LIVING IN FEAR

“Women stay because the fear of leaving is far greater than the fear of staying, but they will leave when the fear of staying is far greater than the fear of leaving.” - Anonymous
Kiran Chawla (name changed) was married for four years. Every night her husband came back home, drunk. He often slapped her, pulled her hair and even threatened to kill her. One year after marriage, she thought things might change for the better when she gave birth to a son. But the violence continued, harming even her child. She got herself a divorce. She now lives with her son, but continues to be haunted by memories of times she narrowly escaped death at the hands of her husband.
Domestic violence causes far more pain than the visible marks of physical abuse. It is devastating to be abused by someone you love. For many years, women have silently suffered severe atrocities at the hands of men fearing they would otherwise be condemned and ostracized by society. Unfortunately, most women accept this as their destiny and forego their right to raise their voice against this malpractice committed against them. The lack of an appropriate justice system only aggravated their agony.
The Domestic Violence Act addresses various issues related to women and domestic violence. This Act came into existence when the Lawyers Collective released their report “Staying Alive” in 2005, which highlighted the enormity of the physical, mental and sexual abuse that women face in their domestic sphere.
This act is unique in many ways. It clearly identifies violence as emotional, physical, sexual and economical. Moreover, the act does not restrict itself to domestic relations in the marital context but also extends itself to live in relationships, relationships in the nature of adoption and joint family. Most importantly, it is victim oriented and does not aim to penalize the perpetrators of violence through fines or imprisonments, but only when they do not follow the dictates of the court. It also addresses matters related to custody of children and entitles the mother to legitimate custody of the child if he or she is less than five years of age.
Priyanka Sarkar, Communications and Knowledge Manager, PACS Program, points out: “The evidence of physical violence can be erased easily and so it becomes difficult to put up a case on these grounds. Therefore these cases are put on fast track so that justice is imparted to victims in time. For this reason, the government has also appointed various NGOs that help in settling matters outside the court by mediating between family members and the victims.”
Factors like social stigma and invasion of private domestic life still play in the minds of women and so they hesitate to file a case under the DV Act. A lot of the women simply resort to the act as a way to avoid filing a divorce. Even though at times matters have been settled in the court, the husband has refused to pay monetary compensation to his wife or provide for an appropriate shelter for her to live in post separation. The absence of follow ups after initial outcomes and counseling, reduced the faith that women had in the Ac t. As a result of these factors, a lot of the efforts ended in failures.