Unpacking the Persistence of Intimate Partner Violence against Married Women in India: Evidence from 2006, 2016 and 2021 Waves of the National Family Health Survey

Gaurav Dhamija, Indian Institute of Technology Hyderabad
Punarjit Roychowdhury, Shiv Nadar University, Delhi NCR
Shreemoyee Saha, Indian Institute of Technology, Hyderabad

Physical intimate partner violence (PIPV) is the most pervasive form of violence against a woman. It has adverse medical, emotional, and economic consequences on the victims and their children. Despite the enactment of the Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act (PWDVA) in 2005, substantial economic growth, and rising female education levels in India, the prevalence of PIPV has been hovering around 22 percent for the past 15 years. We use descriptive analysis, logistic regression, and decomposition analysis to analyze three rounds of the National Family Health Survey (2005-06, 2015-16, and 2019-21) and identify a set of "push" and "pull" factors contributing to this stagnation. Women's fertility, labor force participation in the last 12 months, husbands' age, education, alcohol consumption, and justification of PIPV pull down the prevalence of PIPV. However, women's age and use of contraception counteract their effect by acting as push factors. Our findings underscore the need to design policies that attempt to change husbands' attitudes toward women's choice to use contraception that results in violence.

Keywords: Gender Dynamics, Decomposition analysis, Econometrics , Family Planning and Contraception

See paper.