UPSC MAINS SYLLABUS
GS 2 – Welfare schemes for vulnerable sections of the population by the Centre and States and the performance of these schemes; mechanisms, laws, institutions and bodies constituted for the protection and betterment of these vulnerable sections
Domestic abuse, also called “domestic violence” or “intimate partner violence”, can be defined as a pattern of behavior in any relationship that is used to gain or maintain power and control over an intimate partner. Abuse is physical, sexual, emotional, economic or psychological actions or threats of actions that influence another person. This includes any behaviors that frighten, intimidate, terrorize, manipulate, hurt, humiliate, blame, injure, or wound someone. Domestic abuse can happen to anyone of any race, age, sexual orientation, religion, or gender. It can occur within a range of relationships including couples who are married, living together or dating. Domestic violence affects people of all socioeconomic backgrounds and education levels.
Domestic Violence Act 2005
- PWDVA was passed on 13 September 2005, during the tenure of the United Progressive Alliance government. It’s a civil law aimed at providing a fourfold support system to women who have suffered violence at home: residence orders, custody orders, protection orders and monetary relief from a respondent. Before PWDVA, women could only seek recourse under the Indian Penal Code (IPC)—sections 304B (dowry death) and 498A (cruelty by husband or his relative).
- PWDVA enshrines principles of the Convention on the Elimination of All forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), which India ratified in 1993. CEDAW’s 12th general recommendation required “the States parties to act to protect women against violence of any kind occurring within the family, at the work place or in any other area of social life”.
- The Act covers all women who may be mother, sister, wife, widow or partners living in a shared household. The relationship may be in nature of marriage or adoption. In addition relationships with family members living together as a joint family are also included.
- Any woman who alleges to have been subjected to any act of domestic violence by the offender or any person may file a complaint on her behalf.A child is also entitled to relief under the Domestic Violence Act.
- Complaint can be filed against Any adult male member who has been in a domestic relationship with the woman and Relatives of the husband or the male partner. Includes both male and female relatives of the male partner.
- Domestic Incident Report ( DIR)Upon receipt of a complaint of domestic violence, the Protection Officer or the Service Provider has to prepare a DIR in Form 1 (as provided in the Domestic Violence Act) and submit the same to the Magistrate and copies of the same to the police officer in charge of the concerned police station.
Types of Domestic Abuses
- “Physical Abuse” is any act or conduct which causes bodily pain, harm, or danger to life, limb, or health or impair the health or development of the aggrieved person. It also includes assault, criminal intimidation and criminal force.
- Sexual Abuse” is any sexual conduct that abuses, humiliates, degrades, or otherwise violates the dignity of a woman. The definition of sexual abuse is not exclusive in nature and hence time and again the courts have recognised other forms of sexual abuse, such as forced sexual intercourse, demands to indulge in oral sex or watch pornography.
- “Verbal and Emotional Abuse” includes insults, ridicule, humiliation, name calling especially with regard to not having a child or not having a male child and repeated threats to cause physical pain to any person whom the aggrieved is interested in. Verbal and Emotional abuse can also take place in several forms such as character assassination of the aggrieved woman, name calling, unwarranted comments regarding not bringing dowry, threatening to commit suicide as a method of coercion, preventing a woman to get married as per her choice etc.
- Lastly, “Economic Abuse” is depriving the aggrieved woman from all sorts of financial resources to which she is entitled to under any law or custom or legal order or which she requires out of necessity, such as for running the household, taking care of the children etc. It also includes alienation of the movable or immovable assets in which she has interest too, prohibiting the aggrieved woman or putting restriction on her to continue the use of resources or facilities. Courts have also interpreted not giving food to the aggrieved person, interfering with the aggrieved person’s ability to get an employment, forcing a woman to leave her job etc. as a form of economic abuse.
NCRB data
- The National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) 2019 reports that a majority (30.9%) of all the 4.05 lakh cases under crimes against women are registered under Section 498A of the Indian Penal Code (IPC). The section deals with ‘cruelty by husband or his relatives’. Activists say that the pandemic has made the situation much worse with women unable to find help to report intimate partner violence. The National Commission for Women (NCW) registered an increase of at least 2.5 times in domestic violence complaints since the nationwide lockdown.
