Speaking to FMT, WAO Executive Director Sumitra Visvanathan acknowledged that there were men who suffered domestic abuse, but she said the number was small.

She said she worried that sensationalised news reports about domestic violence against men would promote the false notion that the abuse of women was not a serious issue.

“Women face so many hurdles when it comes to seeking justice and protection, and when the media fails to highlight the astonishing number of women who are abused, people don’t view the issue as seriously as they should,” she said.

She said she was particularly “ticked off” by certain news providers which on Wednesday chose to highlight statistics on men facing domestic violence. The statistics were given during WAO’s launch of the “National Standards for Domestic Violence Shelters” toolkit.

She said men made up an “insignificant” percentage of victims of domestic violence. According to statistics for 2014, only 2% of domestic abuse cases were reported by men. In most of these cases, the alleged perpetrators were their children.

“The number of women facing domestic violence is overwhelming when compared to the number of men facing domestic abuse,” Sumitra said. “This is because of years of gender discrimination where men have been taught to perceive women as lesser beings.”