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Monday, Jun 27, 2005

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Curbing domestic violence: inching forward

Poornima Advani

The need for spreading awareness about the draft Bill against Domestic Violence cannot be overemphasised.

THE UNION Cabinet's recent approval of the Bill against Domestic Violence is a step against assaults on women's most basic fundamental right, that is, the right to life. It is a year since the Bill was finalised by the Department of Women and Child Development (DWCD) for circulation among the various Ministries. This was preceded by wide-ranging consultations with women's organisations, activists and the National Commission for Women (NCW).

In fact the seed was sown as early as 1997-98 when the NCW forwarded its first draft to the Government. Several women's organisations across the country had campaigned for a comprehensive legislation to protect women from the daily threat of violence. This was in the context of the total inadequacy of the existing framework of criminal laws to deal with this form of violence that was both endemic and all-pervasive — cutting across all strata of society.

The Bill, which was tabled in Parliament in March 2001, got referred to the Standing Committee on Human Resource Development where it was analysed and debated at length both on its conceptual approach and the penal provisions for combating the menace. The resultant draft legislation was circulated by that department among various Ministries almost a year ago and it is a happy augury that it has at last received the nod of the Cabinet to be introduced in Parliament once again.

Domestic violence is the most pernicious and insidious form of violence prevalent in society. It is pernicious because it is directed against women who are supposed to carry the generation forward and goes against all canons of civilised behaviour. It is insidious because it takes place within the closed walls of the home, which is supposed to be the safe sanctuary for its occupants. The woman suffers in silence because of the social norms, on the one hand, and her economic dependence on the perpetrators of the violence, on the other. It is also a type of violence seen by everybody and yet not seen by anybody because even neighbours or relatives who know that the woman is being abused would not intervene because it is a domestic matter. It is this seeing and yet unseeing attitude which makes even the existing laws inoperative because the courts would rather not peer into what happens inside a home.

The draft Bill is an improvement on the previous versions. Firstly, its definition is comprehensive covering not only actual abuse but also the threat of abuse, that is, physical, sexual, verbal, emotional or economic.

Harassment by way of unlawful dowry demands to the woman or her relatives would also be covered by this definition. One of the most important features of the Bill is the women's right to secure housing. The Bill provides for the women's right to reside in the matrimonial or shared household, whether or not she has any title or rights in the household.

Moreover, the Bill also seeks to cover those women who are or have been in a relationship with the abuser where both parties have lived together in a shared household and are related by consanguinity, marriage (not necessarily legal) or a relationship in the nature of marriage, or adoption. In addition, relationships with family members living together as a joint family are also included. What this means is that even those women who are sisters, widows, mothers, single women, or living with the abuser are entitled to legal protection.

The draft Bill provides for appointment of protection officers and NGOs to provide assistance to the woman in regard to medical examination, legal aid, safe shelter, etc. The reliefs envisaged under the Bill also include the power of the court to pass protection orders that prevent the abuser from aiding or committing an act of domestic violence or any other specified act, entering a work place or any other place frequented by the abused, attempting to communicate with the abused, etc.

A great advance for the women's cause. But only two cheers are called for at this stage. The Bill has yet to go before Parliament.

Languishing Bills

Other Bills concerning women have been languishing in the House, most notably the Women's Reservation Bill. Many other Bills have been mauled or made toothless. In the give and take of legislative bargaining where real or imaginary fears have been played up to tone down various salutary provisions of draft legislation, one only hopes that the domestic violence Bill having been approved by the Cabinet would be taken up by the two Houses in the coming monsoon session and would be passed with all its protective provisions intact.

Let us also remember that legislation is only part of the battle, particularly in relation to social problems whether they relate to gambling or drinking.

Even more so when the legislation relates to women where centuries of social conditioning result in desultory enforcement at every level — investigative, prosecutive and judicial. One cannot overemphasise the need for spreading awareness about the contemplated law among its proposed beneficiaries, on the one hand, and the sensitisation of the entire administrative machinery, the police as well as the courts, on the other.

The Child Marriage Restraint Act and the Dowry Prohibition Act have been in the statute book for decades and the evils they are supposed to combat continue unabated. Dowry Prohibition Officers have been provided by the law but it has made no dent in the incidence of this social evil. Let us only hope that the protection officers contemplated in the new proposed law would be able to perform their functions more effectively and given the support of the NGOs and the community, the soaring graphs of domestic violence would decline. May we also hope that the Women's Reservation Bill will also be taken up for consideration in the coming session. If passed, that will call for a big hurrah for women's rights because adequate representation for women in the House would pave the way for more gender sensitive legislation and administration.

(The writer is a former chairperson of the National Commission for Women.)

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