Vietnamese men increasingly victims of domestic violence: minister

Minister of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs Dao Ngoc Dung said on Wednesday that over 3,100 families experienced domestic violence last year.

The most common form was 1,520 cases of physical violence, followed by psychological abuse at 1,400 incidents. Economic abuse accounted for 230 incidents, and sexual abuse accounted for 110 cases, he added.

Of the 3,200 victims of domestic violence, 2,600 were female and 565 were male. Compared with 2022, both the numbers of domestic violence cases and the number of victims have dropped.

But the number of male victims had risen by around 20%.

Around 3,000 people involved in domestic violence cases have been issued warnings and fines, while 129 people have had criminal charges brought against them.

Dung said many victims of domestic violence do not report incidents because they fear being judged.

Most of them only come to authorities for help once the situation has gotten too severe, when violence had been inflicted upon them for a long time, or when their marriages break down because of it.

Statistics from labor surveys in 2023 revealed that the average number of hours women do unpaid homemaking works was 1.8 times more than their male counterparts. Specifically, women do it 16.13 hours a week on average, while men only do it 8.75 hours a week.

Nguyen Thuy Anh, head of the National Assembly’s Social Committee, said the gender imbalance is making long-term impacts on Vietnam’s population structure. It can also lead to other social consequences and result in gender inequality, she added.

The male/female ratio at birth in 2023 was 112 boys for every 100 girls, same as in 2021 and 2022.