Impact of Alcoholism and Other Factors on Violence against Women in the State of Bihar, India - Data from NFHS (National Family Health Survey -5-2019-21)

Abstract

National Family Health Survey-5 data which was conducted at household level in all 38 districts of the state of Bihar from 9 July, 2019 to 2 February, 2020 revealed that there is failure of complete alcohol ban in Bihar. Violence against women under the influence of alcoholism is still going on under influence of liquor consumption. Alcohol is a risk factor for partner violence across a range of settings for all types of violence where alcohol plays as a key situational factor, escalating the probability of violence by plummeting inhibitions, clouding judgment and deteriorating ability to interpret cues. Psychiatric morbidities such as paranoid schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, delusional and antisocial personality disorder formulate the man more likely to commit sexual crimes. In the light of the above mentioned background this study based on data of NFHS-5 is aimed to analyses the status of liquor consumption relation with violence against women in the state of Bihar and Gender role attitudes, experience of physical and sexual violence, experience of violence during pregnancy, forms of spousal violence, injuries to women due to spousal violence and help seeking against violence by the women of the state of Bihar in India. The total sample size of NFHS-5 was 35,834 households, 42,483 women of age group 15-49 (including 6,350 women interviewed in PSUs in the state module), and 4,897 men of age group 15-54 for the state of Bihar. Household questionnaire regarding Gender role attitudes, Experience of physical and sexual violence, Experience of violence during pregnancy, Forms of spousal violence, Injuries to women due to spousal violence, Help seeking against violence in the household three years preceding the survey were asked from respondents and the information was gathered and utilized to construct information in 19 languages using CAPI (Computer Assisted Personal Interviewing). In residents of Bihar eligible women and men were women ages 15-49 and men ages 15-54 who lived in the household the night before the household interview (including both usual residents and visitors). See table-1- This table is based on the unweight sample. 84.4% of women whose husbands often get drunk have experienced emotional, physical, or sexual violence, compared to those who gets drunk sometimes (61.4%), drinks/never gets drunk (45.4%) and minimum 36.4% of those whose husbands do not drink -see table-8 and figure-4. The survey data analysis revealed that the drinking pattern plays a crucial role in the extent of violence against women in the state. The more the men consume liquor, the more is the domestic abuse. Nearly, 56.6% of women are afraid of their husband most of the time that have experienced spousal violence.