Minority Health and Health Disparities

Lately, I came across several incidents of deaths related to dowry in India across the states, which made me to think and explore further. As I dig into the lane, I landed on intimate partner violence. IPV or spousal violence is defined as any domestic violence i.e physical, sexual, or emotional violence inflicted upon an ever married woman of aged 15-49 years by her current or former husband.

I figured out that in India around (29.30%) married women (15-49 years) were experiencing intimate partner violence, between (2019-2021) and which was slightly lower than the [NFHS-4] report of (31.20%) on average. Both the urban and rural women shown dip in numbers, the decline was more pronounced among rural (2.50%) compared to urban women (1.10%) however a disparity of (7.40%) existed between the rural (31.60%) and urban (24.20%) women.[1] 

Within the category, one of the most subjugated and vulnerable to intimate partner violence was scheduled Caste [SC] women. The rate of IPV among SC married women was (37.1%) according to NFHS-5 data, which was slightly reduced from NFHS-4 report of (40.6%). A gap of (12.9%) seen between General women (24.4%) and SC women who suffered from physical or mental or sexual violence from their husband. Physical violence was most prominent form of IPV in both the group, and was one and half times higher in SC women followed by emotional and sexual violence. The factors responsible for widening the gap of IPV between SC and general women were husbands’ alcohol consumption (26.33%), wealth index (24.48%), controlling behaviour by husband (24%) and parental IPV (15.87%). [2] Despite the persistence of IPV, (77%) of women never sought assistance when violence was inflicted on them due to factors like conservative societal norms, victim blaming, shaming, and fear of judgement. [3] 

There was a significant association observed between the maternal exposure to spousal violence to the infant mortality rates (79.2 out of 1000 births) and under 5 mortality rates (103.6 of 1000 births). The mortality rates were likely to seen higher in female infants (OR= 1.15) and girls (OR=1.14) in comparison to male infants (OR=1.04) and boys (OR=1.05) leading to gender disparity in infant and under 5 children mortality rates. [4] 

Seeing the numbers, made me to realize that these are the only actively reported cases during the National Family Health Survey. Though NFHS provides the most comprehensive data available on domestic violence in India, however, the actual numbers of spousal violence is likely higher than what is reported due to strict safety and privacy protocols while conducting reports of NFHS, social stigma and fear of reporting, and normalization of violence under certain circumstances.

• What you say about the domestic violence ?
• Have you ever seen and engaged in domestic violence of any kind ? [physical, sexual or emotional]
• Do you think domestic violence is an act of justifiable ?

I am going to leave these questions to you all and yes, you can actively engage in the comments section for discussion, suggestions or opinions.