In 2005 a Domestic Violence Act came into effect in India. It is questionable, however, actually how much effect it is having. At the training the Police Commissioner (who oversees all 14 police stations in Baroda) did not know the imprisonment terms according to the Act. Furthermore, the NGOs, organisations specialising in women’s rights and issues, who were to deliver the training could not provide this information.
Runki, a counsellor at Olakh, explains the training.
From the session I learned that the family in Indian society is so strong that it hinders police intervention into cases such as domestic violence. A case maybe filed against a husband or in-laws but then the woman, who has been vicitimsed or abused, will make a compromise within her family. With no longer grounds for the case the police cannot take any further action. Also, they are often not even informed that a compromise has been made.
I wonder about the nature of these compromises that are made within families. How much is the woman pressured into not returning to the police? How much is she bullied into not speaking out about how the violence that she suffers?
I think in many ways this is a global problem. Either through fear, a feeling of being beholden to a family, or something else, women (and sometimes men) do not seek justice for the abuse against them. They are subject to domestic abuse that is not dealt with in the same was as non-domestic abuse by society and in some cases the authorities as well.