Determinants of Domestic Violence in North Eastern Region of India: The Role of Women’s Economic Autonomy and Cultural Context

Abstract

Domestic Violence is a critical public health challenge and the Sustainable Development Goals include elimination of all forms of violence against women and girls within the agenda. However, there is a relative dearth of research on the factors affecting it in the case of North Eastern Region of India (NER) particularly from the perspective of incorporating women’s economic autonomy and sociocultural norms in a comprehensive way. The present paper is an attempt to critically examine the role of economic autonomy and sociocultural norms in determining the incidence of DV in the region. The study analyzed data from the fourth round of the National Family Health Survey India, 2015-16. Separate binary logistic regressions are carried out on tribes and non-tribes of NER, as it is of interest to see whether and to what extent different factors affect the experience of domestic violence among women in the two social groups.IBM SPSS version 20 software was used for data analysis. Sociocultural norms reflected in leverage of women in domestic-decision-making, experience of controlling behaviour of husband and attitude of women towards wife-beating play a critical role in domestic violence among both tribal and non-tribal communities in NER. Economic autonomy among tribal women, specifically the ownership of land, leads to higher rate of domestic violence. Domestic violence has a strong sociocultural component associated with gender norms prevailing in the society. Policy interventions targeted at changing anti female gender norms at the community level and sustained rises in women’s autonomy seem indispensable for reducing domestic violence in NER.