The Hindu : National : ‘Spousal violence highest in Bihar’

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Wednesday, Oct 24, 2007
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‘Spousal violence highest in Bihar’

Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI: Violence against women is a serious problem in India with 35 per cent having experienced physical or sexual violence. One-third of women in the age group of 15-49 have experienced physical violence and one in 10 has faced sexual violence, according to the National Family Health Survey (NFHS-3).

Married women were more likely to experience physical or sexual violence from husbands. Nearly two in five or 37 per cent married women have experienced some form of physical or sexual violence by their husband.

The prevalence of spousal physical violence is higher among women in the poorest households (49 per cent) than among women in the wealthier households (18 per cent).

Spousal violence varies greatly from state to state. The prevalence of physical violence ranges from 6 per cent in Himachal Pradesh and 13 per cent in Jammu and Kashmir and Meghalaya to 46 per cent in Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan and 59 per cent in Bihar.

Other states with 40 per cent or higher prevalence of spousal physical or sexual violence are Tripura, Manipur, Uttar Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal, and Assam.

More than half of the women (54 per cent) and the men (51 per cent) agree that wife beating was justified under some circumstances such as showing disrespect towards elders in the family and neglecting the house or children.

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