Four out of 10 women in India still have no say in their marriage; eight out of 10 need permission to visit a doctor; six out of 10 practise some form of head covering and the average Indian household gives over Rs. 30,000 in dowry.

These are some of the findings of the latest India Human Development Survey (IHDS), conducted by the National Council for Applied Economic Research (NCAER), shared exclusively with The Hindu.

The IHDS is the largest household survey in India after the government’s Nationa Sample Survey Organisation (NSSO) surveys, and the NCAER is the only independent body that conducts such large-scale sample surveys.

The IHDS covers economic data on income and expenditure, development data on education and health, and sociological data on caste, gender and religion. For the next two weeks, The Hindu will report exclusively on the key findings of the NCAER’s latest round that covered 2011-2012 data. This survey covered 42,000 households across the country. Over 83 per cent of these households were earlier interviewed for the 2004-05 round of the IHDS.

The 2011-2012 data shows that child marriage has come down in India, with 48 per cent women over 25 years admitting they were married before the age of 18 as opposed to 60 per cent in 2004-05. The average number of children per woman (over 40) has also come down from 3.85 to 3.55, indicating a decline in fertility.

The practice of marrying a cousin or relative — more prevalent in South India — is becoming less common, but over 20 per cent in Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka still marry their relatives.

Women’s autonomy still remains severely constrained, with 41 per cent respondents replying in the negative when asked about their say in their marriage and only 18 per cent accepting that they knew their husbands before marriage.

Just 10 per cent women said they could take decisions to buy large household items on their own. Eighty-one per cent women needed permission to visit a doctor and 60 per cent of them – including 59 per cent forward caste Hindus and 83 per cent Muslims – practised some form of ‘purdah’ or ‘ghunghat’.

“Those of us in the women’s movement and in progressive groups have been saying right from the beginning that instead of focussing on instruments of security such as the police, there needs to be a transformation inside the home, in schools and in communities,” said Suneeta Dhar, director of women’s rights group Jagori.