Women's Vulnerability, Risk and Social Protection: An Exploration of Links between Property Ownership and Domestic Violence in South Asia *

Social protection is widely understood as a combination of policies and programmes aimed to reduce vulnerability and poverty, and to enhance capacity to manage risk in times of social and economic crisis (Cook et al. 2003). A gender sensitive social protection framework needs to recognise that women, on account of their gender, face specific social and economic risks which are also intertwined. Domestic violence is a particularly clear manifestation of the social and economic risks that many women worldwide face on the basis of their gender. With one out of every four women currently experiencing domestic violence worldwide, it is a pervasive risk in the daily lives of many women (Kishor and Johnson 2004), and one that needs recognition in social protection programming.