Domestic Violence against Women and Children’s Nutritional Health Outcomes: A Bargaining Power Approach in Pakistan

International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science (IJRISS) | Volume III, Issue II, February 2019 | ISSN 2454–6186

Domestic Violence against Women and Children’s Nutritional Health Outcomes: A Bargaining Power Approach in Pakistan

Qurra-tul-ain Ali Sheikh^1,*, Altaf Hussain Solangi², Prof. Dr. Mahpara Begum Sadaqat³

¹Ph. D candidate, Applied Economics Research Centre (AERC), University of Karachi, Pakistan
Asst. Prof. (Economics Department), Govt. Girls Degree College, Nawabshah, Sindh, Pakistan
²M. Phil Candidate, Institute of Business Administration, University of Sindh, Jamshoro, Pakistan
³Department of Business Administration, Iqra University, Karachi, Pakistan
*Corresponding Author

Abstract: – This paper mainly aims to examine the effects of domestic violence on maternal and children health using bargaining power model. The proposed model represents how domestic violence weakens woman’s stability and influences her health care decisions by declining the probability of health inputs. Data from Pakistan Demographic and Health Survey (2012-13) is used and 13,558 women (aged 15-49) are arbitrarily chosen from different regions of Pakistan. A bargaining power approach is used to check the various impacts of domestic violence on mother’s health inputs (antenatal visits, iron intake, breastfeeding and prenatal care) and children’s nutritional health outcomes (stunting, wasting and underweight). In order to estimate the probability of women’s health inputs and children’s health outcomes, probit estimation technique is used. OLS technique is also used to analyze the reduced-form specification of mother’s health inputs (number of antenatal visits). Results showed that domestic violence reduces the probability of woman’s iron intake, breastfeeding and prenatal care by 10.8, 24.5 and 6.7 percent, respectively. Physical violence increases the probability of under nutrition (stunning, wasting and underweight) among children by 10.4, 10.9 and 15.0 percent, respectively. On the basis of empirical results, this study proposes auxiliary efforts for condensing high prevalence of domestic violence and its afterwards detrimental effects on maternal and child’s health. Initiatives and programs are required on urgent basis for progressing women’s empowerment, through easy access to education and economic opportunities that may not only counteract the risk of domestic violence but also improve the long term growth of many children in Pakistan.

Keywords: Domestic violence, women’s bargaining power model, mother’s health inputs, children’s health outputs, Pakistan.

JEL Classification: J1, J12, J13, I15, J10

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