Geographic variation in women's empowerment: a multilevel analysis of India's National Family Health Survey 2021.

Background: Women's empowerment is vital for sustainable development, yet gender inequality persists across India's sociocultural and geographic landscape. Most initiatives in India focus on state- and district-level frameworks, failing to address the localised challenges at smaller geographic levels. Methods: This study quantified and visualised community variation in women's empowerment using the fifth National Family Health Survey (2019-2021). Women's empowerment was assessed across three domains - attitudes toward violence, social independence, and decision-making - using the globally validated Survey-based Women's emPowERment index (SWPER). Four-level logistic regression models were used to partition the geographic variation in women's empowerment into state, district, and community levels, and produce precision-weighted estimates. Results: The final sample included 76 683 women, 9104 communities, 720 districts, and 36 states across India. Communities contributed most to the total geographic variation in attitude to violence (47.1%) and decision-making (69.6%), while states were the largest contributors in social independence (57.7%). Geographically, under-empowered communities were concentrated in the south for attitude to violence; in the north for social independence; and widely dispersed for decision-making. Conclusions: Strategies to improve women's empowerment in India should span across multiple geographic units while integrating domain-specific approaches to facilitate meaningful and sustainable progress.