Marital rape and risk of sexually transmitted diseases and reproductive tract infections among young married women in India

Ajay Kumar Singh, International Center for Research on Women (ICRW)
R. K. Sinha, International Institute for Population Sciences (IIPS)
Ruchi Jain, National Council of Applied Economic Research (NCAER)

This study analyses a cross sectional data on married women (15-29 Years) to examine their perception on sexual rights, gender roles and its association with experience of sexual & physical violence and sexual health problems. 80% women reported experiencing coercive sex by husband ever in their life time. Of this 55% (p<0.05) reported coercive sex during last 12 months; 49% (p<0.05) reported physical violence and 71% (p<0.05) reported mental violence from their husband. Among the women who experience sexual violence (ever), 44% had at least one STD symptoms during the last 6 months compared to 27% who did not experience (p<0.05) and 59% (p<0.05) of women reported problems during menses. The odds ratio shows that women’s perception that ‘If a woman is married then she should be ready for sex with her husband whenever he demands’ is the most significant predictor of coercive sex followed by inter spousal communication.