A man beats his wife in the street in Jinhua, Zhejiang Province in 2011. It is not known if the man was arrested. Photo: IC



A shelter for victims of family violence has opened in Mentougou district, the district civil affairs bureau said Wednesday. 

It would be the first government shelter in Beijing, the Beijing Morning Post reported.

However, an expert in domestic abuse told the Global Times that the shelter still might not be adequate to meet the needs of abuse victims.

Chen Feng, the head of shelter, told the Global Times that the district civil affairs bureau established the shelter on October 10, offering services such as legal assistance and free meals and accommodation for the victims of family violence.

"Principally, the victims could live here for a maximum of 10 days," he said.

Chen said that since their office has just started they do not have experts for psychological and legal assistance on hand.

"We have cooperation with a local law office and associations for psychological help who will offer us professional services when it is necessary," he said.

In terms of how to access the service, he noted that the victims must contact the anti-family violence office of the women's federation in Mentougou district to check the identity of the victim before they are transferred to the shelter.

"Currently, we're targeting residents in Mentougou district only," he added.

So far, only one victim of family violence has used the service, a 50-year-old local female resident surnamed Zhang, who for years lived under the threat of abuse from her alcoholic husband.

"When her husband came home drunk, she had to be ready to escape [to avoid being beaten]," Chen said. Chen noted that the woman has now brought her case to the court with the shelter's legal aid.

The deputy chairman of Mentougou District Women's Federation, surnamed Huo, told the Global Times that money is always the core issue for establishing shelters like this.

"From offering free meals and accommodation to recruiting specialists, it requires monetary support from the government side," she said.

Wu Qunfang, the deputy director of the Maple Women's Psychological Counselling Center, a Beijing-based organization that is dedicated to women's rights, told the Global Times that the Beijing government has not offered adequate assistance to the victims of family violence.

"In Shenzhen for instance, the local government has worked on aid projects for five years, while Beijing has not yet put it on the agenda," she said.

The rate of domestic abuse in Beijing is higher in rural districts among lower income families, said Wu, although she did not give figures.

But in particular, Wu does not understand why the name and location of a shelter for victims of domestic abuse has been publicized.

"Many abusers are ruffians who would naturally put the victims' lives in danger if they know where they are in hiding," she said.

Chen said that the center has security guards, and said they would call police if there were any trouble.

In a Global Times' report concerning family violence in May, 2012, a domestic violence shelter in Xisanqi, Haidian district, set up by the local community, was reported as being used as an indoor recreation spot for the community's families as well as a storage room, because no victims came for assistance.

There are over 400 domestic shelters in the Chinese mainland now but most are similarly abandoned, according to the report; however a shelter in Hong Kong, established in 1995, had helped 90,000 women and children up to 2011, and has an occupancy rate of 95 percent. 

Despite the empty and underused shelters, the All-China Women's Federation and National Bureau of Statistics estimate that 25 percent of married Chinese women suffer from domestic violence, which includes rape, beatings and verbal abuse.  

"Although there is a social stigma for women to go to these shelters, the main reason why no one comes for help is because they have no in-house experts to offer legal and psychological counseling," said Wu.