By Shaffie Bakali

Mangochi, August 24, Mana: Mangochi Police Station has expressed satisfaction with increased number of men reporting various forms of Gender Based Violence (GBV) to the station’s Victim Support Unit among them denial of conjugal rights.

Mangochi Police Station, Public Relations Officer Amina Daudi disclosed this on Wednesday at the end of two-days media training organized by the Media Council of Malawi at Mangochi Boma saying the there is an increase on case reporting compared to past years.

“We are happy that there is an increase in number of men reporting cases of GBV to our Victim Support Unit. Almost four men report their cases every week and most cases being denial of conjugal rights as well as increased expenditure demanded by their wives “

“To us this is an achievement. Previously a month would go without registering any GBV case from men,” said Mangochi Police Station publicist and attributed the new trend to the efforts made by the station through public awareness on GBV and urged other partners to continue with public awareness on the GBV and its effects.

Daudi said Mangochi Police was compelled to carry out series of public awareness after the station did a research that revealed a link between GBV and suicide among men.

MCM organized the media training with funding from Malawi Irish Consortium for Gender Based Violence.

District information officers and other eastern region-based journalists, gender officers and police officers attended the two days training.

District Gender Officer for Mangochi, Pilirani Malonda expressed gratitude on efforts by various partners to raise awareness that make people to come in the open to report GBV, saying the awareness also contributes to a decrease in GBV cases this year's first half comparing to the same period 2022.

“Our office is pleased that men are coming in the open to report GBV and we would like to report that GBV cases from January to June this year have declined by 14 percent compared to the same period last year,

“There is a decrease in physical and sexual violence as 21 and 45 cases were recorded respectively in 2023's first half while last year (the same period) 36 cases for physical violence and 66 for sexual violence were recorded” Malonda said.

She also called on development partners to train more media practitioners to ensure increased awareness on GBV and its physical and psychological effects.