In dry Bihar, ‘84% of women face spousal violence when husbands get drunk often’, finds NFHS-5

Spousal violence prevails in the State across all groups; most women who said their husbands drink belong to border districts

Bihar was declared a dry State in April 2016 but the latest (2019-21) National Family Health Survey-5 report finds that “84% of women face spousal violence when their husbands get drunk often” and “61% of them face spousal violence when their husbands are drunk sometimes”.

Bihar is second only to Karnataka (at 44%) with 40% of married women between the ages of 18 and 49 years subjected to spousal violence, said the report, adding, “spousal violence prevails in the state across all groups, although it is lower among more educated women and higher among currently married women (42%) and women married more than once (61%)”.