'Toxic relationship': Beating wife is new normal in TS, reveals NFHS survey

Hyderabad: Call it a toxic relationship, National Family Health Survey-5 (NFHS-5) has revealed that 70.4% of men and 83.8% of women in Telangana justified wife-beating. The reasons cited for beating the wife included going out without telling her husband, neglecting the house or children, arguing with her husband, refusing to have sexual intercourse, not cooking properly, being unfaithful, or being disrespectful to in-laws.

Compared to men, 83.8% of women felt that their husbands are justified to beat them if they fail in their `duties".

In Telangana, 69% of women justified wife-beating for neglecting the house or children, 67.6% of women justified husband beating wife for showing disrespect to in-laws, 31.2% of women justified beating if a woman goes out without telling him, 29.3% of women justified beating if wife argues with husband, 26.8% women justified beating if husband suspects wife was unfaithful, 16.9% justified beating wife if the wife refuses to have sexual intercourse, and 15% feel that it was ok for a husband to beat his wife if she doesn't cook properly.

Likewise, 70.4% of men in the state felt it was fine to beat their wives for any one of the above reasons.

TS ranked 3rd highest in spousal violence

Telangana is ranked the third-highest state in the country in terms of spousal violence, according to the National Family Health Survey (NFHS-5) report. 41% of ever-married women in the state in the age group of 18-49 have experienced spousal violence.

Karnataka tops in spousal violence. Nearly 48% of women report spousal violence followed by Bihar with 43%. In Andhra Pradesh, 34% of women have reported spousal violence.

The NFHS report revealed that fear of husband and spousal violence are highly correlated. Women who say they are afraid of their husbands are most likely to experience spousal violence. 59%, of women, said they are most afraid of their husbands. 34 percent said they are sometimes afraid of their husbands and 14 percent said they are never afraid of their husbands/

Physical, sexual, and emotional

According to NFHS, spousal violence is classified as emotional, physical, or sexual. In Telangana, 18.6% of women in the 18-49 age group have experienced emotional violence from their husbands, 36.7% of women have faced physical violence, and 4.5% have faced sexual violence. 40.4% of women have experienced either of the three kinds of spousal violence.

Of the acts of physical violence, the most common is slapping. 25% of ever-married women reported slapping by husbands. 12% of women reported being pushed, shaken, or having something thrown at them; 10% reported having their arm twisted or hair pulled; and 8-9% reported being punched with their fist or something that could hurt them or being kicked, dragged, or beaten up. Two percent of women reported that their husbands tried to choke or burn them on purpose and 1 percent reported that their husband had threatened or attacked them with a knife, gun, or other weapons.

The form of sexual violence most commonly reported by women is that their husbands used physical force to have sexual intercourse. Five percent of women said husbands used force to have sex with them when they were not interested. Four percent of women reported that their husbands forced them with threats or in other ways to perform sexual acts they did not want to.

Women reporting emotional violence were most likely to report that their husband said or did something to humiliate them in front of others (10%), followed by their husband insulting them or making them feel bad about themselves (9%). Six percent of women said that their husbands threatened to hurt or harm them or someone close to them.

The NFHS-5 survey (2019-21) conducted by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare was carried out in around 6.37 lakh sample households from 707 districts of the country from 28 states and 8 union territories covering 7,24,115 women and 1,01,839 men.