APD | India: Survey conducted on perceptions of women

By APD writer Rishika Chauhan

NEW DELHI, Mar.9(APD)-A recent survey conducted by the department of mental health and behavioural sciences of Fortis Healthcare states that women feel that they are often judged on the weight of their body.

More than 1200 women aged between 15 to 45 years participated in the survey, which was conducted in eight Indian cities, including the capital Delhi, Mumbai and Bengaluru.

Body shaming, according to those surveyed is common. Dr Samir Parikh, director of the department explained that body shaming becomes a form of bullying as physical appearance is judged negatively and criticized.

The behaviour is particularly observed in urban India and women feel that they are subjected to body shaming more than men. 90% of the women surveyed informed that they have either experienced or observed this behavior.

About body shaming he said, “It wrecks havoc on a person’s self esteem as I see in my patients, who are not even aware of the cause of their problem.”

“Without realising the reason they also seem to cut down on their social engagements because it affects them when people comment on their looks, ” he further explained.

According to the data 47.5% of the women surveyed said that they had experienced body shaming and 32.5% of the women said that their friends had made the negative remarks.

(ASIA PACIFIC DAILY)