Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-7cvxr Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-29T09:03:41.345Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Is consanguineous marriage related to spousal violence in India? Evidence from the National Family Health Survey, 2015–16

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 December 2021

Margubur Rahaman Open the ORCID record for Margubur Rahaman [Opens in a new window] ,
Shalini Sen ,
Md Juel Rana Open the ORCID record for Md Juel Rana [Opens in a new window]  and
Saswata Ghosh Open the ORCID record for Saswata Ghosh [Opens in a new window]
Margubur Rahaman
Affiliation:
International Institute for Population Sciences (IIPS), Mumbai, India
Shalini Sen
Affiliation:
International Institute for Population Sciences (IIPS), Mumbai, India
Md Juel Rana*
Affiliation:
International Institute for Population Sciences (IIPS), Mumbai, India
Saswata Ghosh
Affiliation:
Institute of Development Studies Kolkata (IDSK), Salt Lake, Kolkata, India
*
*Corresponding author. Email: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Violence against women is a global phenomenon, and intimate partner violence is the most common form of violence faced by women in the world. Around 30% of women in the world, on average, and 33% in India experience intimate partner violence during their lifetime. The main aim of this study was to investigate whether consanguinity protects women from spousal violence. National Family Health Survey 2015–16 (NFHS-4) data were used. The study sample comprised 60,824 currently married women aged 15–49 years. The results of the logistic regression model showed that the likelihood of all types of spousal violence against women was higher among consanguineous unions compared with non-consanguineous unions in India. The association between consanguineous marriage and spousal violence was found to be positive and significant in the southern and eastern regions of India and among Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes. The association was not significant among Muslims. Differences in socio-cultural norms and practices across the regions of India, and among different socio-cultural groups, can perhaps explain these variations. Women belonging in higher age groups, from Other Backward Castes, those who were working and those with a low level of educational attainment and socioeconomic standing had a higher risk of experiencing intimate partner violence. Couples in a consanguineous marriage should be given adequate counselling to reduce intimate partner violence in India, and similarly culturally diverse countries. This would also help reach Target 5.2 of the Sustainable Development Goals by 2030.

Keywords

Intimate partner violenceDomestic violenceNFHS
Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Biosocial Science , Volume 54 , Issue 6 , November 2022 , pp. 959 - 974
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Abolfotouh, MA and Almuneef, M (2020) Prevalence, pattern and factors of intimate partner violence against Saudi women. Journal of Public Health 42(3), e206–e214.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Ackerson, LK, Kawachi, I, Barbeau, EM and Subramanian, SV (2008) Effects of individual and proximate educational context on intimate partner violence: a population-based study of women in India. American Journal of Public Health 98(3), 507–514.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Ahinkorah, BO, Dickson, KS and Seidu, AA (2018) Women decision-making capacity and intimate partner violence among women in sub-Saharan Africa. Archives of Public Health 76(1), 5.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Anderson, S (2007) The economics of dowry and brideprice. Journal of Economic Perspectives 21(4), 151–174.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Banerjee, SK and Roy, TK (2002) Parental consanguinity and offspring mortality: the search for possible linkage in the Indian context. Asia Pacific Population Journal 17(1), 17–38.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bhatta, DN and Haque, A (2015) Health problems, complex life, and consanguinity among ethnic minority Muslim women in Nepal. Ethnicity & Health 20(6), 633–649.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bittles, AH (1994) The role and significance of consanguinity as a demographic variable. Population and Development Review 20, 561–584.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bittles, AH (2001) Consanguinity and its relevance to clinical genetics. Clinical Genetics 60(2), 89–98.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bittles, A (2011) The Global Prevalence of Consanguinity. URL: http://www.consang.net.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bittles, AH (2012) Consanguinity in Context (Vol. 63). Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bittles, AH and Black, ML (2010) Consanguineous marriage and human evolution. Annual Review of Anthropology 39, 193–207.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cull, R and Xu, LC (2005) Institutions, ownership, and finance: the determinants of profit reinvestment among Chinese firms. Journal of Financial Economics 77(1), 117–146.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dalal, K and Lindqvist, K (2012) A national study of the prevalence and correlates of domestic violence among women in India. Asia Pacific Journal of Public Health 24(2), 265–277.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Do, QT, Iyer, S and Joshi, S (2013) The economics of consanguineous marriages. Review of Economics and Statistics 95(3), 904–918.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ghosh, S and Chattopadhyay, A (2017) Religion, contraceptive method mix, and son preference among Bengali-speaking community of Indian subcontinent. Population Research and Policy Review 36(6), 929–959.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hamamy, H and Alwan, S (2016) The sociodemographic and economic correlates of consanguineous marriages in highly consanguineous populations. In Kumar, D and Chadwick, R (eds) Genomics and Society. Academic Press, pp. 335–361.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hussain, R and Bittles, AH (1998) The prevalence and demographic characteristics of consanguineous marriages in Pakistan. Journal of Biosocial Science 30(2), 261–275.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
IIPS and ICF (2017) National Family Health Survey (NFHS-4), 2015–16: India. International Institute for Population Sciences, Mumbai, India.Google Scholar
Islam, MM (2012) The practice of consanguineous marriage in Oman: prevalence, trends and determinants. Journal of Biosocial Science 44, 571–594.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Islam, MM (2018) The changing pattern and determinants of declining consanguinity in Jordan during 1990–2012. Annals of Human Biology 45(2), 140–147.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Jacoby, HG and Mansuri, G (2010) Watta Satta: bride exchange and women’s welfare in rural Pakistan. American Economic Review 100(4), 1804–1825.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jejeebhoy, SJ, Santhya, KG and Sabarwal, S (2013) Gender-Based Violence: A Qualitative Exploration of Norms, Experiences and Positive Deviance. URL: https://scholar.google.com/scholar?hl=en&as_sdt=0%2C5&q=Jejeebhoy+et+al.+2013&btnG (accessed 18th March 2021).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jewkes, R (2002) Intimate partner violence: causes and prevention. The Lancet 359(9315), 1423–1429.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Jurdi, R and Saxena, P (2003) The prevalence and correlates of consanguineous marriages in Yemen: similarities and contrasts with other Arab Countries. Journal of Biosocial Science 35, 1–13.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kalam, MA, Sharma, SK, Ghosh, S and Roy, S (2020) Change in the prevalence and determinants of consanguineous marriages in India between National Family and Health Surveys (NFHS) 1 (1992–1993) and 4 (2015–2016). Human Biology 92(2), 23–43.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Krishnamoorthy, S and Audinarayana, N (2001) Trends in consanguinity in South India. Journal of Biosocial Science 33, 185–197.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Lowes, S and Nunn, N (2017) Bride price and the wellbeing of women. In Anderson, S, Beaman, L and Platteau, J-P (eds) Towards Gender Equity in Development. Oxford University Press, Oxford, pp. 117–138.Google Scholar
Mehndiratta, MM, Paul, B and Mehndiratta, P (2007) Arranged marriage, consanguinity and epilepsy. Neurology Asia 12 (Supplement 1), 15–17.Google Scholar
Modell, B (1991) Social and genetic implications of customary consanguineous marriage among British Pakistanis. Report of a meeting held at the Ciba Foundation on 15 January 1991. Journal of Medical Genetics 28(10), 720.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Modell, B and Darr, A (2002) Science and society: genetic counselling and customary consanguineous marriage. Nature Reviews Genetics 3, 225–229.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
MOH Nepal, New ERA Nepal and ICF (2017) Nepal Demographic and Health Survey 2016. Ministry of Health (MOH) Nepal, New ERA Nepal and ICF, Kathmandu, Nepal.Google Scholar
Naved, RT and Persson, LA (2010) Dowry and spousal physical violence against women in Bangladesh. Journal of Family Issues 31(6), 830–856.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
O’Hara, K, Tsai, LC, Carlson, CE and Haidar, YM (2013). Experiences of intimate-partner violence and contraception use among ever-married women in Jordan. East Mediterranean Health Journal 19(10), 876–882.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Padmadas, SS and Nair, SP (2002) Consanguineous unions and their effect on reproductive outcomes: the case of India. Genus 58, 113–139.Google Scholar
Pande, RP, Nanda, P, Bopanna, K and Kashyap, A (2017) Addressing Intimate Partner Violence in South Asia: Evidence for Interventions in the Health Sector, Women’s Collectives, and Local Governance Mechanisms. International Center for Research on Women, New Delhi. URL https://www.icrw.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/Partner-Violence-in-South-ASIA-Report-Final-file-17-04-2017.pdf (accessed 20th March 2021).Google Scholar
Peek-Asa, C, Wallis, A, Harland, K, Beyer, K, Dickey, P and Saftlas, A (2011) Rural disparity in domestic violence prevalence and access to resources. Journal of Women’s Health 20(11), 1743–1749.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Rao, TS, Asha, MR, Sambamurthy, K and Rao, KJ (2009) Consanguinity: still a challenge. Indian Journal of Psychiatry 51(1), 3.Google ScholarPubMed
Rastogi, M and Therly, P (2006) Dowry and its link to violence against women in India: feminist psychological perspectives. Trauma, Violence & Abuse 7(1), 66–77.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Reddy, PG (1988). Consanguineous marriages and marriage payment: a study among three South Indian caste groups. Annals of Human Biology 15(4), 263–268.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Schneider, D, Harknett, K and McLanahan, S (2016) Intimate partner violence in the Great Recession. Demography 53(2), 471–505.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Shaikh, MA (2016) Domestic violence in consanguineous marriages – findings from Pakistan Demographic and Health Survey 2012–13. Journal of the Pakistan Medical Association 66, 1319–1323.Google ScholarPubMed
Sharma, SK, Kalam, MA, Ghosh, S and Roy, S (2020) Prevalence and determinants of consanguineous marriage and its types in India: evidence from the National Family Health Survey, 2015–2016. Journal of Biosocial Science 53(4), 566–576.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Solotaroff, JL and Pande, RP (2014) Violence Against Women and Girls: Lessons from South Asia. World Bank Group, Washington DC.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stanley, S (2012) Intimate partner violence and domestic violence myths: a comparison of women with and without alcoholic husbands (a study from India). Journal of Comparative Family Studies 43(5), 647–672.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Usta, J, Khawaja, M, Dandachi, D and Tewtel, M (2015) Consanguineous marriage: protective or risk factor for intimate partner violence? In Djamba, YK and Kimuna, SR (eds) Gender-Based Violence. Springer, Cham, pp. 101–118.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Vakili, M, Nadrian, H, Fathipoor, M, Boniadi, F and Morowatisharifabad, MA (2010) Prevalence and determinants of intimate partner violence against women in Kazeroon, Islamic Republic of Iran. Violence and Victims 25(1), 116–127.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Weimer, L (2019) Consanguinity and intimate partner violence. Doctoral dissertation, UC San Diego. URL: https://pdel.ucsd.edu/health/consanginous-marriage-india.html (accessed 12th December 2020).Google Scholar