“As families increasingly struggle to earn enough to eat we are seeing how money is becoming more important than relationships, to the point that the social implications are potentially alarming. Policy-makers need to catch up.” - Naomi Hossain, Institute of Development Studies UK research fellow.

COMMENT A UN Habitat report in 2008 states, “It is also important to consider the impact on the physical security of women, through increased tendency to gender-based violence and domestic violence as worsening material conditions combine with a sense of helplessness among men, who then look for outlets for their anger and frustration. The increase in violence and insecurity of women in periods of economic crisis has been well-documented.”