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 socio-demographic 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 violence-related 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.