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The association between access to key household resources and violence against women

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Siddhartha Bandyopadhyay discusses the relationshipt between the two key household resources and women’s non-partner violence (NPV) and intimate partner violence (IPV).

Image courtesy of interviewee. January 10, 2024

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This video video discusses the relationship between the lack of resources, particularly water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) facilities, and violence against women and girls. Many anti-poverty programs focus on providing cash transfers or resources to alleviate poverty, but they often overlook the significant secondary impact these resources have on reducing violence, especially against vulnerable populations.

The speaker emphasizes the need to understand whether violence is caused by a lack of resources directly or if it is related to broader socioeconomic factors, such as poverty, which can also contribute to household conflict. They mention existing literature that shows a correlation between inadequate resources and increased violence against women, particularly through ethnographic and local studies.

Their research utilizes nationally representative data from India and explores both water and sanitation facilities collectively, aiming to distinguish their individual impacts on violence. The findings indicate that improved access to water reduces non-partner violence by 10%, potentially preventing 1.7 million cases of violence among women annually. Furthermore, access to toilets can significantly reduce intimate partner violence, suggesting that enhanced WASH facilities directly correlate with decreased violence against women.

The conclusion underscores the importance of anti-poverty initiatives that promote resource access not only for economic relief but also for their collateral benefits in reducing violence. It calls for an integrated approach in policy-making that recognizes the intertwined nature of health, poverty, and gender justice, advocating for targeted resources that consider the unequal distribution of resources within impoverished households, primarily affecting women and girls.

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00:00.000 --> 00:02.405
People talk about the lack of resources and, and, and,

00:02.465 --> 00:05.005
and, and many anti-poverty programs

00:05.845 --> 00:07.725
actually talk about giving people,

00:08.105 --> 00:09.725
either cash in transfers

00:10.025 --> 00:11.845
or other resources directly

00:12.305 --> 00:14.125
to help people get outta poverty.

00:14.825 --> 00:16.565
But they also talk about, you know, sort

00:16.565 --> 00:19.845
of the direct health impact of some of these resources.

00:20.505 --> 00:23.645
But there's also a secondary effect,

00:23.645 --> 00:25.925
which is really important, and that's a lack

00:25.925 --> 00:29.565
of resources have been associated with a lot of violence.

00:29.785 --> 00:34.005
And this violence particularly affects women and girls.

00:34.345 --> 00:36.605
So, you know, even though it's a secondary effect,

00:36.875 --> 00:39.485
this is really important because violence against women

00:39.505 --> 00:44.085
and girls, not only are they sort of a awful thing

00:44.085 --> 00:46.685
to have, but also it has a lot

00:46.705 --> 00:50.925
of really negative health impacts, both within generations

00:51.025 --> 00:52.125
and across generations.

00:52.825 --> 00:55.005
Now, what we really wanted to do and,

00:55.065 --> 00:58.765
and is try to unpick whether it was actually the lack

00:58.765 --> 01:01.565
of resources or what we call wash facilities.

01:01.625 --> 01:06.305
So, you know, access to clean water,

01:06.315 --> 01:08.465
sanitation and hygiene, right?

01:08.495 --> 01:12.675
Whether that is what, what is the sort of cause

01:12.735 --> 01:14.115
for the violence against women,

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or is it the fact that

01:17.355 --> 01:20.355
families which lack wash facilities are also poorer

01:20.355 --> 01:22.235
so they have more conflict within the household

01:22.235 --> 01:23.715
because of fewer resources?

01:23.715 --> 01:25.995
Then that's what makes the relationships a complex,

01:25.995 --> 01:28.475
because we wanted to, because clearly alone cannot tell us

01:28.645 --> 01:30.355
which of these is actually causing the problem.

01:30.495 --> 01:32.475
And we wanted to unpick that relationship.

01:32.895 --> 01:36.675
The literature on this, essentially there are two types.

01:36.935 --> 01:37.955
One is there are a lot

01:37.955 --> 01:40.835
of ethnographic studies which have looked at lack

01:40.835 --> 01:43.155
of resources and, and, and violence against women.

01:43.775 --> 01:48.315
And, and they find an association against about,

01:48.445 --> 01:51.035
sorry, they find an association of which says

01:51.035 --> 01:52.995
that actually lack of resources do lead

01:53.075 --> 01:55.115
to within household conflict.

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And, and, and that burden of calls on women,

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because in poorer households,

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women get disproportionately less of the resources.

02:04.895 --> 02:06.555
So that's one strand of studies.

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The other are kind of local level,

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studies which look at particular localities or regions and,

02:14.055 --> 02:16.555
and they again, find the same association.

02:16.855 --> 02:20.595
And that sort of, in a way, I guess, where we come in,

02:21.095 --> 02:23.235
three main, issues.

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One is of course we are trying, trying to disentangle this,

02:26.015 --> 02:28.955
but, so I think let's start first with the data that we use.

02:29.055 --> 02:31.835
So we use a nationally representative data.

02:32.215 --> 02:34.795
So, so that's a data where you can actually generalize,

02:34.895 --> 02:38.075
at least across the whole of India, unlike local studies,

02:38.085 --> 02:40.355
which are not so easy to generalize.

02:40.815 --> 02:44.005
Second, we look at both,

02:45.395 --> 02:48.085
main types of wash facilities, which is both sanitation

02:48.085 --> 02:50.685
and water together, not just in isolation,

02:50.685 --> 02:52.565
because one sort of links to the other.

02:52.865 --> 02:54.165
And the third is, you know, this,

02:54.465 --> 02:57.085
and I wanna say a little bit more about disentangling this

02:57.085 --> 02:58.885
because as I said, you know, the

02:58.965 --> 03:00.045
Relationship is complex.

03:00.045 --> 03:02.725
There are lots of unobservable factors, like, for example,

03:03.445 --> 03:05.445
a tolerance of violence against women.

03:05.985 --> 03:10.045
Uh, the fact that, low income may also be correlated

03:10.045 --> 03:11.125
with wash facilities.

03:11.305 --> 03:13.805
So our methods allow us to disentangle these

03:14.105 --> 03:18.405
and including making sure that we control

03:18.405 --> 03:21.645
for these unobservable factors as much as possible.

03:22.465 --> 03:25.445
So we think we really are getting as close to a kind

03:25.445 --> 03:27.085
of control trial as we can.

03:27.425 --> 03:28.885
Our results show that.

03:29.065 --> 03:32.685
So if you first look at kind of the basic associations, yes,

03:32.685 --> 03:36.045
indeed, you know, lack of watch facilities are associated

03:36.195 --> 03:38.405
with, lower violence against women.

03:38.905 --> 03:41.245
But when we kinda really drill it down,

03:41.265 --> 03:44.965
and I'm going to give you, if you like the most conservative

03:45.355 --> 03:49.965
results, then you will find that actually wash facilities.

03:49.985 --> 03:52.365
So there are two types of violence that we look at.

03:52.505 --> 03:55.845
One is what we call NPV on non partner violence.

03:56.025 --> 03:58.405
So because people don't have access, for example,

03:58.705 --> 03:59.805
to an in will toilet

03:59.985 --> 04:02.805
or water within the house, they have to go far

04:02.825 --> 04:06.205
and this burden of sort of getting, water and,

04:06.205 --> 04:08.005
and for that matter of fuel and, and

04:08.545 --> 04:10.365
or other, you know, wood for fuel

04:10.465 --> 04:12.965
and so on, this falls disproportionately on

04:12.965 --> 04:14.165
women in the household.

04:14.705 --> 04:18.005
But they often are subject to non-partner violence.

04:18.105 --> 04:21.365
You know, people who kind of, are opportunistic and,

04:21.385 --> 04:24.045
and the fact that the women is outside maybe at night

04:24.045 --> 04:26.765
or early morning, the tric violence against women.

04:27.065 --> 04:31.925
So using our meth, we find that non-partner violence reduces

04:32.065 --> 04:36.605
by 10% with access to water.

04:36.865 --> 04:38.245
And that's not small.

04:38.725 --> 04:41.645
I mean, if you actually extrapolate this to the whole

04:41.645 --> 04:44.245
of India, this means per year,

04:44.505 --> 04:48.855
1.7 million women in India will not

04:49.365 --> 04:51.455
face the violence that they would've otherwise.

04:52.435 --> 04:56.135
Now if you look at toilets, for instance, having access

04:56.135 --> 04:59.215
to toilets, and you do the same kind of, analysis,

04:59.595 --> 05:03.415
nearly 10 million women in India will not face

05:04.015 --> 05:07.175
intimate partner violence if they had inva toilets

05:07.175 --> 05:10.935
because of the reduction in stress within the household.

05:10.955 --> 05:12.655
So, you know, these are kind of huge effects.

05:12.655 --> 05:14.375
You know, when you sometimes look at a coefficient,

05:14.375 --> 05:15.735
you think, this is small.

05:15.955 --> 05:18.015
But actually, if you look at the percentage reduction

05:18.155 --> 05:20.295
and extrapolate, it's actually a huge,

05:20.605 --> 05:24.095
huge impact if in general, you look at,

05:24.955 --> 05:27.335
so the two results I gave you are sort of, if you like,

05:27.415 --> 05:28.455
the most conservative.

05:28.515 --> 05:30.135
So in all our specifications,

05:30.355 --> 05:33.615
and I think these by themselves are striking the,

05:34.115 --> 05:35.455
if we in general, and,

05:35.595 --> 05:36.855
and this is not possible,

05:36.855 --> 05:39.895
there's a general association we find when we kind of,

05:40.035 --> 05:42.495
you know, do a logistic regression and, and, and,

05:42.515 --> 05:44.295
and look at lack of resources.

05:44.515 --> 05:47.875
Um, and, you know, whe whether that leads

05:47.875 --> 05:50.195
to non-partner violence and intimate partner violence.

05:50.575 --> 05:52.515
Yes. You know, so the association

05:52.515 --> 05:55.315
that other studies have found have also been confirmed.

05:55.415 --> 05:56.795
The reason I wanna emphasize

05:56.805 --> 05:58.525
These two results,

05:58.525 --> 06:02.245
because these are the two which have controlled for any kind

06:02.245 --> 06:05.085
of unobservable than any other kind of,

06:05.575 --> 06:06.645
other confounders

06:06.875 --> 06:08.725
that might be actually affecting the result.

06:08.725 --> 06:10.805
Because people who have wash facilities

06:10.805 --> 06:13.405
and who don't have wash facilities, their distribution

06:13.405 --> 06:16.885
of other variables like income, like education

06:16.905 --> 06:18.445
and so on, are not the same.

06:18.445 --> 06:20.965
So even though we do find strong associations in general,

06:22.275 --> 06:23.605
they would be less causal,

06:23.605 --> 06:25.485
and I would emphasize them less as a result.

06:26.265 --> 06:29.005
One of the conclusions would sort of go back to

06:29.195 --> 06:30.445
what I said in the beginning.

06:30.745 --> 06:34.685
We often think of lack of resources as,

06:34.685 --> 06:36.285
well these families have been poverty

06:36.425 --> 06:38.765
and we need to find ways to get them outta poverty.

06:39.545 --> 06:43.165
But these anti-poverty programs have another

06:43.835 --> 06:45.245
huge benefits.

06:45.515 --> 06:48.205
They often help in reducing violence against

06:49.065 --> 06:51.725
the vulnerable sections within these families,

06:51.865 --> 06:53.045
namely women and girls.

06:53.545 --> 06:54.925
And, and, and that's,

06:55.305 --> 06:58.365
and these have huge inic health impacts

06:58.365 --> 07:00.165
because violence against women and,

07:00.165 --> 07:02.165
and girls have huge health impacts.

07:02.385 --> 07:04.925
Uh, and we've done other studies which show that they have,

07:05.105 --> 07:08.085
for example, not just higher incidence of mental health,

07:08.225 --> 07:11.125
but higher blood pressure, diabetes,

07:11.255 --> 07:12.405
heart disease, and so on.

07:12.405 --> 07:15.605
So there's a huge public health burden of

07:16.245 --> 07:17.245
violence against women.

07:17.825 --> 07:21.765
And, and, and therefore, you know, I I think one

07:21.765 --> 07:23.125
of the policy implications is,

07:23.265 --> 07:26.725
and this is not just for India in general, when government

07:26.725 --> 07:29.645
and other organizations look at programs,

07:30.425 --> 07:33.685
you cannot look at programs about health, poverty,

07:33.945 --> 07:35.845
and justice in isolation.

07:36.185 --> 07:39.365
You have to look at the interaction across the three, and

07:39.365 --> 07:40.565
therefore, you know, ministries

07:40.585 --> 07:43.165
and departments need to coordinate with each other.

07:43.345 --> 07:44.365
That's one thing.

07:44.665 --> 07:49.365
The second, you have to understand where the burden

07:49.465 --> 07:51.925
of some of this lack of resources falls most.

07:52.305 --> 07:54.885
You know, there there's often this idea that, well,

07:55.025 --> 07:56.845
you know, poverty is what matters.

07:56.905 --> 07:59.565
And therefore, you know, general neutral policies should

07:59.805 --> 08:01.245
probably be best, but actually

08:02.385 --> 08:06.945
families in poverty within a household in poverty, the

08:08.355 --> 08:11.075
resources are again, not equally distributed.

08:11.975 --> 08:14.995
And, and, and, you know, there's a lot of evidence that,

08:15.085 --> 08:18.075
women and girls get a lower proportion

08:18.075 --> 08:20.755
of resources in families living in poverty.

08:21.015 --> 08:24.235
So I think we, you know, another implication would be that,

08:24.365 --> 08:26.475
again, when designing these programs, you have

08:26.475 --> 08:29.635
to understand the gender context of these policies.

00:00 - People talk about the lack of resources and, and, and, and, and many anti-poverty programs actually talk about giving people, either cash in transfers or other resources directly to help people get outta poverty.

00:14 - But they also talk about, you know, sort of the direct health impact of some of these resources. But there's also a secondary effect, which is really important, and that's a lack of resources have been associated with a lot of violence. And this violence particularly affects women and girls. So, you know, even though it's a secondary effect, this is really important because violence against women and girls, not only are they sort of a awful thing to have, but also it has a lot

00:46 - of really negative health impacts, both within generations and across generations. Now, what we really wanted to do and, and is try to unpick whether it was actually the lack of resources or what we call wash facilities. So, you know, access to clean water, sanitation and hygiene, right? Whether that is what, what is the sort of cause for the violence against women, or is it the fact that

01:17 - families which lack wash facilities are also poorer so they have more conflict within the household because of fewer resources? Then that's what makes the relationships a complex, because we wanted to, because clearly alone cannot tell us which of these is actually causing the problem. And we wanted to unpick that relationship. The literature on this, essentially there are two types. One is there are a lot of ethnographic studies which have looked at lack

01:40 - of resources and, and, and violence against women. And, and they find an association against about, sorry, they find an association of which says that actually lack of resources do lead to within household conflict. And, and, and that burden of calls on women, because in poorer households, women get disproportionately less of the resources. So that's one strand of studies. The other are kind of local level,

02:09 - studies which look at particular localities or regions and, and they again, find the same association. And that sort of, in a way, I guess, where we come in, three main, issues. One is of course we are trying, trying to disentangle this, but, so I think let's start first with the data that we use. So we use a nationally representative data. So, so that's a data where you can actually generalize, at least across the whole of India, unlike local studies, which are not so easy to generalize.

02:40 - Second, we look at both, main types of wash facilities, which is both sanitation and water together, not just in isolation, because one sort of links to the other. And the third is, you know, this, and I wanna say a little bit more about disentangling this because as I said, you know, the Relationship is complex. There are lots of unobservable factors, like, for example, a tolerance of violence against women.

03:05 - the fact that, low income may also be correlated with wash facilities. So our methods allow us to disentangle these and including making sure that we control for these unobservable factors as much as possible. So we think we really are getting as close to a kind of control trial as we can. Our results show that. So if you first look at kind of the basic associations, yes, indeed, you know, lack of watch facilities are associated

03:36 - with, lower violence against women. But when we kinda really drill it down, and I'm going to give you, if you like the most conservative results, then you will find that actually wash facilities. So there are two types of violence that we look at. One is what we call NPV on non partner violence. So because people don't have access, for example, to an in will toilet or water within the house, they have to go far and this burden of sort of getting, water and,

04:06 - and for that matter of fuel and, and or other, you know, wood for fuel and so on, this falls disproportionately on women in the household. But they often are subject to non-partner violence. You know, people who kind of, are opportunistic and, and the fact that the women is outside maybe at night or early morning, the tric violence against women. So using our meth, we find that non-partner violence reduces by 10% with access to water.

04:36 - And that's not small. I mean, if you actually extrapolate this to the whole of India, this means per year, 1.7 million women in India will not face the violence that they would've otherwise. Now if you look at toilets, for instance, having access to toilets, and you do the same kind of, analysis, nearly 10 million women in India will not face intimate partner violence if they had inva toilets because of the reduction in stress within the household.

05:10 - So, you know, these are kind of huge effects. You know, when you sometimes look at a coefficient, you think, this is small. But actually, if you look at the percentage reduction and extrapolate, it's actually a huge, huge impact if in general, you look at, so the two results I gave you are sort of, if you like, the most conservative. So in all our specifications, and I think these by themselves are striking the,

05:34 - if we in general, and, and this is not possible, there's a general association we find when we kind of, you know, do a logistic regression and, and, and, and look at lack of resources. and, you know, whe whether that leads to non-partner violence and intimate partner violence. Yes. You know, so the association that other studies have found have also been confirmed. The reason I wanna emphasize

05:56 - These two results, because these are the two which have controlled for any kind of unobservable than any other kind of, other confounders that might be actually affecting the result. Because people who have wash facilities and who don't have wash facilities, their distribution of other variables like income, like education and so on, are not the same. So even though we do find strong associations in general,

06:22 - they would be less causal, and I would emphasize them less as a result. One of the conclusions would sort of go back to what I said in the beginning. We often think of lack of resources as, well these families have been poverty and we need to find ways to get them outta poverty. But these anti-poverty programs have another huge benefits. They often help in reducing violence against

06:49 - the vulnerable sections within these families, namely women and girls. And, and, and that's, and these have huge inic health impacts because violence against women and, and girls have huge health impacts. and we've done other studies which show that they have, for example, not just higher incidence of mental health, but higher blood pressure, diabetes, heart disease, and so on.

07:12 - So there's a huge public health burden of violence against women. And, and, and therefore, you know, I I think one of the policy implications is, and this is not just for India in general, when government and other organizations look at programs, you cannot look at programs about health, poverty, and justice in isolation. You have to look at the interaction across the three, and therefore, you know, ministries

07:40 - and departments need to coordinate with each other. That's one thing. The second, you have to understand where the burden of some of this lack of resources falls most. You know, there there's often this idea that, well, you know, poverty is what matters. And therefore, you know, general neutral policies should probably be best, but actually families in poverty within a household in poverty, the resources are again, not equally distributed.

08:11 - And, and, and, you know, there's a lot of evidence that, women and girls get a lower proportion of resources in families living in poverty. So I think we, you know, another implication would be that, again, when designing these programs, you have to understand the gender context of these policies.

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