Domestic Violence and Contraceptive Use in a Rural Indian Village

Abstract

This study uses qualitative methods to examine how domestic violence affects the use of contraceptives by women in a rural village in India. The study highlights how multilevel factors are linked to a woman's ability to contracept and make fertility decisions in a context where being a wife implies obedience, limited mobility, sexual availability, and high fertility. The authors find that violence is normalized, or considered acceptable, if women do not adhere to expected gender roles. Although women's ability to make autonomous decisions is shown to be limited, the study explores covert strategies used to avoid pregnancy, which also tend to increase women's risk of experiencing domestic violence.

Intimate partner violence and its association with women's reproductive health in Pakistan

“…These findings are largely consistent with other studies conducted in Pakistan [11,14,15], India [5], and Bangladesh [4,20], although it is difficult to compare the prevalence because of variations in definitions and methodology.…”

“…Arguably, IPV may undermine reproductive health in many ways: it may create a climate of fear that makes it difficult for women to negotiate the use of contraceptives with their husbands [3,5,6] or to get proper prenatal care. The women who are victims of IPV might experience unintended pregnancies [2,6], abortions [3,7], and gynecologic disorders such as irregular vaginal bleeding [1,8], genital injury, dysmenorrhea [8], sexually transmitted infections [1], and sexual dysfunction [8,9].…”

“…The association between intimate partner violence (IPV) and reproductive health consequences has been widely reported for many high-income [1,2] and low-income [3][4][5] countries. Arguably, IPV may undermine reproductive health in many ways: it may create a climate of fear that makes it difficult for women to negotiate the use of contraceptives with their husbands [3,5,6] or to get proper prenatal care.…”

Domestic Violence Against Rural Women in Pakistan: An Issue of Health and Human Rights

“…This finding is consistent with other studies which found that DV has significant negative implications for women's reproductive health (Campbell 2002;Wilson-Williams et al 2008). It is argued that improved socio-economic status of rural women is a prerequisite to improve their reproductive health status in Pakistan (Fatmi and Avan 2002).…”

Gender inequality and the use of maternal healthcare services in rural sub-Saharan Africa

“…Specific norms regarding violence are essential to consider, as they are directly related to the exercise of violence against women (Moore, 1999;Koenig et al, 2006;Sarkar, 2008;OECD, 2010;Stephenson et al, 2012) and are more susceptible to "create a climate of fear and intimidation" (Gilfus et al, 2010;Nanda et al, 2013). Intimate-partner violence (IPV) is said to be grounded in patriarchal society that gives primacy and privilege to men (Amoakohene, 2004;Kishor and Subaiya, 2008), and "serves to maintain the unequal balance of power" between men and women (Watts and Zimmerman, 2002;Wilson-Williams et al, 2008). Qualitative research by Hatcher et al (2013) in the province of Nyanza in Kenya has shown that at times violence against women was motivated by what men and the "society" considered as women's challenging of the social norms and of men's authority.…”