Association of Marital Violence with Contraceptive Use in India

Abstract

Intimate Partner Violence (IPV) against women is a global issue (a prominent social determinant of health) and a significant public health concern. Ever married women’s ever experience of spousal physical or sexual violence has declined from 37 per cent in NFHS-3 to 29 per cent in NFHS-4. However, there has been almost no change in women’s experience of spousal physical or sexual violence in the 12 months preceding each survey (24% in NFHS-3 and 22% in NFHS-4). The infliction of physical violence has multi-dimensional implications. On the one side, it has a long trail of ill-effects for the victims ranging from physical, reproductive and mental health outcomes and, on the other side, it has far-reaching consequences for family planning in India. The paper throws light on the hidden factors that are obstacles to the use of contraception with any violence by using the data of women’s file from NFHS-4 (2015-16). We used binary logistic regression, multinomial logistic regression and bivariate analysis for all the objectives. The key finding of the paper is that limiting methods are used more than spacing methods by women experiencing physical, sexual or emotional violence. Coordinated efforts can be undertaken to increase awareness about the adverse impact of domestic violence on contraception.