Decision making and intimate partner violence: Data from married couples in India

Empowerment is a critical determinant of women's health and development. Yet there is growing concern that the benefits of empowerment within the context of intimate partner violence (IPV) are mixed. The purpose of this study is to explore a facet of empowerment, financial and household decision making perceptions among married couples in India.

Using the Indian National Family Health Survey-3, 2005-06 analyses is conducted with 30,000 matched husband-wife dyads. Binary logistic regression is performed with women's lifetime IPV experience as the outcome. Independent variables include financial decision making regarding the husband's earnings and two household decision making constructs. Sociodemographic, individual and partner characteristics are also included in the regressions.

Results found 38% of women experienced IPV. In an unadjusted and adjusted model, women who reported financial decision making was jointly made by the husband and wife were less likely to experience IPV compared to women who reported this decision was made by the husband alone. However, joint household decision making was not associated with IPV. Rather, the more household decisions women made alone, the more likely they were to experience IPV. Other predictors of IPV were nuclear residence; low women's education (<6 years); low levels of household wealth; both spouses witnessing parental IPV, and both spouses justifying IPV.

Findings highlight the complexities with understanding financial and household decision making within married couples. The promotion of women's empowerment in India requires careful consideration of these underlying cultural/gender norms related to decision making dynamics.