is Fine…’ Intersections of Poverty, Livelihoods and Violence Against Women and Girls in the Karamoja Region, Uganda. In: Hankivsky, O., Jordan-Zachery, J.S. (eds) The Palgrave Handbook of Intersectionality in Public Policy. The Politics of Intersectionality. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-98473-5_14

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