Delaying marriage by even 1 year lowers domestic violence against women'

Incidents of 'less severe physical violence'--such as pushing, arm twisting, hair pulling or slapping--could fall from being inflicted on 25% of all women to 18% with just a one-year delay in marriage.

Delaying marriage by even one year could significantly reduce a young woman’s chances of being subjected to domestic violence in India, according to a new study.

Over the decade to 2016, there has been a 20-percentage-point reduction in the number of girls married off before 18 years of age in India--from 47% in 2006 to 27% in 2016, as per Unicef. But this still leaves 1.5 million girls more vulnerable to domestic violence than those marrying later in life, concluded the study which was jointly conducted by the Indian Institute of Management, Indore and the Shiv Nadar University.

Incidents of “less severe physical violence”--such as pushing, arm twisting, hair pulling or slapping--could fall from being inflicted on 25% of all women to 18% with just a one-year delay in marriage. More severe forms of physical violence--such as kicking, beating, choking, burning, threatening or attacking with a weapon--could decrease from 6% prevalence to 2%, the 2018 study found.

If applied to the national female population (586 million as per the 2011 Census, 50% of whom are married), this means the number of women exposed to less severe violence could decrease by 20 million--from 73 million to 53 million, as per the study. Those exposed to severe physical violence is likely to fall from 18 million to 6 million.

Why are younger women more likely to face violence in a marriage? Women who marry early are more likely to have their studies interrupted, tend to be less assertive and less resistive to domestic violence, and hence, “safer to be victimized”, according to the study. Also, women who are forced to replace formal education with family responsibilities have fewer social and economic resources and reduced opportunities of empowerment within marriage available to them, the study added.

Violence against women is a significant global public health problem, with those exposed to physical or sexual abuse by partners 16% more likely to have a low-birthweight baby, more than twice as likely to have an abortion and almost twice as likely to experience depression. In India, 52% of women feel it is reasonable for husbands to beat their wives as a form of punishment, according to the National Family Health Survey-4 (2015-2016).

A causal link between early marriage and exposure to domestic violence underlines the importance of policies to tackle child marriage by incentivising families to continue girls’ education and delay their marriage. In India, both state (Kanyashree Prakalpa in West Bengal and Apni Beti Apni Dhan in Haryana, for example) and central (Sukanya Samriddhi Yojana) government schemes use economic, social and awareness-building methods to sensitise communities on the benefits of delayed marriage.

Parents, particularly in lower socio-economic and conservative groups, often begin thinking about a girl’s marriage prospects soon after she attains puberty.

This anxiety is driven by various factors--the need to be freed of the responsibility and expense of caring for a child, a smaller dowry and the fear of an unwanted pregnancy... Read More

Business Standard