Last summer I was interning at women’s commission of a particular state and I met this woman working there as staff of commission who also happened to be once a victim of domestic violence. She said to me, “I own my life and I help others to own theirs”. This was such a powerful line. When I further interacted with her, I came to know that behind her gentle smile was someone who has overcome the trauma of domestic violence from which only few people bounce back. Only thing I was glad of in our whole conversation was that she didn’t wore the smile, rather she had genuine one which was by-produced from legally aiding women like her.
Albeit the cases of domestic violence and abuse are registered generally from lower and middle class, the inhumane act is inflicted in upper class too. The signs of domestic violence are not always obvious and a lot of females don’t file complain that they are being abused. The prominent reasons I assume for not reporting same is patriarchy, shame and guilt. The secondary reason that creep in their minds is how will they prove domestic violence.
According to the National Family Health Survey (NHFS-4) released by Union health ministry, every third women, since the age of 15 has faced domestic violence of various forms in the country. Most of the times the inflictors of this violence have been the husbands. The survey has also found that 31% of married women have experienced physical, sexual or emotional violence by their spouses. The most common type of spousal violence is physical violence (27%), followed by emotional violence (13%). The survey did not even mention economic abuse as domestic violence in India; even though that is a significant type of abuse among domestic violence victims in India.
Despite the above data we do have beacon of hope pertinent to this atrocity in form THE PROTECTION OF WOMEN FROM DOMESTIC VIOLENCE Act,2005. The guidelines state that a victim must be informed about her right to choose her future course of action and that she must be guided with regard to her legal rights under the aforesaid act.
