WUNRN
Women's Feature Service
India - New Delhi
By Pamela Philipose
While such behaviour would be deemed
criminal under any other circumstance, if it plays out within the family it
gets miraculously transformed into tolerated or tolerable behaviour, justified
even by its victims. According to NFHS-3, more women than men (54 per cent and
51 per cent, respectively) believe it is okay for a husband to beat his wife if
she "disrespects" his family or neglects the house and children.
For over half a century, the Indian
state deferred to the view that situations like this are a private matter. This
is why the Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act (PWDVA), enacted in
2005 is historic in so many ways. Not only did it give a legal definition to
the crime in unambiguous terms, it brought within its ambit of relief not just
wives but other women in familial relationships, including mothers, sisters and
live-in partners, and protected their right of residence. It also recognised
that such battered and abused women required quick and effective relief by
providing for a multi-agency regime to expedite it.
Three years later, how effective has
this law been? This was the focus of a monitoring and evaluation exercise
spearheaded by the Lawyers Collective Women's Rights Initiative (LCWRI), in
partnership with the National Commission for Women (NCW) and the UN Trust Fund
to End Violence Against Women.
According to Indira Jaising, director
LCWRI, "Three years is of course too short a period to gauge the efficacy
of such a law but the fact that around 3,600 cases have been filed under it in
a state like Uttar Pradesh indicates that awareness about it has spread. Also,
the performance of a state like Andhra Pradesh in setting up support systems
indicates that some institutionalisation of the law has also taken place."
But Jaising is the first to acknowledge
that the long and arduous journey to justice has only just begun and that a law
on domestic violence does not automatically mean that such violence will end.
The gaps are many and at several levels. Delays continue to be an
insurmountable problem, judges continue to hesitate in granting ex-parte orders
so that the proceedings are completed quickly. And the law has yet to gain the
necessary support from civil society - women who dare to take on their
attackers continue to wage very solitary battles.
The Third Monitoring and Evaluation
Report 2009 on the law pointed out that the very agencies required to ensure
justice in these cases need to be educated and sensitised. In a survey cited in
the Report, protection officers who play a central role under the PWDVA to
facilitate the affected woman's access to justice, often value "welfare of
family" more that the "rights of women" and would even argue
that the "primary role of a woman is to take care of the family". The
Report observed that since protection officers serve as the first filter to
cases of violence they could "possibly be acting as a barrier to the woman
wanting to approach the courts".
The police, another key functionary in
the justice process, also have highly ambivalent attitudes to women in such
situations. For instance, an estimated 30.4 per cent of police personnel in Rajasthan
believe "women deserve to be beaten in certain situations", while
84.4 per cent maintain that domestic violence is a "family affair".
The majority of police personnel also seem to agree that "maintaining the
family and security of children should take precedence over a woman's personal
well-being and safety". What is perhaps even more worrying is that women
who have filed cases have reported that the police only "spoiled"
their cases by taking bribes or conniving with their husbands.
The obvious lack of understanding of
domestic violence as defined by the PWDVA among key players like the police and
protection officers has several implications. For instance, while physical
violence, which is visible, may get recognised and acted upon, emotional and
verbal abuse is often dismissed and sexual violence within marriage remains
completely unrecognised as a concern.
If civil society is apathetic to the
issue, so too unfortunately is the Government of India. Taking the justice
delivery process to the last woman is still very much a pipe dream. Funds are
clearly a constraint and the Secretary to the Ministry of Women and Child
Development, D.K. Sikri, acknowledged this at a national level meeting on the
subject. He indicated that the central government has now requested funding for
implementing the law from the 13th Finance Commission.
But women activists want the Centre to
do much more, and start by ensuring a proper budgetary framework. In fact, in
striking contrast to the Centre, some states have gone ahead and made budgetary
allocations to actualise the PWDVA and there has also been a gradual increase
in the appointment of independent protection officers on a full time
basis.
What is also clear is that if this law
has to achieve its stated purpose, there would have to be far greater
understanding about the unacceptability of domestic violence at every level of
society. The NFHS-3 data shows that most women do not seek help in situations
of domestic violence - and an estimated two out of three women have not only
never sought help but have never told anyone about the violence. This silence
rises from a lack of agency - not surprisingly nearly 46 per cent of married
women with no education have experienced spousal violence. Ending domestic violence
then needs more than a law. It requires the comprehensive empowerment of women.
But a law like PWDVA can help greatly and people need to understand its true
intent. As Gauri Chaudhury of Action India pointed out, "This new law is
not going to break the Indian family. On the contrary, it will help create
peaceful homes, free of fear and violence."
================================================================
To contact the list administrator, or to leave the list, send an email to:
wunrn_listserve-request@lists.wunrn.com. Thank you.