From 44% to 14%, Karnataka sees sharpest drop in spousal violence

Bengaluru: Karnataka has recorded the steepest fall in spousal violence, according to the National Family Health Survey (NFHS-6) fact-sheet, dropping from 44.4% to 14.1% of ever-married women reporting abuse between 2019-21 and 2023-24.

The decline of over 30 percentage points dwarfs every other state. Nationally, India’s spousal violence rate fell from 29.2% to 22.3%. Karnataka topping the table of sharpest decline is in contrast with the state’s position in the previous survey.

In NFHS-5, Karnataka was the worst-performing state in the country on spousal violence, followed by Bihar (40.1%), Tamil Nadu (38.1%), Telangana (37.2%) and Chhattisgarh (40.1%). In NFHS-6, Karnataka sits in the middle of the national distribution, comfortably below the likes of Bihar (36.1%), Telangana (30.8%), and Tamil Nadu (28.5%), which remain the states with the highest reported rates.

Assam, the second-biggest mover, reduced its rate from 32.2% to 16.2%, a 16-point drop. Karnataka’s figure is nearly double that. A 30-point decline in a single cycle, while not impossible, is rare in survey data of this kind.

To address concerns of whether such a massive improvement was a result of change in the questionnaire, which could have elicited different answers, TOI compared questionnaires of NFHS-5 and 6. The question structure, routing logic, and response options all appear identical between the two rounds.

Prof CM Lakshmana, head of Population Research Centre (PRC) at the Institute for Social and Economic Change (Isec), which conducted NFHS-6 in 15 districts in south Karnataka, told TOI: “I feel the decline reflects not one reform, but many — fewer child marriages, better education, greater financial inclusion, and women’s stronger voice in households. Empowerment, when structural and sustained, becomes the most powerful shield against domestic violence.”

Explanations for the massive improvement may come once there’s a thorough review of interviewer selection and training.

All these, however, are expected to become public only when the full report for the state is released by the ministry of health and family welfare.

What is not in dispute is the national trend. Across India, spousal violence is falling.

The full NFHS-6 state report for Karnataka, expected to contain disaggregated data and methodological notes, may hold some answers. Until then, the headline number is both a reason for hope and a prompt for harder questions.

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