Background: Gender based violence is found to be recognized as a global public health and human rights problem which leads to high rates of morbidity, mortality, substance dependence, suicide and depression. Since India is a male dominant society, it is hard to believe that male can be a victim and female a perpetrator. In the absence of any systemic data, with more men coming up and reporting violence by women, it is important to understand the issue of violence against men by women and associated factors. Objectives: To find out the prevalence, characteristics, and reasons of violence against men, To determine the socio-demographic correlates of violence. Methodology: This is a community based cross sectional study using multistage random sampling in which a total of 500 married men in the age group of 21-49 were interviewed using modified conflict tactic scale. Household under an urban field practice area of Belagavi, Karnataka is taken as the study participants. Statistical analysis is done with SPSS version 20 and descriptive data is expressed in Percentages and frequencies. Results: In the present study, the prevalence of gender-based violence was found to be 47.2%. Out of this, 44.6% experienced violence at the hands of their wives/ intimate partner at least once in their lifetime and 8.8% in the last 12 months. The most common violence was emotional (46.4%) followed by physical violence (4.40%). In almost half of the cases, husband initiated physical and emotional violence. Conclusion: Besides women, men are also the victims of gender-based violence. This demands the future investigation and necessary intervention on gender-based violence against men in India.
