Women Safety, Domestic Violence and Why do women hesitate to speak up?

As India celebrated its 72nd Republic day this year, one would have to think where do we stand as humans in a Republic, Independent and Democratic country like India?

When it comes to right to safety of women in India, our social norms, constitutional rights and laws laid down by the constitution of India are still far from addressing women’s safety and need to eradicate domestic violence as these laws have loop holes or their implementation on ground lacks effectiveness. 

Amongst Indian women their awareness of their exclusive rights provided to them by law, is shockingly low. List of some of these rights can be broadly categorized as constitutional and legal rights.

Those guaranteed by the Constitution rights include:

·      Right to Equality, 

·      No discrimination in employment on the ground of sex, to secure adequate means of livelihood, 

·      Equal pay for equal work,

·      Securing just and humane conditions of work and 

·      Maternity relief 

On the other hand, legal rights that are available to women in the form of prevailing law or enactments in the country are:

·      Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act.

·      Immoral Traffic (Prevention) Act.

·      Indecent Representation of Women (Prohibition) Act.

·      Dowry Prohibition Act.

·      Maternity Benefit Act.

·      Medical Termination of Pregnancy Act.

·      Pre-Conception and Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques (Prohibition of Sex Selection) Act.

·      Equal Remuneration Act.

·      Family Courts Act.

·      Legal Services Authorities Act.

·      Hindu Marriage Act.

·      Hindu Succession Act.

·      Minimum Wages Act.

·      Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act.

·      Women have the right to register virtual complaints.

·      Women have the right to get free legal aid.

Statistics show that:

·      World Health Organization estimates that about 1 in 3 (35%) of women worldwide have experienced either physical and/or sexual intimate partner violence or non-partner sexual violence in their lifetime. 

·      While it’s hard to put a price on the emotional and physical impact of violence on women’s health and well-being, research suggests the cost of violence against women each year is around US$1.5 trillion– that’s an estimated 2% of global GDP.

·      The importance of protecting women’s rights is recognised in the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), particularly those on Gender Equality (SDG 5) and Decent Work and Economic Growth (SDG 8).

According to the latest data by the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), one rape has happened for every 16 minutes and 88 rape cases are recorded every day in India in 2019. The total number of cases reported in the year 2019 was 32,033. 

In 2020, the domestic violence complaints registered by women was 1477, between 25th March to 31st May 2020. The 68-day period, recorded highest complaints compared to March and May in the last 10 years. 

But even this unusual spurt is only the tip of the iceberg as 86% women who experience domestic violence do not seek help in India. (The Hindu, (Vignesh Radhakrishnan, 2020)) and 77% of the victims did not even mention the incident(s) to anyone. (The Hindu, (Vignesh Radhakrishnan, 2020))

Among the 14.3% of victims who sought help, only 7% reached out to relevant authorities — the police, doctors, lawyers or social service organisations. But more than 90% of the victims sought help only from their immediate family.” (Vignesh Radhakrishnan, 2020)

REASONS WHY THERE WERE MORE VIOLENCE ON WOMEN:

1.     Low representation of women in workforce: A common stereotype in most people is that women cannot handle the situation better or not able to make decisions quickly. Restricting women to pursue education, jobs and entering diverse fields limits them. This has added to women’s status as weaker & inferior and in turn assumed to be submissive.

2.     Too long to get the result: According to National Judicial Data Grid (NJDG), there were around 3.7 million cases are pending in the courts. Researchers say that it will take 466 years to clear the pending cases. According to the India Justice Report 2019, the average takes to get a judgment for a case was 5 years. 

3.     A challenging route to justice : The Indian constitution has too many laws and sections, its language and formulation is overwhelming for a common person to be aware off.

4.     Societal stigma: Women have reported that a major contributor to such practices is societal stigma that impacts the dignity of women and their families. As a result it restricts women’s movement, participation and their voices to express themselves.

SOME OF THE DIRECT CAUSES OF VIOLENCE TOWARDS WOMEN VERSUS TRIGGERS THAT LEAD TO VIOLENCE TOWARDS WOMEN: (Amrita Nandy, 2020)

What is the solution? 

1.     Equal representation of women in key roles such as:

a.     Leadership roles in Government, Corporates and Social Institutions.

b.     Equal representation in policy formulation roles, policy implementation roles and legal representation etc.   

2.     Generating awareness at an early age among young women and girls about their rights. 

3.     Educating boys and young men as well on gender rights, respecting women, and gender equality.

4.     Inclusion of communities and designing programs to generate awareness among community members of society to advocate for women safety and security to fight this social injustice. As collective understanding and effort will lead to shift in mindsets and lead to behaviour change through our social institutions. 

5.     Some of the steps, government, NGO's and other organizations can take are introducing subjects like the importance of women & laws related to women in the educational syllabus from schooling, conducting awareness programs at public places and workplaces.

6.     Spreading awareness of already existing recourses like police helpline-181, Sakhi centres, women in distress pension, police station women help desk.

Domestic Violence and abuse is a societal ailment and we are all responsible and accountable for eradicating it. Educating our children to be respectful, strong against injustice, not to be cowered and to ‘adjust’, to speak up against violence, and to extend help to victims where possible. We all have a role to play.