A landmark new law seeking to protect women from domestic violence has come into effect in India.
The law also bans harassment by way of dowry demands and gives sweeping powers to a magistrate to issue protection orders where needed.
Punishment could range from a jail term of up to one year and/or a fine of up to 20,000 rupees ($450).
Every six hours, a young married woman is burned, beaten to death or driven to commit suicide, officials say.
Overall, a crime against women is committed every three minutes in India, according to India's National Crime Records Bureau.
Despite the scale of the problem, there had been no specific legislation to deal with actual abuse or the threat of abuse at home.
Domestic violence, under the new law, includes "actual abuse or the threat of abuse whether physical, sexual, emotional or economic," a statement from the federal ministry of women and child development said.
Wall of silence :
The law provides protection to the wife or live-in partner from violence at the hands of the husband or live-in partner or his relatives.
1.One crime against women every 3 minutes
2.One rape every 29 minutes
3.One dowry death case every 77 minutes
4.One case of cruelty by husband and relatives every 9 minutes
Source: National Crime Records Bureau
Besides physical violence, the law also covers forcing a wife or partner to look at pornography.
"We have been trying for long to protect women from domestic violence. In India alone, around 70% of women are victim of these violent acts in one or the other form," junior minister for women and child development Renuka Chowdhury told the Press Trust of India news agency.
Women's activists have welcomed the law, although many say it is not perfect.
They say a bill alone will not help in preventing domestic abuse; what is needed is a change in mind sets.
A survey by the International Institute for Population Studies showed 56% of Indian women believed wife beating to be justified in certain circumstances.
The reasons varied from going out without the husband's permission to cooking a bad meal.
Domestic abuse is often denied by the victims themselves.
In figures:
1. Bangalore has witnessed hundred cases of dowry-related complaints. Some were freshly bruised, others have been starved for days and some fear that their husbands or in-laws will burn or strangle them to death.
2. According to the National Family Health Survey, one in five married women in India experiences domestic violence from the age of 15.
3. A nationwide survey shows that 52 per cent of women suffer at least one incident of physical or psychological violence in their lifetime.
4. Every six hours, a young married woman is burned alive, beaten to death, or driven to commit suicide.
5. It is estimated that more than 15,000 women suffer from dowry-related violence ever year.
6. Rajasthan ranks sixth in the country in the arena of atrocities against women.
7. Kerala, the most literate state too is high on the graph of women abuse.
8. Independent women too are victims of domestic violence lately the case of Shweta Mahajan, a pilot married to Rahul Mahajan has come to the fore.
9. Of the women reporting violence, 50 percent were kicked, beaten or hit when pregnant. About 74.8 percent of the women who reported violence have attempted to commit suicide.
10. According to UN, two third married Indian women are victims of domestic violence.
"Compassion wherever there is suffering
Conviction that the compassion is strong enough to eliminate suffering
Courage to make this conviction a reality"
1 comment:
He always apologized, and sometimes he would even cry because of the bruises he'd made on my arms or legs or back. He would say that he hated what he'd done, but in the next breath tell me I'd deserved it.
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