January 2024

Intimate Partner Violence (IPV)

India - 2nd highest

• India falls within the category of countries with the second highest prevalence of intimate partner violence in the world (World Health Organization, 2021), with 31.7% of women experiencing IPV in their lifetime and 46% deeming it acceptable under certain circumstances.

Tolerance from victims

• In many instances, tolerance for intimate partner violence (IPV) exists even among its victims, with women justifying their partners' behaviour as a coping mechanism.
• This coping mechanism becomes even more salient when divorce – a potential avenue to escape – is socially stigmatised.
  • Divorce rates are extremely low;
  • the 2011 Indian census records 1.36 million divorced individuals, constituting a mere 0.24% of the ever-married population
• In the short term, a victim might think violence is a one-off incident.
• Over time, with ongoing abuse, she may begin to internalise this violence, leading to an increased tolerance.
• This recalibration of expectations is progressive – the longer the exposure to IPV, the more likely it is that victims will rationalise and normalise the violence they have experienced as a coping strategy.

Way to discipline women

• It is rationalised as a way to discipline women who do not conform to traditional household rules.

Risk Factor vs Coping mechanism

• If women cannot leave the relationship, they might justify their partners' aggressive behaviours (the coping mechanism).
• Conversely, women with a higher tolerance of violence might self-select into abusive relationships ( the risk factor mechanism).
• The relationship between violence and its tolerance is endogenous.
• These findings suggest that the longer the duration of violence, the more the victims may adopt the coping mechanism of changing their attitudes to find violence acceptable.

Legal Drinking Age and IPV

• In the short term, as the husbands reach the minimum legal drinking age, their wives’ likelihood of experiencing IPV during the past year increases by 30%, and the likelihood of experiencing any frequent form of violence increases by 80%. Ideas For India

March 2025

Deeply frightening

The man began choking her without warning and without her consent - and that was deeply frightening. No discussion about choking during date or beforehand.

Influence of pornography

• The men who choked her must have seen it in pornography.

• The influence of pornography has resulted in strangulation becoming "standard behaviour" according to Prof Hannah Bows, from Durham University's Centre for Research into Violence and Abuse. What we've seen in the last 10 to 15 years is that it's become a glamorised, fantasised and celebrated form of 'normal' sexual encounters," she says.

• "It felt like it was - in their minds - just a normal part of sex.

NFS was rife

A recent government review found porn involving non-fatal strangulation (NFS) was "rife" (common, especially bad things) and that its prevalence online was contributing to choking filtering into some people's sex lives - particularly among young people.

Other risks

• Other risks include loss of consciousness, strokes, seizures, and speech disorders. Choking can also lead to psychological problems such as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and contribute to depression.

• Despite the health risks, a recent survey by the government-funded charity the Institute For Addressing Strangulation (IFAS), suggests strangling is most common in the 16-34 age group, with 35% of respondents reporting they had been choked by a partner during consensual sex.

Women experiences more than men

• Some 16% of all UK-based respondents (385 out of 2,344) have been strangled once or more during consensual sex, and the data shows a slightly higher proportion of women have experienced it compared with men.

• Half of the sample who had experienced it said they had agreed to it, while 17% said they hadn't.

• Some people who engage in sexual asphyxiation say it intensifies pleasure - like Amanda, who told the BBC she is regularly strangled by her boyfriend during what she calls rough sex.

Trust factor

<i id = 'quote' "It's an intimate thing with the person you trust the most, so you feel safe" BBC