The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : Focus on domestic violence

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Jun 30, 2006

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

Focus on domestic violence

Staff Reporter

State-level workshop demands simplified format for filing complaints

CHENNAI: Although The Protection of women from Domestic Violence Act - 2005 was introduced a year ago, there are no rules and regulations formulated yet for implementing the act.

Ekta, a Madurai-based resource centre for women, along with the Centre for World Solidarity, organised a state level workshop from June 27 to June 28.

A. Kamila, director, gender programming, CWS, said, "The workshop is part of a national lobby. We have been discussing what problems could arise from clauses in the Act and recommending rules and regulations." For instance, the Act says that a protection officer should be appointed. Women's groups and activists say that this protection officer should be a woman and suggested that a team be appointed instead of one person.

They also said that every district should have its own jurisdiction committee, as a centralised system won't be as effective. The committee should consist of a revenue division officer, a psychologist and a woman activist. The recommendations also included a simplified format for filing a complaint. There was also the question on which section the Act should come under - Woman and Child Welfare, the Law Ministry or Social Justice department.

The workshop was attended by NGOs from 17 districts, women's organisation representatives, activists, advocates, councillors and researchers.

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