Wife-Beating in India: Variations on a Theme

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Abstract
This chapter addresses a particular feature of intrahousehold relationships: the physical abuse — beating or battering — of a spouse — usually the wife by the husband, in the overwhelming majority of cases cross-culturally. It proposes a framework for looking at variation in wife-beating and reviews some of the evidence available from disparate sources. Women who work outside the home and earn an income are beaten as well as those who do not. This congeries of topics includes factors which often appear as proximate causes for wife-beating in the literature. Dowry demands by a woman's in-laws are the most frequently mentioned reason for her ill-treatment. Alcohol consumption by husbands is commonly associated with wife-beating in the literature on India. Socially focused studies are needed to help determine how one might best devise targeted programs to subvert or circumvent social structures that place women at risk of being beaten as a matter of daily routine, and sometimes to death.

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