Article By: HASHIM AK, BBA LLB HONS STUDENT, GOVERNMENT LAW COLLEGE KOZHIKODE
Abstract
The Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act (PWDVA), 2005, is a landmark legislation in India addressing domestic violence as a social issue, offering legal protection against physical, emotional, sexual, and economic abuse. It grants women rights to residence, protection orders, monetary relief, and access to support services. However, its implementation faces challenges such as lack of awareness, social stigma, inadequate infrastructure, judicial delays, and patriarchal attitudes. Overcoming these barriers requires a collaborative effort from the government, civil society, and judiciary to raise awareness, improve resources, and challenge societal norms. A holistic approach is essential to ensure the Act’s effectiveness and create a society where women can live with dignity and safety.
Keywords – Protection , Women, Domestic violence
Introduction
Domestic violence cuts across geographical, cultural, and socio-economic boundaries. It violates rights and is a significant hindrance to gender equality. For India, the landmark legislation was the Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act, 2005[i], enacted in order to deal with the serious challenge of safeguarding women who are victims of domestic violence within a family. This new law was enacted to save women from physical, emotional, sexual, and economic abuse so that they may live with dignity and security. This act is the first step toward the recognition of domestic violence as a social issue and not a private problem, providing women with legal means to redress and protection. Though the framework of the Act is revolutionary, the effective implementation faces various hurdles.
Legal Frameworks
The PWDVA, 2005, is an omnibus legislation that broadly defines domestic violence and would not be restricted to just physical violence but also emotional, verbal, sexual, and economic. It gives women a right to reside in the shared household, orders for protection, residence, monetary relief, and an order of custody. Important aspects of the Act include:
- Definition of Domestic Violence: According to section 3[ii] of the Act, domestic violence would mean any act, omission, or conduct that physically, sexually, verbally, emotionally, and/or economically harms, injures, or endangers the health, safety, or well-being of a woman. These are related to women’s rights, whether married or not, towards protection from abuses by a male partner in a domestic relationship, husband, father, or any other relative.
- Right to Reside: Section 17[iii] of the Act gives a right to reside in the shared household to a woman even though she has no legal title to the property. This is an extremely important provision so that women cannot be evicted from their homes. The court can make residence orders such that the woman cannot be turned out of the shared household or to repossess possession over the household in case she is thrown out so that her right to a dignified living environment is secured.
- Protection Orders: Section 18[iv] of the PWDVA states that the court may pass a protection order according to which no act of domestic violence shall be done by the abuser, nor shall the abuser enter the shared household or workplace or communicate with the victim.
- Monetary Relief: Section 20[v] of the Act provides monetary relief for the costs incurred by reason of domestic violence, which may include medical costs, loss of earnings, and damage to property. The court can also make compensation to the abuser on account of the damage caused due to the violence or harassment.
- Child Custody Orders: Section 21[vi] allows the court to give a temporary child custody order in favour of the victim, ensuring the safety and well-being of children. The court may grant visitation rights to the abuser but would be sure that such visitation would not harm the safety and well-being of the concerned children.
- Protection Officers: The Act provides for the appointment of protection officers so that they could guide the victims in filing complaints, medical aid, and legal aid.
- Service Providers: This Act has also provided for the establishment of service providers such as NGOs and social welfare organisations which would provide legal aid, shelter, and counselling to the victims of domestic violence. Further, the Act also empowered police officers to assist women to file complaints and give them immediate protection.
- Orders for Medical Treatment and Counselling : The Act further provides sections for medical treatment and counseling of the victims. There is an attempt to enable the woman to regain her lost physical, emotional, and psychological strength she had due to the effects of violence and abuse.
Challenges
The implementation of the PWDVA, 2005, has been somewhat challenging. In fact, several challenges are present based on the socio-cultural, institutional, as well as the systemic reasons for trivialising great work that is done by this Act. Most of the key ones are:
- Lack of Awareness: Women, mostly from rural areas, are unaware of their rights under the PWDVA. In the absence of awareness, women are deprived of legal remedies and protection offered to them.
- Social Stigma: There is silence about domestic violence due to social stigma and fear of society. Women do not file reports regarding such crimes as they are afraid of being ostracised and retaliated against by families and communities.
- Lack of Good Infrastructure: Adequate infrastructure includes protection officers to be appointed, the construction of shelters, and providing legal aid within the administration of the Act. Such a solid infrastructure for enforcing the Act does not exist in many states.
- Judicial Delays: India has a clogged judicial system, which goes very slow in processing cases. Such protection orders and relief measures also take such a long time to be issued that they complicate the sufferings of the victim and make her fearful of approaching courts.
- Stakeholders Not Trained Sufficiently: Most law enforcers, judges, and protection officers have not received proper training on the PWDVA. The result is a weak and no-occasion-to-avail themselves at the hands of insensitive officials.
- Economic Dependence: Women are economically dependent on their abusers, making it difficult for them to leave the abuse or seek legal recourse. Provisions for monetary relief under the Act often prove inadequate to meet the long-term economic needs of the victim.
- Cultural norms and patriarchal attitudes: The major hurdling obstacles to the effective functioning of the Act are deep-seated patriarchal attitudes and cultural norms that allow or trivialise domestic violence. Such attitudes can influence the behaviour of law enforcement officers, judges, and even family members to not support the victim.
- Victim Blaming and Gender Stereotyping: Victims of domestic violence suffer from a mindset of gender prejudging and victim blaming, which keeps them away from legal protection in such situations. Women complainants are questioned regarding their comportment or blemishes that contribute to unwanted behaviour on the part of women if they abstain from further help. An aspect in which society downplays less glaring types of violence by being psychologically and economically abusive, but the victim finds no proper solution.
- Lack of Legal Counselling and Advice: Access to legal counseling and advice-the two integral constituents of the PWDVA-have been relatively smaller, especially of the marginalized class. A much greater proportion of such victims still remains denied since they are deprived of access due to inaccessible geographic regions with barely any possibility of finding law experts or even social workers around to advise her in regard to the making of complaints through PWDVA. Even some economic restrictions lead to a lot of females not being able to receive qualitative legal advice from qualified legal advisers and counselling.
Conclusion
One landmark legislation to handle the very serious problem of domestic violence in India has been the Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act, 2005. Though it is one of the largest frameworks that allowed legal protection with remedies for a woman to exit the abusive scenario and live with all her dignity, there is a huge amount of such barriers like unconsciousness, societal stigma, nonexistence of even the basic structures, and rigid traditional customs that hamper its practical implementation.
What is required is a three-pronged effort from the government, civil society, and the judiciary to overcome the obstacles. It calls for awareness building toward the Act, developing infrastructure, training all stakeholders, and directing society against patriarchal attitudes that will bring PWDVA, 2005, into being. Only by a holistic and inclusive approach shall we be able to create a society free of the scourge of domestic violence so that women, along with all others, may live with the dignity and respect to which they are entitled.
[i] Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act, 2005
[ii] Section 3, Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act, 2005
[iii] Section 17, Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act, 2005
[iv] Section 18, Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act, 2005
[v] Section 20, Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act, 2005
[vi] Section 21, Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act, 2005
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