Nearly one-third of women in India have experienced physical or sexual violence, finds the National Family Health Survey-5 report released by Union Health Minister Dr Mansukh Mandviya on Thursday.
According to the report, domestic violence against women has declined from 31.2% to 29.3% in the country. 30% of women between the age of 18 and 49 have experienced physical violence since the age of 15 years, while 6% have experienced sexual violence in their lifetime.
NFHS-5 fieldwork for India was conducted in two phases, phase one from 17 June 2019 to 30 January 2020 and phase two from 2 January 2020 to 30 April 2021 by 17 Field Agencies and gathered information from 636,699 households, 724,115 women, and 101,839 men.
Only 14% of women who have experienced physical or sexual violence by anyone have brought the issue up.
NFHS-5 includes some new topics, such as preschool education, disability, access to a toilet facility, death registration, bathing practices during menstruation, and methods and reasons for abortion.
The survey finds that 32% of married women (18-49 years) have experienced physical, sexual, or emotional spousal violence. The most common type of spousal violence is physical violence (28%), followed by emotional violence and sexual violence.
Only 4% men face domestic violence cases in the country.
Domestic violence against women is highest in Karnataka at 48%, followed by Bihar, Telangana, Manipur and Tamil Nadu. Lakshawdeep has the least domestic violence at 2.1%. In over 80% cases of physical violence against women, the perpetrator is the husband.
