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Paper short abstract

Drawing on 142 interviews, this paper presents a new framework for recognising economic abuse that occurs before or during the formation of an intimate union and is based on the Pre-Marital/Union Economic Power and Control Wheel: South Asian Contexts —a model recently approved by The Duluth Model.

Paper long abstract

This paper presents a new framework for recognising economic abuse that occurs prior to or during the formation of intimate relationships, based on the Pre-Marital/Union Economic Power and Control Wheel: South Asian Contexts (India, Pakistan, Britain)—a model recently approved by The Duluth Model. Using an intersectional approach, the wheel draws on 142 interviews and eight focus groups involving 64 women (total 206 women) from two research projects with South Asian women in India, Pakistan and the UK (funded by National Institute of health Research and Global Challenges Research Fund, UK). These women were recruited from community networks and represented diversity on the basis of class, caste, religion, occupational status and migration status. The majority of the women were living with their partners and had not reported cases of domestic violence. The wheel is based on retrospective data from women who reflected on the months and years leading up to marriage. Approximately one/third women reported some form of economic abuse described in the wheel that took place up to the point of marriage. In almost all cases the economic abuse carried on after the marriage and became worse. This wheel aims to identify various forms of economic abuse to raise awareness among policy makers, practitioners, women, young people and community members to enable identification and prevention before women get married/cohabit/form a union. The identification and prevention of the pre-marital economic abuse is particularly urgent considering the connection between climate shock, livelihood loss and displacement, and early/forced marriages in South Asia.