Economic violence and its health impacts among married women in an urban slum of Puducherry, South India – An exploratory study

Background: Economic violence prevails to be one of the unexplored domains of intimate partner violence. Objective: To explore the perceived forms of economic violence and its health impacts among married women in Puducherry. Methodology: A community-based exploratory study was conducted in urban slums in Puducherry. All married women aged 18 to 65 years belonging to low socio-economic status residing in two selected slums were included by purposive sampling. A total of seven focus group discussions were conducted till the point of saturation and manual content analysis done. Results: Four major themes emerged, namely: experiences of economic abuse, health impacts of economic abuse, perceived factors influencing economic abuse, and suggested preventive measures for economic abuse. Conclusion: Economic abuse against women in India exists in multiple dimensions. It has profound consequences on the physical and psychological health of women.