Social Factors Affecting Women's Susceptibility to HIV in India

India is the global epicentre of the HIV/AIDS epidemic in Asia. Previous research indicates that the majority of HIV-positive women in India were infected by their husbands, their only sexual partner, which makes them difficult to identify as a high-risk population. This paper assesses social factors associated with the transmission of HIV based on demographic determinants, such as age; sexual risk behavior; and gendered discrimination, such as domestic violence. Bivariate and multivariate analysis of the National Family Health Survey yields the result that women's socioeconomic status could have an association with their serostatus, as HIV-positive women were significantly more likely to have a low level of education than their HIV-negative counterparts. In contrast, female HIV-positive respondents displayed low tendencies toward high-risk sexual behavior, as less than 10% had two or more sexual partners in their lifetime. Finally, they were significantly more likely to have previously experienced domestic violence (45%) and sexual violence (22%) than the general population. Overall, results illustrate that Indian women's vulnerability toward HIV infection may not be the product of their own sexual risk behavior. The most prominent social factors are their socioeconomic status, such as their level of education, and other sociodemographic determinants, including their region of residence.