Institutional portal - Municipality of Milan

Over 900 new contacts with the anti-violence network in the first six months of 2019. Rabaiotti: "We promote awareness initiatives to bring out the underground"

Milan, November 24 2019 – Lunedì 25 novembre, la bandiera civica verrà esposta a mezz’asta. Palazzo Marino ricorderà così la Giornata internazionale per l'eliminazione della violenza contro le donne, ricorrenza istituita dall'Assemblea generale delle Nazioni Unite nel 1999.
In the first half of 921, 2019 women turned to the anti-violence network of the Municipality of Milan to ask for help. Of these, 850 came into contact with the ten anti-violence centers present in the city and 71 agreed on a reception program in the nine city shelters. The majority (over 400) are aged between 25 and 44, but the number is also significantly high in the 45 to 54 age group (around 170). The victims are Italian in 61% of cases and the violence suffered is almost always of a physical nature (around 600) or psychological (over 650), although there is no shortage of cases of economic violence (over 150), sexual violence (over 130 ) and stalking (almost 100). Very often different types of abuse overlap and coexist. In 65% of cases the 'torturers' are Italian and in 85% they are husbands, ex-husbands, cohabitants or ex-cohabitants, partners or ex-partners.  

In total, also considering those who were in charge before 2019, there are 2.500 women for whom the network has activated benefits and services. The structures affiliated with the Municipality offered them a listening ear through telephone or on-site interviews, health care, legal assistance, psychological or psychiatric consultancy, in many cases facilitating their taking charge by the Social Services.

“The Municipality of Milan - comments the councilor for social and housing policies Gabriele Rabaiotti - is at the forefront in the fight against gender violence. The activities that we have been implementing for years aim on the one hand to promote citizens' awareness and information on these issues and, on the other, to support concrete projects and the city network of shelters and anti-violence centres. To do this, the Administration manages resources of around one million euros every year. An effort that we are committed to intensifying and making visible every day, trying to bring out requests for help and overcoming the wall of mistrust that stands very high in these cases."

The calendar of initiatives scheduled for Monday 25 November is available at this link