THE DOMESTIC VIOLENCE ACT 2005

The Domestic Violence Act 2005 is the first law in India specifically addressing domestic violence targeting husbands, live-in partners and family members who abuse or threaten women verbally, physically, sexually, emotionally and economically (including dowry harassment).

The salient features of the Protection from Domestic Violence Act, 2005 are as follows:

It seeks to cover women who are or have been in a relationship with the abuser where both parties have lived together in a shared household or are related by consanguinity, marriage or adoption. Family members living together as a joint family are also included: sisters, widows, mothers, single women or those living with the abuser are entitled to get legal protection.

Domestic violence includes actual abuse or the threat of abuse that is physical, sexual, verbal, emotional and economic. Harassment by way of unlawful dowry demands is also covered under this definition.

One of the most important features of the act is the women’s right to secure housing. The act provides for the women’s right to reside int eh matrimonial or shared household, whether or not she has any title or rights in the household. This right is secured by a residence order, which is passed by a court. This residence order cannot be passed against anyone who is a woman.

The court has the power to pass protection orders that prevent the abuser from aiding or committing an act of domestic violence or any other specified act, entering workplace or any other place frequented by the abused, attempting to communicate with the abused, isolating any assets used by both the parties and causing violence to the abused, her relatives and others who provide her assistance.

The protection of women through the Domestic Violence Act 2005, (PWDVA) was rightly hailed as a historic moment for Indian women’s rights. The bill was notified only in October 2006. Women activists questioned the government’s sincerity in implementing the new law in letter and in spirit.

The act, the salient features of which makes domestic violence against wives, mothers, sisters, daughters and other women relatives a civil offence came under sharp criticism, mainly from men, who argued that it was open to manipulation as it provides for wide-ranging powers to women. When the bill was tabled in parliament in 2003, male members protested that it was denigrating the institution of marriage. It took a further struggle of two years before it was eventually passed.

The new law is mainly meant to provide protection to the wife / women, live-in partner from violence at the hands of the husband, male partner or his relatives.  Among its other provisions are the right to reside int eh matrimonial and shared household, appointment of protection officers (POS), service providers and counselors and setting up of shelters for battered women.

According to activists, however, the reality is that most state governments had yet to set up either counseling centers or shelters or to appoint POS often shunting off this latter task to police officers who are already overburdened and disinclined to taking on additional responsibilities. They stress that in order to set up the legal and support mechanisms provided under PWDVA, a substantial and specific budget allocation, both at the Central and State Government levels would have to be earmarked.

There is tremendous demand for redress under the new act and that 302 cases have been filed in Delhi in the first few months. The overburdened judiciary cannot meet this demand and there was a need for sufficient judges to be in place to deliver justice to women. ‘The Delhi experience has shown that the POS are unequipped to give the required support to the judge.’

The case of Nazi of Varanasi, a survivor who spoke of the mental and physical torture she suffered at the hands of her husband and inlaws when she decided to leave after seven years of marriage and take along her five year old daughter, her husband threw acid on hter face (November 3). When she was subsequently hospitalized he frequently visited her to make threats against her and her family to force her to withdraw the case she filed against him. Since then 10 different police officers have questioned her and said she was lying to them. In the meanwhile, her husband renewed his threats to kill her if she didn’t withdraw the case against him, shared the shaken young woman.

It is not easy for a woman facing violence at home to speak out for a variety of reasons, mainly because of economic dependence on her husband. Another survivor shared ‘you face a lot of humiliation as no one takes you seriously. When I fled form my husband I had to leave my two young children behind because I had no home, no job and had to take shelter with a friend’.

In order to implement the law, NGOs and activists work closely with the judges. Deepa Jain, secretary in the Department of Women and Child Development, while reiterating the government’s commitment to implement the Act agrees that women remain vulnerable to violence at home due to lack of access to services.

The government has sent the rules and provisions of this act to all state governments and has posted it on its official websites to create greater awareness about it. Further steps include translation of the Act into regional languages, user guides and an illustrative list of possible domestic violence scenarios and immediate response routes that the victim has access to.