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Women are an integral part of Indian society but suffer from the violence in the family which doesn’t seem to be substantially curbed by either education or awareness. In fact, Domestic Violence is one of the few phenomena which seems to have cut across all the cultural, socio-economic, educational, ethnic and religious barriers which usually divide society, and, absurdly enough, it seems to increase with a rise in a woman’s education and also prevails among the elite — such as they are.

Before the 2005 Act was passed, there had been attempts by the Government to help protect women (such as by introduction of The Protection from Domestic Violence Bill, 2002 was supposed to do). The Bill was, however, widely criticized as was the one which came before it and was not passed by Parliament.

One of the problems with the Bill was that it didn’t define what Domestic Violence clearly. It spoke of habitually assaulting a woman and no one seemed to know exactly how frequently a woman had to be assaulted for the assault to be habitual.

The 2005 Bill, however, defines domestic violence quite comprehensively. Also, the definition under the Act is not exhaustive.

Under Section 3 of the Domestic Violence Act, 2005, any of several possible perpetrators of domestic violence can be dealt with. These perpetrators are referred to as ‘the respondent’ in the statute and have been defined as any adult male person who is or has been, in a domestic relationship with the aggrieved woman and against whom she has sought any relief under the Act. The perpetrator may be the woman’s husband or a man with whom she shares a relationship in the nature of a marriage.

‘Woman’ means any woman who is or has been, in a domestic relationship with the respondent and who alleges to have been subjected to any act of domestic violence by the respondent and a ‘domestic relationship’ means a relationship between two persons who live or have, at any point of time, lived together in a shared household, when they are related by consanguinity, marriage or through a relationship in the nature of marriage, adoption or are family members living together as a joint family.

A ‘child’ means any person below the age of eighteen years and includes any adopted, step or foster child.

Any act, omission or commission or conduct of the respondent constitutes domestic violence if it:

• harms or injures or endangers the health, safety, life, limb or well-being, whether mental or physical, of the woman or tends to do so and includes causing physical abuse, sexual abuse, verbal and emotional abuse and economic abuse
• harasses, harms, injures or endangers the woman with a view to coerce her or any other person related to her to meet any unlawful demand for any dowry or other property or valuable security
• has the effect of threatening the woman or any person related to her by any conduct mentioned above
• otherwise injures or causes harm, whether physical or mental, to the woman.

Explanations

1. ‘Physical Abuse‘ means any act or conduct which is of such a nature as to cause bodily pain, harm or danger to life, limb or health or impair the health or development of the woman and includes assault, criminal intimidation and criminal force.

2. ‘Sexual Abuse‘ includes any conduct of a sexual nature that abuses, humiliates, degrades or otherwise violates the dignity of woman.

3. ‘Verbal and Emotional Abuse‘ includes:

• insults, ridicule, humiliation, name calling and insults or ridicule specially with regard to not having a child or a male child
• repeated threats to cause physical pain to any person in whom the woman is interested.

4. ‘Economic Abuse‘ includes:

• deprivation of all or any economic or financial resources to which the woman is entitled under any law or custom whether payable under an order of a Court or otherwise or which the woman requires out of necessity including, but not limited to, household necessities for the woman and her children, if any, Stridhan, property, jointly or separately owned by the woman, payment of rental related to the shared household and maintenance
• disposal of household effects, any alienation of assets whether movable or immovable, valuables, shares, securities, bonds and the like or other property in which the woman has an interest or is entitled to use by virtue of the domestic relationship or which may be reasonably required by the woman or her children or her Stridhan or any other property jointly or separately held by the woman
• prohibition or restriction to continued access to resources or facilities which the woman is entitled to use or enjoy by virtue of the domestic relationship including access to the shared household.

‘Shared household’ means a household where the person aggrieved lives or at any stage has lived in a domestic relationship either singly or along with the respondent and includes such a household whether owned or tenanted either jointly by the woman and the respondent or owned or tenanted by either of them in respect of which either the woman or the respondent or both jointly or singly have any right, title, interest or equity and includes such a household which may belong to the joint family of which the respondent is a member, irrespective of whether the respondent or the woman has any right, title or interest in the shared household.

To determine whether any act, omission, commission or conduct of the respondent constitutes ‘domestic violence’ under the Act, the overall facts and circumstances of the case shall be taken into consideration.