THE PROTECTION OF WOMEN FROM DOMESTIC VIOLENCE ACT 2005

INTRODUCTION:- The Protection of Women from domestic violence Act 2005 is an Act of the Parliament of India enacted to protect women from domestic violence. It was brought into force by the Indian government from 26th October 2006. It is a civil law meant primarily for protection
orders and not for meant to be enforced. Women are bold to take initiative and she produce and nurture the progeny. In spite of multifarious qualities, women have rarely been treated at par with the men in the patriarchal system. Violence against women and girls has spread into a global epidemic. She is harassed physically, psychologically, sexually and economically. It is one of the most pervasive of human rights violations, denying women and girls, equality, security, dignity, self-worth, and their right to enjoy fundamental freedoms at par with men. Violence against women is present across the world cutting across boundaries of culture, class, education, income, ethnicity and age.

HISTORY OF DOMETIC VIOLENCE:– In the past, violence was typically seen as the simplest way husbands might lawfully ‘correct’ their wives. At identical time, male violence posed issues for structure, that I outline because the power of husbands and fathers over wives and youngsters (a specific type of male domination). Excessive force vulnerable the integrity of the family if the husband killed or seriously wounded the partner. Wives’ kin conjointly had an interest in protective them from injury. What is more, violence vulnerable the notion that wedding was supported love or a minimum of partnership and friendly relationship. The perfect patriarch was ready to management his partner while not losing his temper. Among the family, wives may well be each subordinate to their husbands and dominant over servants and youngsters. In some cultures and eras, that they had power and property in their title.

Women’s ability to induce facilitate for partner beating thus varied by rank, class, and region. At identical time, the books below review build it clear that once historians asses women’s standing and power in numerous areas and eras, we have a tendency to should take under consideration their vulnerability to violent husbands moreover as their management over property. Partner beating was apparently quite common within the ancient world, as wife Pomeroy recounts. Saint theologist remembered that wives typically bore the marks of blows, and his mother, Monica, with patience tolerated her husband’s violence.

However, it’s terribly tough to travel on the far side these anecdotal sources as a result of partner beating wasn’t subject to legal jurisdiction and, in any case, only a few court records survive. Pomeroy is just ready to address the problem as a result of a case of partner murder survives, that involves 2 distinguished families. The wife, Regilla, was from an awfully elite Roman family whereas her husband, Herodes, was Greek, wealthy, and socially connected. 

Before the 1970s, judges and law enforcement officials still saw partner beating as a trivial offense policemen would tell husbands to settle down and wives to prevent annoying them, and cases rarely came to court. Widespread culture delineated partner beating as a joke, and psychiatrists saw it as a pathology of the underprivileged or of individual ladies. In general, the matter was denied or explained away. In the 1970s, feminists documented the widespread incidence of partner beating and declared that it absolutely was not simply working-class husbands United Nations agency mistreated their wives, however all categories of men. They outlined partner beating collectively extreme in a very spectrum of male efforts to dominate ladies, and argued that rape was a criminal offense of violence, not sex. Feminists based shelters wherever ladies might take refuge, demanded that the police do additional to shield ladies, and advocated for battered ladies within the courts. The connected analyses of male domination and feminine victimization became additional advanced. Feminists started career battered ladies “survivors” to emphasize that they weren’t simply passive victims. However, social scientists also began to study violence, and a few researchers came up with the concept that girls committed domestic assaults within the same numbers as men (although the severity of the assaults wasn’t measured). Psychologists argued that battered ladies required therapeutic treatment.

FORMS OF DOMESTIC VIOLENCE :-

• Violence against women can be physical, sexual, psychological, and threat of physical or sexual violence. Physical violence includes acts of physical aggression such as slapping, hitting, kicking and beating. 
• India is considered to be the world’s most dangerous country for sexual violence against women. Rape is one the most common crimes in India. 
• Psychological abuse includes acts like intimidation, constant belittling, humiliating, nagging and various controlling behaviours such as isolating a person from their family and friends, monitoring their movements, and restricting their access to information or assistance. When abuse occurs repeatedly in the same relationship, it reduces into an act of “battering”. 

CAUSES OF DOMESTIC VIOLENCE :-

• There is no one single factor to account for violence perpetrated against women. 
• One of the reasons for it being so prevalent is the orthodox and idiotic mind set of the society that women are physically and emotionally weaker than the males. 
• The most common causes for women stalking and battering include dissatisfaction with the dowry and arguing with the partner, neglecting children, going out of home without telling the partner, not cooking properly or on time, indulging in extra marital affairs, not looking after in-laws etc. In some cases infertility in females also leads to their assault by the family members. 
• The greed for dowry, desire for a male child and alcoholism of the spouse are major factors of domestic violence against women in rural areas. There have been gruesome reports of young bride being burnt alive or subjected to continuous harassment for not bringing home the amount of demanded dowry.  

NEED FOR STRINGENT LAWS AND POLICE HEALTH CARE :-

• In 1983, domestic violence was recognised as a specific criminal offence by the introduction of section 498-A into the Indian Penal Code. 
• The Government of India passed a Domestic Violence Bill, 2001, “To protect the rights of women who are victims of violence of any kind occurring within the family and to provide for matters connected therewith or incidental thereto” 
• Unfortunately, at present there is no single law in the Indian Constitution which can strictly deal with all the different forms of ‘Domestic Violence’. There is an urgent need for such a law in the country. In fact, there has also been misuse of section 498-A and DVA, 2005 because of restricted definition of cruelty subjected to married women. 
• Police plays a major role in tackling the domestic violence cases. They need to be sensitized to treat domestic violence cases as seriously as any other crime.  Special training to handle domestic violence cases should be imparted to police force. There should be a separate wing of police dealing with women’s issues, attached to all police stations and should be excluded from any other duty.

SECTION USED IN DOMESTIC VIOLENCE FOR WOMENS:-

Section 498A is used for domestic violence for women, The extortion of any reasonably property by subjecting a lady to the cruelty is punishable below the section 498A of the Indian legal code. the harassment for a dowery falls at intervals the sweep of the latter limb of the Section and making a scenario driving the lady to kill is additionally one in all the ingredients of ‘a cruelty’. Husband or relative of a husband of a lady subjecting her to a cruelty. Whoever, being the husband or the relative of the husband of a lady, subjects a such lady to a cruelty shall be admonished with imprisonment for a term which can touch 3 years and shall even be susceptible to fine.

LANDMARK CASES OF DOMESTIC VIOLENCE FOR WOMEN:-  ARNESH KUMAR V. STATE OF BIHAR [X] (2014)

FACTS OF THESE CASE:- The wife was alleged that her in-laws demanded 8 lakh Rupees, a Maruti car, an air-conditioner etc. from her family. When her husband had got to know about these demands, he had supported his mother and threatened to marry another woman. It was also alleged that she was driven out of the matrimonial home due to non- fulfillment of the demand of dowry. Denying these allegations, the husband has filed an appeal for anticipatory bail before the Supreme Court.

JUDGMENT OF THESE CASES:- The Court has determined that since the section 498A could be an cognizable and non-bailable offense, ladies usually use it as a weapon instead of protect to harass her husband and his relatives. Sometimes, even the bedridden grandparents of the husband, their relatives are living abroad are brought beneath this provision on false allegations. The Court has arranged down sure pointers stating that arrest beneath this section should be created once reaching cheap satisfaction and once conducting a correct investigation on the genuineness of allegation. The adjudicator shall not order detention casually and automatically. The Court, therefore, granted tentative bail to the defendant.

CONCLUSION:- Conclusion having looked at a sensitive topic of “Domestic Violence in India”, we can sense the importance of discussion of such a topic. The varying causes which can spark the violence within the four walls of homes need to be analyzed carefully and a wise study of the factors causing the violence may prevent a family to suffer from the menace of domestic violence. The domestic violence may have a far wider and deeper impact in real life than what has been covered in this essay. What is required is to see closely the association of the factors provoking a particular form of domestic violence. If these factors can be controlled then more than one form of violence can be prevented from harming an individual or our society and India would be a much better place to live in.

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