Domestic Violence Situation in India
Introduction:
- According to a recent analysis of more than 4 lakh FIRs in Haryana, women face discrimination throughout the legal system, from registering FIRs to being found guilty.
- When women come to Majlis, they face severe forms of domestic abuse: verbal abuse, which includes degrading remarks made about their appearance, education, cooking abilities, etc.; sexual abuse, which includes forced and non-consensual sex; physical abuse, which includes beatings with an object, head banging, strangulation, kicking, etc.; economic abuse, which includes not giving money, taking it away from them forcibly, and asking them to get more from their parents, etc.
Crucial information:
- Every year there is a rise in crimes committed against women. According to a 2015 National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) report, dowries in India claim the lives of 21 women per day.
- In 2019, 4 lakh cases were reported under Section 498A of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), according to the NCRB report.
- According to the National Family Health Survey 5 (2019–20), 6% of women between the ages of 18 and 49 reported having suffered sexual assault in their lifetime, and 30% of women between the ages of 18 and 49 reported having experienced physical abuse starting at age 15—that is, over 20 crore women.
Section 498A of the IPC:
- There are several laws in place to combat the horrific violence women endure at home. In 1983, Section 498A of the Indian Penal Code was enacted to address the issue of a significant number of women passing away at home.
- This is not to argue that women had no legal protections before this. The IPC’s Sections 319 to 338 address attacks and various forms of serious harm. However, the police declined to adopt these broad guidelines in domestic abuse situations.
- Thus, it was necessary to include a specific section. One section of Section 498A IPC deals with subjecting any woman to cruelty (either mental or physical) of a kind that puts her life, limb, or health in jeopardy or is likely to push her to commit suicide. The illegal demand for any kind of property or valued security is covered in the other section.
Police reluctance to file formal complaints:
- It is shocking that even in cases of severe domestic violence, forty years later, the police still refuse to submit formal complaints. The police are in charge of keeping track of crimes and looking into cases.
- What are you going to accomplish by filing a criminal complaint? We cannot just file a FIR without speaking to both parties; the case will take a long time and you won’t get anything; we can’t file a case in family matters, go to court. On the other hand, burking, or refusing to record FIRs, is done with a sense of righteousness when it comes to domestic violence cases.
- Although the police’s lack of interest in filing formal complaints in situations of domestic abuse is a result of a patriarchal mentality, the influence of derogatory remarks made by the Supreme Court and other high courts cannot be ignored.
- A cursory search on Section 498A on the internet yields a plethora of blogs featuring commentary from the judiciary regarding the legal misapplications by women. Sensationalising the situation has also been greatly aided by the media.
Current instance:
- “There is a phenomenal increase in matrimonial disputes in recent years and it appears that in many cases, the object of Section 498A IPC is being misused and the said section is used as weapon rather than shield by disgruntled wives,” the Jharkhand High Court declared in the recent case of Rakesh and Reena Rajput v. The State of Jharkhand.
Way Forward:
- However, the police appear to be to blame for these mistakes, if any, rather than the woman. The victim’s statement is recorded, the case is looked into, and the chargesheet is filed by the police.
- The woman was blamed by the court, who then made the generalisation that “women are abusing the law” rather than criticising the police and magistrate for their mistakes.
- Such remarks will only help to dash the dreams of women approaching the legal system to address the grave issue of domestic abuse and send a harmful message to all implementing authorities.
