Intimate Partner Violence during Pregnancy: Trends, Differentials and Principal Pathways

Poushaly Talukdar, International Institute for Population Sciences (IIPS)
R. Nagrajan, international Institute for Population Sciences

Belonging to a lower socio-economic background, with preliminary to no education, unintended pregnancy, stressful live events or alcohol abuse have been identified as the risk factors instigating intimate partner violence on women during pregnancy. Roughly 3.2 percent of the expectant mothers’ population in India are exposed to physical violence at the hands of their partner, states the National Family Heath Survey (NFHS 5, 2019-21). A wide body of literature has confirmed the association of gestational violence with adverse maternal and neonatal health outcomes : miscarriage, stillbirth, premature labour, irregular antenatal visits and low birth weight neonates. Studying the causal factors as singular and independent may result in biased conclusion. To estimate the existing pathway leading to the incidence of intimate partner violence, we combined the principal predictors including level of education, employment status, alcohol abuse and asset ownership into a composite variable index. This paper presents the trends, differentials and principal predictor pathways identified at national and state level in India. We observed that women with a higher empowerment index had significantly lower odds of facing violence during pregnancy by around 53 percent. However, these factors show differential impact on prenatal violence when they are studied individually for association.

Keywords: Gender Dynamics, Population and Development, Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights

See extended abstract.