Domestic Violence Act - Is it really worth?

Women have always been accorded highest pedestal of respect and reverence in our society. No matter, history is replete with umpteen number of violence cases against women. Myriad attempts have been made to ensure them happy, contended, respectful and a secure life. “Frailty thy name is women” does not hold much ice in today’s genre. Our society has already witnessed spate of acts, which were enacted to strengthen women’s position in our society. Dowry Act, Sharda Act of the past and latest Domestic Violence Act 2005 which came into effect from 26th Oct 2006. One of most compelling reasons to conceptualize this act was the fact that more than 70% women in India are victim of domestic violence. Shouting at wife for whatever reasons, compelling her to watch porn movie together, forced intercourse, physical violence like slapping, hitting, kicking, pushing etc all comes under the purview of this new act. Ministry of Women and Child Development would have analyzed at depth the relationship of a married couple and after serious brainstorming they would have given shape to this act.

Objective of any act or law is to ensure application of “just” methods to live life and any deviation from this would call for legal action. I fully agree that this act would definitely help in curtailing the domestic violence cases but is it morally and ethically right for any act or law to sneak into one’s life to the extent of personal sex life? Tomorrow, while having sex, if a husband presses hard and if it feels uncomfortable to his female partner, she can sue him. In any married relationship, there are several instances where husband has to shout at his wife but from now onwards, he would think twice before even speaking and this would definitely wither away the naturality and harmony of the relationship. Besides looking at positive aspects of this act, which of course are many, if we observe closely, it is apportioning unnecessarily more importance and power to women, which might prove futile in the long run. Not all marriages are successful, and if this is the case, then women can get her partner incarcerated for committing a trivial act like shouting at her, and later that lady would ask for divorce. This act is definitely going to make position of husbands more vulnerable rather than strengthening women’s position. Not all ladies in our society are Savitri and Sita, and negative ladies could misuse this act to even blackmail husbands –which is one among many preposterous possibilities.

Let us evaluate how potent this act would be if implemented properly. In the name of implementation, this act will provide for, inter alia, appointment of protection officers, service providers and councellors. It has been assumed that if a lady complains for such genuine violence acts, she would definitely be given justice (albeit a remote possibility because we have already evaluated the effectiveness of our judicial system in Jessica Lal and Priyadarshini Mattoo’s murder cases) is it really possible, especially in our society, which has become subservient to corruption and venality. Guilty husband would bribe the protection officer and case would not even get registered. This way, lady would be left to fend for herself because by knocking at deaf doors of justice, she would ruin her own life. Neither she will get justice nor her husband’s affection marking a big question mark on the credibility and genuineness of this act.


So at this outset, having evaluated this act from both male and female vantage points, we find that such type of acts would do no significant benefit to women but it would definitely encourage women to ruin their own married life. Ministry of Women and Child should look for some alternative route to ensure safe, secure, contended and happy life to women of our society.