Women and Domestic Violence
WOMEN AND DOMESTIC VIOLENCE
Since the 1990s, there has been increasing concern about violence against women in general and domestic violence in particular, in both developed and developing countries. Domestic violence occurs in all socioeconomic and cultural population subgroups; and in many societies, including in India, women are socialized to accept, tolerate, and even rationalize domestic violence and to remain silent about such experiences. Violence of any kind has a negative impact on the economy of a country through increased disability, medical costs however, because women bear the brunt of domestic violence, they disproportionately bear the health and psychological burdens as well. Victims of domestic violence are abused inside what should be the most secure environment—their own homes—and usually by the persons they trust most.
Domestic violence was recognized as a criminal offence in India in 1983. The offence chargeable under section 498-A of the Indian Penal Code that relates to domestic violence is any act of cruelty by a husband (or his family) towards his wife. However, until recently, there was no separate civil law addressing the specific complexities associated with domestic violence, the need for protection and maintenance of abused women, and the fact that punishment and imprisonment for the husband may not be the best resolution in every case. Accordingly, after a decade-long process of consultations and revisions, a comprehensive domestic violence law, known as the Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act 2005, took effect in 2006. This act does not restrict domestic relationship to the marital context only but have given new dimensions to domestic relationship as it is defined in broader terms as domestic relationship means a relationship between two persons who live or have, at any point of time, lived together in a shared household, when they are related by consanguinity, marriage, or through a relationship in the nature of
Since the 1990s, there has been increasing concern about violence against women in general and domestic violence in particular, in both developed and developing countries. Domestic violence occurs in all socioeconomic and cultural population subgroups; and in many societies, including in India, women are socialized to accept, tolerate, and even rationalize domestic violence and to remain silent about such experiences. Violence of any kind has a negative impact on the economy of a country through increased disability, medical costs however, because women bear the brunt of domestic violence, they disproportionately bear the health and psychological burdens as well. Victims of domestic violence are abused inside what should be the most secure environment—their own homes—and usually by the persons they trust most.
Domestic violence was recognized as a criminal offence in India in 1983. The offence chargeable under section 498-A of the Indian Penal Code that relates to domestic violence is any act of cruelty by a husband (or his family) towards his wife. However, until recently, there was no separate civil law addressing the specific complexities associated with domestic violence, the need for protection and maintenance of abused women, and the fact that punishment and imprisonment for the husband may not be the best resolution in every case. Accordingly, after a decade-long process of consultations and revisions, a comprehensive domestic violence law, known as the Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act 2005, took effect in 2006. This act does not restrict domestic relationship to the marital context only but have given new dimensions to domestic relationship as it is defined in broader terms as domestic relationship means a relationship between two persons who live or have, at any point of time, lived together in a shared household, when they are related by consanguinity, marriage, or through a relationship in the nature of