Only a fifth of women who are working, decide on their own where to spend their earnings, finds the latest round of the NationalFamily Health Survey. A staggering sixty-one percent of working women say that such decisions are made jointly, while 17 percent say that it’s mostly the husband who makes such decisions. This situation appears to be unchanged over the past decade.
On the other hand, the survey finds that roughly two-thirds of women now participate in major household decisions such as women’s health care, major household purchases and visits to their friends and family. In fact, women’s participation rate has seen a marked improvement over the past decade.
In decisions regarding the major household purchase, the percentage of women involved has increased from 53 percent in 2005-06 to 73 percent in 2015-16. In the case of own health care, it has increased from 62 percent to 75 percent, while in the case of visits to friends and family, it has increased to 75 percent, from 61 percent earlier.
Perhaps, this is an outcome of rising incomes of women. The survey finds that the percentage of who earn almost as much as their husbands more than doubling from 20 percent in 2005-06 to 42 percent in 2015-16.
There has also been a marked improvement in a women’s freedom to move around. According to the survey, in 2005-06 only a third of women in the age group of 15-49 were allowed to go alone to the market, health facility and to places outside the village. By comparison, in 2015-16, the same is estimated at 41 percent.
But attitudes towards wife beating have not changed much since 2005-06, nor has there been a change in the percentage of women who say that women can refuse sex to their husband.
On the health side, there has been a marked decline in the use of tobacco across both sexes according to the latest round of the NFHS.
While 10.8 percent of women in the age group of 15-49 used to use tobacco in 2005-06, this has dropped to 6.8 percent in 2015-16. Interestingly, in urban areas, it is lower at 4.4 percent, while in rural areas it is higher at 8.1 percent. For men, the comparable estimates are 57 percent in 2005-06 and 44.5 percent in 2015-16.
In the case of alcohol, the decline is of a much lower magnitude. The percentage of women consuming alcohol has declined from 2.2 percent in 2005-06 to 1.2 percent in 2015-16, while for men the comparable estimates are 31.9 percent and 29.2 percent.
PTI
