Domestic violence in India: insights from the 2005-2006 national family health survey.

This article assesses the prevalence and risk factors of domestic violence in India. The study uses the 2005-2006 India National Family Health Survey-III (NFHS-III) and focuses on the 69,484 ever-married women ages 15 to 49 from all regions, who were administered the domestic violence module. The results show that 31% of respondents experienced physical violence in the past 12 months before the survey; the corresponding figure for sexual violence was 8.3%. The multivariate logistic regression results show key determinants of physical and sexual violence. Some of the most salient findings are that urban residence, household wealth, affiliation with Christian religious denominations, wife's age at marriage and education are associated with lower risk of physical and sexual violence. In contrast, being employed and being the wife of a man who drank alcohol increased the odds of experiencing both physical and sexual violence. Moreover, respondents who believed that wife-beating was justified under certain circumstances were more likely to experience domestic violence. These results and significant regional differences observed in this study suggest that gender role conditioning and cultural norms both contribute to domestic violence. Interventions, therefore, need to go beyond the institutional and legal levels to include cultural capital, which addresses partner and relationship issues.

The protective effect of male circumcision on HIV infection in a sample of Kenyan men.

This article examines the association between male circumcision and HIV infection in a national sample. The analysis is based on the 2003 Kenya Demographic and Health Survey (KDHS), a nationally representative household-based population survey of adults, in which male respondents self-reported their circumcision status. In addition, in some households eligible for individual interview, blood samples were subsequently anonymously obtained for HIV testing, making this the first study linking socio-demographic information to HIV status at the national level. The study sample is limited to 3 413 men aged 15-54 years who gave valid information on their circumcision and HIV statuses. Nearly 5% of the men were HIV-positive, and 86% had been circumcised. HIV prevalence was significantly higher among the uncircumcised men (12%) than among the circumcised men (3%). This indication of the protective effect of male circumcision on HIV infection remained statistically significant (OR 0.15; 95%CI: 0.09-0.23) even after controlling for the effects of socio-demographic variables, age at first sexual intercourse, and use of paid sex. Based on these results, we recommend that HIV-prevention advocates and activists, scholars, bio-medical communities and political leaders find ways to include this oldest surgical procedure in their HIV/AIDS discourses and programmes in sub-Saharan Africa.

Social capital and premarital sexual activity in Africa: the case of Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo.

Prior research has pointed to several factors that may affect sexual behavior in Africa, but much of the work has been atheoretical or descriptive, thus reducing the explanatory value of some findings. In this study, the influence of individual characteristics and family background were examined in a sample of 2,000 women aged 14-24 interviewed in Kinshasa in 1995. The analysis was guided by the social capital framework and the discussion focused on three theoretical perspectives: rational adaptation, social disorganization, and patrilineal bias. The results from the event history analysis showed that poverty, exposure to mass media, patrilinearity, and AIDS awareness greatly reduce the risk of premarital sexual activity. In contrast, social capital, as measured by the number of siblings, was positively associated with sexual permissiveness, suggesting a dilution of adults' attention to children in larger families.