Abstract

This presentation aims to describe the prevalent forms of VAWG, structural conditions of women, and the factors associated with VAWG among women and men living in the migrant communities of Baglung district, Nepal.

Data was drawn from three-hundred and seven adults from two sub-districts of Baglung district. We followed a family model, interviewing young married women, their husbands, and mothers-in-law and fathers-in-laws using electronic interviewer-administered questionnaires. We conducted descriptive analyses and random effects regression modelling comparing men and women, and young married women with daughter-in-law status and older women with mothers-in-law with status. All analyses used Stata.

Twenty nine percent of women had ever experienced physical and/or sexual violence by an intimate partner compared to eighteen percent of men having ever perpetrated these against intimate partners in their lifetime. Regression analyses of factors associated with lifetime perpetration and experiences of IPV highlighted the significant impact of childhood trauma among men. Quarrelling with a wife was significantly associated with increased likelihood of lifetime perpetration of IPV among men. Similarly quarrelling with a husband increased women’s risk of experiencing IPV in their lifetime, as did having perceptions that the mother-in-law was cruel. Further analyses among women amplified the relationship between unemployment stress, quarrelling with a husband, poor relations with husbands, male partner control over female partners and perceptions of mother-in-law cruelty with IPV victimisation. The results demonstrated the importance of family level research, their benefits and potential limitations. There is a need to critically challenge harmful social and gender norms by using approaches that are sensitive to the vulnerabilities and unequal power dynamics in young married women’s relationships with their husbands and mothers-in-law in migrant communities. IPV prevention interventions need to employ a holistic approach that combines changing social and gender norms and improving socioeconomic conditions of women.