Locating perpetrators of violence against women in India: An analysis of married men’s characteristics associated with intimate partner violence

Abstract

Intimate Partner Violence (IPV) against married women is widely prevalent in India. Using recent data from NFHS-5, we analyzed the association between husbands’ characteristics and IPV. Separate logistic regression models were developed for three distinct “husband characteristic groups” namely demographic, social and economic groups, and one final model including only statistically significant variables. IPV has been found to be significantly associated with men’s age, age gap between husband and wife, men’s educational level, religion, caste, region, number of daughters, wife’s decision-making autonomy, men’s IPV justifying attitude, alcoholism and substance abuse among men, type of work and wealth. We suggest shifting the policy gaze from women and prioritizing men’s education, control on substance abuse and alcoholism among men as well as employment opportunities to tackle the violence against women.