How the lot of women has changed

The latest National Family Health Survey-6 (NFHS-6) Rep or t gives us some crucial insights regarding the different facets of development. The current article brings together some outcomes and makes a state-wise and time-wise comparison of certain gendered indicators.

The percentage of households with any female member owning a house and/or land has increased from 14 per cent in NFHS-5 to 18.8 per cent in NFHS-6 in India. Although it is still a low percentage, the legal history of women owning a house or land is a history of struggle and resistance. One of the earliest shifts happened with the Hindu Women’s Right to Property Act, 1937 and the Shariat Application Act, 1937 which recognized women’s individual right to inherit and own property. The major breakthrough in recent years happened with the passing of the Hindu Succession (Amendment) Act, 2005 which declared that a daughter becomes a coparcener by birth, enjoying the exact same rights and liabilities in ancestral property as a son.

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These progresses have been made possible with increasing intensity of the voices of feminist activists. The state with the largest percentage is Meghalaya with 65.3 per cent. The matrilineal system followed by major tribal groups in Meghalaya may be responsible for this. Further, the Sixth Schedule gives the local councils of tribal areas the power to make laws regarding inheritance, which may have institutionalised the matrilineal system in Meghalaya. Kerala has the second largest percentage of such households. Historically, the princely states of Travancore and Cochin had passed regulations which grant individual property rights to women.

The state with the largest improvement was Karnataka which improved from 16.2 to 29.5 per cent. Sikkim, on the other hand, reported the lowest percentage and also has undergone a decline from NFHS-5. An important aspect of the well-being of women is the prevalence of spousal violence. The positive trend that is visible is that the percentage of married women aged 18-49 years who have ever experienced spousal violence has decreased at an all India level as well in most states.

The national percentage has decreased from 29.2 to 22.3 per cent. The biggest drop in this percentage among states was seen in Karnataka which fell from 44.4 to 14.1 per cent. This can be seen as a major turnaround from the NFHS-5, when Karnataka recorded the highest percentage of women who experience spousal violence in the country, and there was a sharp increase from 21 per cent in NFHS-4. A report in The Hindu mentions that conviction rates in related cases are abysmally low, and there is a larger chance of bailouts in the case of domestic violence. The ensuing discussion and intervention may have resulted in an improvement in Karnataka.

A surprising trend can be seen when we note that the largest increase in this percentage happened in Kerala which reports an increase from 9.8 to 17.7 per cent. Although there has been a declining trend in Andhra Pradesh, Jharkhand, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh, Telangana and Bihar, their percentage is still above the national average. The highest figure is reported in Bihar. In spite of being declared a dry state in 2016, a report finds that “84 per cent of women face spousal violence when their husbands get drunk often” according to NFHS-5. It is noteworthy that the percentage of men who consume alcohol has increased from 15.4 per cent in 2020-21 to 16.5 per cent in 2023-24.

An important statistic to look at from the point of view of women’s safety is the percentage of women aged 18-29 who experienced sexual violence by the age of 18. The national figure has fallen from 1.2 to 0.7 per cent. Although such figures should be interpreted with caution, it is still noteworthy that the percentage fell in all states. The biggest improvement happened in Karnataka again which fell from 2.1 to 0.1 per cent. In a progressive step, in early 2026, Karnataka passed the Eva Nammava Bill, a legislation specifically targeted at protecting individual freedom, and explicitly criminalizing social and economic coercion used by families or local communities against adults who choose their own partners.

The bill also mandates fast-track courts for the provision of protection and legal justice to women facing threats from their relatives. An important part of women’s empowerment is their access to financial resources. The all India figure of the percentage of women having a bank or savings account that they themselves use has increased from 78.6 to 89 per cent. The biggest improvement has happened in Nagaland and West Bengal. The movement in West Bengal has been notable since this percentage was only 43.5 in 2015-16 (NFHS-4). Currently, the figure for West Bengal is 95.3 per cent which is the highest in the country.

The Lakshmir Bhandar scheme can be understood to explain this increase. The money is strictly distributed into an Aadhaar-linked, single – operated bank account belonging exclusively to the woman. An interesting observation here is that although Bihar is lagging behind in some indicators, the percentage here is 90.9, a significant increase from 76.7 per cent in NFHS-5 and 26.4 per cent in NFHS-4. Much of this can be attributed to the financial assistance schemes that the government has provided to the women of Bihar over the years.

Although we note a high percentage of women having bank accounts, only 30.8 per cent of women worked in the last 12 months and were paid in cash. Interestingly, while 90.9 per cent of women in Bihar have a bank or a savings account, only 16.5 per cent of the women worked in the last 12 months and were paid in cash. The discrepancy between these two figures can suggest that the bank accounts are primarily used for benefit transfer schemes. The NFHS-6 reveals some interesting patterns about different facets of development in India.

However, simply looking at the national figure may not tell the whole story. Therefore, it is important to look at a more disaggregated state-wise analysis. Among the gendered outcomes, Karnataka seems to have improved in quite some aspects from the previous rounds, Bihar on the other hand seems lagging behind in some indicators. State specific legalities and histories play an important role in determining the current outcomes.

(The writers are faculty members at Christ University, Bengaluru.)