Intimate Partner Violence and Help-Seeking Behaviour in India

Abstract

The present contribution makes the fifteenth part of the Social Change Indicators series. We have deliberated on several social and economic issues in the previous editions and the topics included vulnerable households across social classes, poverty and migration, living conditions, social protection networks, displacement of rural labour, health and morbidity conditions for older adults, and women’s time-use patterns. In this part, we examine intimate partner (or spousal) violence and help-seeking behaviour across the states of India. We provide state ranking on spousal violence based on the percentage of ever-married women aged 18–49, who have experienced emotional, physical or sexual violence. Subsequently, we provide statistics on attitudes towards wife-beating, frequencies of spousal violence by several background characteristics, and also the help-seeking responses of women who have experienced physical or sexual violence.