Reproductive Morbidity among Tribal and Non-Tribal Women in India: A Special Focus on Domestic Violence

Ruchi Sogarwal, National AIDS Control Organization (NACO)
Laxmi Kant Dwivedi, International Institute for Population Sciences (IIPS)

An attempt has been made to examine whether domestic violence against tribal and non-tribal women would have any influence on their reproductive health problems (RHP) and also their treatment seeking behaviour in Madhya Pradesh. Based on NFHS-2 data, result shows that more educated tribal women reported higher RHP, whereas higher educated non-tribal women were reporting less and it is also true for economic status. The percent of women reporting any RHP among selected characteristics of tribal-women is around 50 percent whereas this figure is around 54 percent for same characteristics of non-tribal women. As a result, domestic violence is correlated with negative health outcomes. It can be argued that beating leads to unwanted and unsatisfying sex and further prompts the partner towards extra marital sex and these problems affect women’s health. The results of the study stress the need for greater attention to quality of care in RH programmes.