Transmission of Intergenerational Spousal Violence against Women in India

Aparna Mukherjee, International Institute for Population Sciences (IIPS)
Sulabha Parasuraman, International Institute for Population Sciences (IIPS)

Violence against women is a major human rights and public health concern.By using NFHS-3 data this paper attempts to find out the extent of intergenerational transmission of spousal violence against women in India and how it varies across different setting of India.Results show that impact of childhood exposure to parental spousal violence plays an important role in shaping conformation to the set gender role norms in India.The findings suggest that women’s exposure to childhood violence have more devastating effect on building her understanding towards her gender norms than on men.Also,there is high concordance in current experience of spousal violence against women and spousal violence faced by their mothers whereas there is a weak association between men’s involvement into spousal violence and among his parents.Given the apparent pervasiveness of the problem of childhood exposure to parental violence in India, this remains an important area for social, legal and public policy concern.