Spatial Proximity of Regional Socio-Economic and Demographic Characteristics and Its Spillover Effects on Spousal Violence Against Women in Indian Context

Abstract

One potential explanation for the continuance of spousal violence in India is spousal violence spatial spillover effects, in which the occurrence of spousal violence in one family or area increases the incidence of spousal violence in a neighboring one. This study used the 2019–2021 Indian Demographic and Health Survey data to examine the hypothesis of a spillover effect of spousal violence in India and to ascertain a thorough analysis of the geographic relationship between hypothetical origin place of spousal violence and its neighbors, and the occurrence of spousal violence. Our multivariate spatial auto regressive model further suggests that in India there has spatial spillover effect of neighborhood characteristics on spousal violence. The findings imply that concentrating legislative initiatives to diminish spousal violence in one area may decrease the incidence in nearby areas, resulting in an overall reduction across the country. The current study argues that a shift away from country-level policies to localized strategies targeting on specific geographic clusters may be a more cost-effective but may be considered an efficient means for reducing spousal violence against women in India.