The Effects of Communal Violence on Women’s Marital Outcomes

This study examines the effects of communal violence, that is violence inflicted upon a particular group along ethnic or religious lines, on women’s marital outcomes. Communal violence, with its accompanying psychological and physical trauma, can have important socioeconomic consequences. The effects could be very different for women who are often disproportionately subject to sexual violence during such events. Using individual-level survey data from India and a difference-in-differences approach, the study shows that women’s age of marriage decreased, and the probability of getting married before the age of 18 increased after the Hindu-Muslim riots in Gujarat in 2002. The Gujarat riots stand out as one of the most significant and abrupt occurrences of communal violence in post-independence India, marked by widespread violence against women, thus providing a setting to study the impacts of such violence on women. Event study and synthetic control methods suggest that these effects are prominent two years after the riots and have increased over time. Women married after the riots also had fewer years of education and poorer social and economic status, such as a lower probability of employment and lower autonomy in household decision-making.