New protection against domestic violence in India

A progressive law has emboldened thousands of women to exercise their legal option to leave harmful marriages.

from the March 8, 2007 edition

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The Bureau registers a case of cruelty by husbands and relatives every nine minutes, and one dowry-death case every 77 minutes. In 2005, a UN Population Fund Report found that 70 percent of married women in India between ages 15 and 49 were victims of beating, rape, or forced sex.

"A woman subject to domestic violence [was] afraid to seek remedies to end the violence – in law or otherwise – for fear of being evicted from her household or being denied access to funds necessary to maintain herself and her children," says Mandeep Tiwana, from the Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative in New Delhi.

Despite the useful provisions, challenges remain in the law's implementation. Activists have expressed concern that India's police force and the general public are not well-informed enough to tap the law's provisions.

In widely publicized past cases, the police have ignored reports of domestic abuse.

The law also has its detractors among men's rights groups, who have called it one-sided and vulnerable to fraud.

"The law assumes that only women are abused," says R.P. Chugh, a lawyer who heads Man-Cell, a men's rights group. "I get a number of complaints from husbands who are frustrated with their wives' atrocities. Women take undue advantage of such strict laws."

Even before the new law came into force, says Mr. Chugh, there were widespread reports of misuse of another law meant to protect women from dowry- related crimes. In 2005, India's Supreme Court termed such fraud "legal terrorism" and urged lawmakers to introduce requisite legal safeguards. Those changes are still being considered.

To make such laws egalitarian, some lawyers suggest replacing "husband" or "wife" with "spouse" in all related laws.

Despite a few flaws, say lawyers like Ms. Jaisingh, crimes against women have always been dramatically higher than those against men.

"The aim of this law isn't to go against men," she says. "It's to stop violence in homes."

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