Domestic violence in India: Evidences and implications for working women

Abstract

Domestic violence is one of the most pervasive and commonest manifestations of violence targeted towards women. It is very difficult to problematise domestic violence in any one analytical framework as the factors contributing to it are interlinked and are culturally and contextually specific. The inter-linkage between women's work-often seen as a proxy for their enhanced status-and domestic violence is one of the most nuanced and little understood issues. The paper, therefore, focuses on working women and their experience of domestic violence situating the analysis in the referential framework of other contributing factors by using the data from the National Family Health Survey II (1998-99). The results show that working women face more violence as compared to the rural counterparts, which may be because of their being economically active and relatively better informed about their rights which on one hand, threaten male dominance and on the other, may result in better reporting of incidences of domestic violence although it is extremely difficult to sift the independent contribution of these outcomes. However, there are intercepts to disturb such a neat proposition and exposure to mass media-proxy for awareness, age at marriage as well as standard of living and educational level seem to have ameliorating implications for domestic violence. And yet, working urban women are more susceptible to violence than working women in rural India suggesting that urban women are in a more direct confrontation with established and coded gendered domains vis-à-vis men.