Bitter home truths

This one is for the men: If you?re curbing employment opportunities for your wife or forcing your daughter to go for marriage... or, even involving your wife in ?bedroom coercion?, you may get into serious trouble. The first arrest under the Domestic Violence Act, in India, happened last Thursday sparking another debate. For the first time, the term ?domestic violence? in its legal connotations has been widened in meaning and scope.

The first arrest has taken place in India under the Domestic Violence Act but the crucial point lies in the proper implementation of the Act for the welfare of women.

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This one is for the men: If you’re curbing employment opportunities for your wife or forcing your daughter to go for marriage... or, even involving your wife in ‘bedroom coercion’, you may get into serious trouble. The first arrest under the Domestic Violence Act, in India, happened last Thursday sparking another debate. For the first time, the term ‘domestic violence’ in its legal connotations has been widened in meaning and scope. It was earlier restricted to the categories of violence suffered by women in their families relating to ‘dowry demands’.

The Act acknowledges that domestic violence is a widely prevalent and universal problem of power relationships within the families, more than the culture specific phenomenon called ‘dowry death’.

Though, the enactment of this Act has been seen as a victory for the two-decade old Women’s Movement in India, the crucial point lies in the implementation of the Act! There is the need that women must be encouraged to speak up, express their fears and stand up for what is their right. Only then can things change.

Domestic violence is something that every woman faces in some or the other form, be it physical, mental, emotional or psychological but most of these incidents are not reported.

According to the National Family Health Survey, Part 2, around 22 percent women in Uttar Pradesh face violence at home. But experts say, this is just a sample survey and the number of domestic violence cases are much more than reported.

According to the official statistics, in the year 2006, a total of 849 cases of dowry deaths were registered in the State. In the year 2005, the number of cases were 831 and in 2004, the number of cases was 852.

If you take this into account, in the last three years, a total of 2,532 women were killed for not acceding to dowry demands. Similarly, around 6,000 cases of other kinds of violence against women were reported with the police over the last three years.

A gender specialist, Roop Rekha Verma who is the former Vice Chancellor of the Lucknow University says, enactment of this law is a welcome step but we should not think that only with the enactment of the law, all women would start reporting the violence happening with them everyday in some or the other form.

There are practical problems in front of women in terms of their mobility and how they would face the counter violence if they would report the violence happening against them.

Now, it has become mandatory for the civil society to make this law available and accessible for women.

The Domestic Violence Act designed to protect a wife or woman live-in partner from violence at the hands of the husband or male live-in partner or his relatives. Under the new law, abusive husbands and partners can land up in jail and could be fined Rs 20,000.

Director, Institute of Women Studies, Lucknow University, Dr Rakesh Chandra feels that cases of domestic violence are largely under reported because a woman living in the family who is not self dependent, don’t want to report. It helps women who want to remain at home and reconcile the differences. And the Act provides means for it. It is very essential that Governments should soon recruit prosecuting officers so that the Act would soon be implemented. Also there is a need to put some money for advertising the act and its provisions, he adds.

But not surprisingly, the law has drawn mixed reactions from the public, with many are of the opinion that it provides space for possible misuse. The Chairperson of the State Women's Commission, Ranjana Bajpayee also feels that it is a double-edged weapon and its should be very carefully used. There would be certain cases where the complaint is legitimate, but also cases where the complaint could be fabricated or concocted. It has been happening in Dowry Prohibition Act.

Secondly the mindset of women need to be changed who think that if any sort of domestic violence is happening with them, its their fault and they do not come up to report the incident.

Amit Awasthi from Men's Action to Stop Violence Against Women (MASVAW) working amongst youths to sensitise them toward women said that earlier many sorts of violence against women were discarded by seeing its as their family matter but with the enactment of this act women would raise their voice under the legal framework. In this Act, it has been recognised that woman who suffers violence needs shelter and legal help. Earlier, it was only the NGOs who were providing shelter and legal help to violence victims.