KOLKATA: Incidents of domestic violence have risen over the last five years with 44 per cent of the crimes against women being perpetrated by family members in India, according to statistics available with the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB).

In 2000, an average of 125 women faced domestic violence every day and after five years, the figure is 160.

West Bengal recorded the second highest incidence of domestic violence after Andhra Pradesh and accounted for the fourth highest dowry deaths after Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Madhya Pradesh, an NGO 'Swayam' said at a seminar on 'Domestic Violence' here citing an NCRB report.

The NGO said that 19 women were murdered by either their husbands or family members, while 160 cases of domestic violence were reported last year. "That is, 58,319 women per year were abused in their own homes."

Stating that 40 per cent of married Indian women faced physical abuse by their husband, it said that one in every two women faced domestic violence in any of its forms.

Quoting a research paper by the UP National Family Health Survey, the NGO said out of 90,000 women interviewed, 56 per cent reported assault by their husbands or family members.

"Most women accept violence as a part of their daily marital life and hence they do not perceive violence as a crime," the NGO said.

On the newly-enacted 'Protection of Women from Domestic Violence', speakers at the seminar said sufficient budgetary allocation for implementation of the act was imperative.

State governments should set up sufficient homes, medical facilities and legal aid centre for women facing domestic violence, they added.

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