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The Lancet

2 March 2009

http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(09)60235-X/fulltext

 

INDIA - FIRE-RELATED DEATHS OF WOMEN

 

Editors' note: To date, national estimates of fire-related deaths in India have been lacking, and much of what is known on the prevalence of such incidents is derived from police-reports. This study retrospectively estimates the number of fire-related deaths in India for 2001, using data derived from (1) a death registration system based on medically certified causes of death in urban areas, (2) a verbal autopsy based sample survey for rural populations, and (3) all-cause mortality estimates based on the sample registration system and the population census. It is estimated that there were over 163 000 fire-related deaths in 2001 in India, which accounts for 2% of all deaths in the country.

Fire-Related Deaths in India: A Retrospective Analysis of Data

Prachi Sanghavi BSc a , Kavi Bhalla PhD b, Prof Veena Das PhD c

Summary

Background

Hospital-based studies have suggested that fire-related deaths might be a neglected public-health issue in India. However, no national estimates of these deaths exist and the only numbers reported in published literature come from the Indian police. We combined multiple health datasets to assess the extent of the problem.

Methods

We computed age—sex-specific fire-related mortality fractions nationally using a death registration system based on medically certified causes of death in urban areas and a verbal autopsy based sample survey for rural populations. We combined these data with all-cause mortality estimates based on the sample registration system and the population census. We adjusted for ill-defined injury categories that might contain misclassified fire-related deaths, and estimated the proportion of suicides due to self-immolation when deaths were reported by external causes.

Findings

We estimated over 163 000 fire-related deaths in 2001 in India, which is about 2% of all deaths. This number was six times that reported by police. About 106 000 of these deaths occurred in women, mostly between 15 and 34 years of age. This age—sex pattern was consistent across multiple local studies, and the average ratio of fire-related deaths of young women to young men was 3:1.

Interpretation

The high frequency of fire-related deaths in young women suggests that these deaths share common causes, including kitchen accidents, self-immolation, and different forms of domestic violence. Identification of populations at risk and description of structural determinants from existing data sources are urgently needed so that interventions can be rapidly implemented.

 

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International Herald Tribune

 

The Associated Press

March 2, 2009

 

Lancet Report: Fire a Major Killer of Indian Women

NEW DELHI: More than 100,000 young women were killed in fires in India in a single year, and many of those deaths were tied to domestic abuse, according to a new study published Monday.

Young Indian women are more than three times as likely to killed by fire as their male compatriots, according to an article published on the Web site of the British medical journal, The Lancet. The victims largely fell within a 15 to 34-year age group.

Domestic abuse is a serious problem in India. Women are sometimes killed in disputes over dowries; often in such disputes the victims are doused with gasoline and set ablaze, and their deaths are claimed as kitchen accidents.

In the first study of its kind and using the most recent data available, U.S.-based researchers analyzed death registrations, official questionnaires in rural areas and census figures to arrive at an estimate of 163,000 fire-related deaths in 2001, or 2 percent of all deaths. That number is six times higher than the number of such deaths reported by police. More than 106,000 of those, or 65 percent, were women.

Women rights activists have long accused the government of not doing enough to fight the problem. Indira Jaising, director of the Women's Rights Initiative of the Lawyers Collective in New Delhi said authorities only pay the issue lip service.

"They say that it's a crime and it's shameful, but it's not enough to say that," Jaising said. "They have not been able to do anything to stop it from happening."

She said authorities must intervene earlier in dowry disputes and domestic abuse cases.

"Once the death takes place they are willing to investigate but by then it's too late," she said. "When women go to them with complaints when they're alive, those complaints should be taken seriously."

Officials at the Ministry of Women and Child Development did not respond to requests for comment.

The study's authors said in the report that the fire deaths were usually caused by kitchen accidents, self-immolation and domestic abuse.





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