Intimate Partner Violence-Driven Fatal Injuries among Women in India: Empirical Evidence from National Family Health Survey 2015-2016

Abstract

Increasing evidence of violence against women in India is reported in recent studies.
However, there is lack of evidence on violence-driven injuries among women in India.
The current study examines the prevalence and risk factors of violence against women
and violence-driven injuries in India using the fourth round of National Family Health
Survey (NFHS-4) data, conducted during 2015-16. Descriptive statistics, bivariate and
multivariate analysis were carried out to see the associations of injuries and sociodemographic
factors. The prevalence of lifetime experience of violence-driven injuries
are: cuts or bruises were the most common injuries (21.4%) of IPV, followed by severe
burn (7.8 %), eye injuries/sprains/dislocations/burns (5.4%), and deep wounds/broken
bones/broken teeth/any other serious injuries (3.4%). Overall, 24.6 per cent of the of IPV
victims have experienced some kind an injury in lifetime. Older women aged 35-49 years
(OR = 1.247; CI=1.096-1.419), having 5 or more children (OR=1.244; CI=1.010-1.532),
belonging to scheduled castes (OR=1.363; CI= 1.212-1.533) and belonging to Muslim
society (OR=1.229; CI=1.075-1.405) were significantly more likely to have violencerelated
injuries than their counterparts. The study demonstrated that considerable
proportion of women experienced violence and violence-related injuries. Risk factors
identified were women’s lack of education, alcoholism, having more than one child and
poor socio-economic household status. Violence-driven injuries are among the most
prominent public health problems which need urgent attention and strategic interventions
to prevent them.