The results of the National Family Health Survey-5 have revealed that 80% of married women in India play decisive roles in a household when it comes to planning on buying important assets like a new home, car, AC, refrigerator, TV, bed, or a sofa, during the season of festivals. Their suggestions play a valuable role in deciding such things. 81% women’s will is also given importance when it comes to their health, or going to a relative’s house. In all these big decisions, their share of decision-making is 71%.
Another factor related to the same is that if it is a working woman, then her share in the decision-making related to the three big decisions of buying a big asset, own health, and going to a relative’s home, is 75%, and if the woman is a home-maker, then her share is 70%. The most, which is 95% women play crucial roles when it comes to these three major decisions, in Nagaland. In comparison to survey-4, in survey-5, that is during four years, the cases of giving importance on women’s suggestions regarding buying a big asset have increased by 7%.
On the other hand, the freedom enjoyed by women in the country to go anywhere alone has augmented too. As per the survey, 42% of women are free to go to markets, hospitals, and even out of the town, alone. During the survey-4, which was held 4 years back, 41% of them had such a freedom. Now, 46% of women can go to the market alone, 52% to hospitals, and 50% can also go alone out of the village or city. The most, that is 82% of women can go alone to all the three places in Himachal Pradesh.
In the meantime, 19% women believe that it is correct for women to get beaten if they go out of their house without informing anyone, while on the other hand, only 15% men believe the same. 32% women believe that it is right for women to get beaten if they do not respect their mothers and fathers-in-law, while only 31% of men think the same. 14% of the women opine that it is right to get beaten if a woman cannot cook food properly, and 20% think that it is right to beat a woman if she is found to be cheating her spouse.
Women also play a major role when it comes to deciding as to how their husbands’ salaries should be spent, as the wife has a right on her husband’s earnings. 71% of the women said that both the partners decide upon this together, while 66% of the males believe the same. Nevertheless, in four years, women’s role to decide on how to spend their husbands’ earnings has gone up by 7%. During survey-4, 64% of women had said that both partners decided on this together, while 21% women and 28% males had said that the husband primarily decided on his own earnings.
Another trend which came to the fore with the survey is that 79% of women are now using their own bank accounts, which was 53% 4 years ago. 51% of the women said that they had some money and they decided on their own when it came to spending it. The most, that is 93% of women use their own bank account in Puducherry, and in Nagaland, 64% of them do the same. Women taking loans for self-employment number more in south India, 30% of women in Andhra Pradesh and 24% in Telangana took such loans.
