Domestic Violence Awareness Month: Is India Doing Enough?

Trigger Warning: Domestic violence 

In March this year, an official from the Haryana Forest Department in Pankula was convicted of three years of imprisonment for physically abusing his wife. However, the sentence came after three years of non-judicial actions. According to a report by The Hindustan Times, the complainant had registered a case of domestic violence way back in 2021. In her complaint, the wife told the police that her spouse was habitual of beating her and their children over trivial issues. The report also has a detailed history of her complaints claiming her spouse had a habit of creating terror in the house by igniting fire with insect spray and sanitiser. The following complaints were also registered in 2012. However, back then, the matter subsided. Unfortunately, nothing changed until 2024.

In a similar case, in the next month, April, another woman was reportedly flogged by a wooden stick by his husband in the Panchkula region of Haryana. The gruesome incident happened when the man saw his wife in a public park with another person. ‘My husband, along with three veiled men wearing masks came and thrashed the window of the car where I was sitting. He pushed me out of the vehicle and beat me with a wooden stick. The perpetrators also tried to fiercely take me away, but the people in the vicinity intervened,‘ said the survivor in the report.

Additionally, it is important to note that the woman was separated from her husband a year ago. According to the survivor, an FIR was registered against the perpetrators under multiple sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), namely- 34 (act done by multiple people with similar intention), 323 (voluntarily harming someone) and 506 (criminal intimidation). However, the following case of physical assault is still pending in the local court.

In May, Citizen Matters reported multiple cases of domestic violence/abuse in Tamil Nadu’s Chennai city where there are ongoing cases of resettlement. According to the report, in a resettlement area in Perumbakkam, Chennai – that lies in Chengalpattu district – a woman was assaulted by her husband which resulted in multiple serious injuries. Subsequently, a community worker accompanied the survivor to register an immediate FIR at the local police state, however, the police instructed them to go to the hospital and procure medical treatment that showed “evidence” to register a domestic violence case.

Unfortunately, Perumbakkam did not have 24×7 hospital services. The duo went to Semmenchery, a panchayat town for treatment. Nonetheless, a medical official denied treatment to the survivor, naming her as an “outpatient”. From there, the survivor, along with another woman, fled to a government hospital in Neelankarai, a locality in south Chennai. Here also she was denied treatment. Finally, from there the woman was asked to visit Government Royapettah Hospital for “treatment-related paperwork”.

In August, another brutality against a 28-year-old woman took place in Uttar Pradesh’s Firozabad district. An alcoholic husband reportedly hit, bit and inserted a rolling pin into his wife. She could not survive due to severe injuries. According to an autopsy conducted by the doctors, the young woman had several marks and scars all over her body. The perpetrator consecutively hit his wife using a stick due to which she had an ample number of marks on her body. The autopsy report shook the doctors as they wrote a huge ‘wooden rolling pin (belan) was inserted into the lady’s private body parts‘.

The object was reportedly found inside her large intestine. According to one of the doctors, ‘Belan was strongly inserted through the anus, which may have torn through the intramural organs to outreach the intestine.’ The lady could not resist the injuries and was declared dead at Firozabad trauma centre. The man, who reportedly was an alcoholic, was apprehended after he confessed the heinous crime to the district police. 

In September, another terrifying case of domestic violence was reported in Haryana’s Gurugram city where a husband gravely assaulted his wife, giving her dire injuries by stabbing her numerous times with scissors and an ice pick. Subsequently, the man took his wife in a car and left the latter at her maternal home. The incident was reported in Sector 111 of the Gurugram city. According to a report by The Hindustan Times, the woman’s condition was quite severe due to multiple stab bruises from scissors and an ice pick across her body. She is being treated at a Bahadurgarh hospital, the report added. On the other hand, the criminal, the husband, has been on the run ever since committing the monstrous crime and so far the state police have not been able to locate him. 

October: domestic violence awareness month

As India recognises October as Domestic Violence Awareness Month, it is important to scrutinise what is Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act 2005, and the actual status of women and domestic violence cases in the country. The act came into being on 26.October.2006. It was aimed to provide safety/protection to a wife or female or a relationship partner from any kind of violence – actual abuse or threat of abuse, physical, sexual, verbal, emotional, or economic – enforced by a husband or male, live-in partner or his kin. It also widens the safety and security of women who are sisters including adopted sisters and mothers. It further extended harassment by unlawful dowry importunity to the women or her household members under the ambit of domestic violence.

According to the National Commission for Women (NCW) a top national-level Indian institution with a mission to protect and promote the interests of women – as many as 12,600 complaints were registered in 2024 alone. The right to dignity and domestic violence category registered the highest number of complaints. According to the numbers released by a report in The Business Standard, the domestic violence category registered 3,544 cases, followed by the right to dignity – 3,107 complaints. Uttar Pradesh, India’s most populous state and Delhi, the national capital were reportedly among the two top states that recorded maximum cases of domestic violence and right to dignity. 

Contradicting verdicts by Indian judiciary on domestic violence 

The Delhi High Court in April this year said that the Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act, 2005, will be considered universal and will apply to all women irrespective of their religious choices or social position. The following ruling came as a response to a plea filed by a man and his family members dismissing an appellate court decision to restore a domestic violence case filed by his wife.

In the observation the court said, ‘Measure of social justice applicable to each woman irrespective of religious affiliation or social background.‘ On the contrary, the Supreme Court of India last month observed that domestic violence laws are most abused in India citing false accusations by women on their husbands and in-laws. The apex court put emphasis on Section 498 A of the IPC – husband or his household member of a woman subjecting her to cruelty – saying it has been a matter of critique for being “allegedly” violated. Similar concerns were reportedly raised the Bombay High Court, Kerala High Court and Jharkhand High Court. 

Verdicts vs reality

The verdict of the Indian judiciary does not justify the above-mentioned trail of domestic violence cases and its brutal extremity. It does not justify what any woman in an Indian household went through. It does not justify being denied justice and many have been either denied justice or are in a serpentine queue to acquire justice.

The examples statistically represent the ongoing situation of women in 2024 alone. The Indian judiciary system owes justice to all the survivors/victims of domestic violence and as we embark on the celebrations of Domestic Violence Awareness Month, it is critical to take a step back and pause for a minute to sense the dark reality of Indian household women.

FOR ANY WOMAN WITNESSING DOMESTIC VIOLENCE/INTIMATE PARTNER ABUSE:

• Shakti Shalini – women’s shelter – (011) 24373736/ 24373737
• National Commission for Women – 7827170170
• Also, reach out to – Domestic Abuse Help in India