By Nasiruddin Haider Khan, special to TwoCircles.net
A series on domestic violence in India
No, if you are a gender sensitive man, you don’t have to worry at all. Yes, but those who are not sensitive, inconsiderate, unsupportive or inhuman towards the female members of their family, have to worry. Either they should change their outlook, perspective, attitude and behavior that cause the indignity to womenfolk of their family or otherwise, be ready to face the consequences of their “masculine” deeds. This is what the new law is designed for. It is for “the protection of women from domestic violence”.
The law “The Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act” is now almost a year old. However hardly anybody knows actually what is defined as domestic violence. Our social conditioning makes us assume that violence is a physical injury inflicted upon someone. However, from a human rights and gender perspective, violence and specifically domestic violence have many forms and layers beyond physical injury. These include various manifestations and stages of violence.
This law is unique in the sense that it is civil in nature. It is not a criminal law. In my view, the very purpose of the law is (1) to provide civil remedy to the aggrieved person/s (2) to use it as a deterrent to the abusive person (3) to provide immediate relief to victims i.e. right to reside in the same house etc. and (4) to change the attitude of males towards their female household members.
One fact is worth mentioning. Who is the aggrieved person? Who does the law want to protect from domestic violence? Who needs protection through this law? Whenever we talk about domestic violence, the discussion is centered on wives. There is a general impression that only wives suffer from domestic violence, and they need to be protected from abuse. So when someone talks about domestic violence, it is assumed that the victim is a wife. But the law views domestic relationships differently. It is very elaborate, considerate and encompasses all types of domestic relationships.
It is for the protection of all women and children related to an abusive male. According to the act, an “aggrieved person” is any woman who is or has been in a domestic relationship with the respondent and who has been subjected to any act of domestic violence by the respondent.” And it also includes children in the relationship i.e. “any person below the age of eighteen years and includes adopted, step or foster child.” It means the ‘woman’ who can approach this law for protection include mothers, sisters, sisters in laws, wife, daughters, widows, children including boys and any woman who is in a “live-in” relationship.
According to the law, domestic violence encompasses- (a) Verbal and emotional abuse (b) Physical abuse (c) Sexual abuse (d) Economic abuse (f) Abuse related to the dowry. But the question remains, what is the meaning of these terms? If we go by the law, in lay man terms it has a broad spectrum of meaning. We will try to see the meaning of each type of violence one by one-
(a) The most common form of violence is Verbal and Emotional Abuse. This is the violence that is very hard to quantify in terms of data and even hard to recognize its physical manifestation. It is a silent killer and is the most dangerous form of violence. It includes, ridicule, name calling, accusations on character or conduct, insults for not bringing dowry, insults for not having a child or male child, demeaning, humiliating or undermining remarks, statements, forcing not to attend school, college, or any other educational institutions, preventing from taking a job, preventing from leaving the house, preventing from meeting a particular person, forcing to get married against ones will, preventing from marrying a person of ones own choice, forcing someone to marry a person of someone else’s choice, repeated threat to cause physical pain to any person in whom the aggrieved person (female and children) is interested and any other verbal abuse etc.
(b) According to the act, “Physical abuse means any act or conduct which is of such a nature as to cause bodily pain, harm, or danger to life, limb or health or impair the health or development of an aggrieved person. It includes assault, criminal intimidation and criminal force.”
(c) Sexual Violence also has a broad meaning. It includes, forced sexual intercourse, forced to watch pornography or other obscene material, forcibly using members of the family to entertain others and any other act of sexual nature i.e. abusing humiliating, degrading or otherwise violating the dignity of the victim.
(d) The hardest abuse to define is Economic abuse. Sometimes, one is surprised to hear about this. They ask, what does it really mean? Does any violence of such nature really exist? The answer is, yes, it does. As the law defines, this includes, not providing money for maintenance to women or her children, not providing food, clothes, medicine etc, forcing women and children out of the house where they live in, preventing or obstructing them from using any part of the house, preventing or obstructing them from carrying on employment, not allowing to take up employment, non payment of rent in case of rented accommodation, not allowed to use clothes or article of general household use, selling or pawning stridhan or any other valuable without informing the women and without her consent, disposing of Stridhan, forcibly taking away her salary, income, or wages etc, non payment of other bills such as electricity, water etc and any other form economic violence.
(e) Dowry related harassment or abuse includes, demands for dowry or any other abuse of such nature related to dowry.
As we saw, in this law the definition of domestic violence has been broadened. It has encompassed all forms of violence faced by a woman and a child within the ‘sacred walls’ of a home. Till now, we had a strong disagreement on the recognition of such types of violence. Even after the law came into force, people still do not agree on the above mentioned form of violence. However it does exist. It exists in many families and we have to recognize it and we have to eliminate the fear of violence from these families, and we have to accept woman as human creature.
This law is historic too in the sense that it is the first civil law which deals with the family sphere and applies to all the citizens of India irrespective of their religion, caste and class. In a sense, it is a historic step towards the gender sensitive law for the protection of the rights and dignity of women of this country. It is a step towards a gender sensitive law to all the women of this country irrespective of religion.
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Nasiruddin Haider Khan, a Hindi language journalist, got HPI fellowship for working on the rights of the Muslim Women. He also writes a blog www.dhaiakhar.blogspot.com in Hindi.