ABSTRACT
The present article focuses on the rise of cases related to domestic violence during the outbreak of ongoing pandemic. The recent episode of domestic violence is not first of its kind and seems not to be the last one too. We all know of people in our families or among our friends who have at some point faced domestic violence or have perpetrated it. Though women are the harbinger of joy in a family are the ones on whom the whole family is dependent but still we fail to give them respect and love which they deserve today we see people talking about equality and equal status but the ground reality is we are still fighting for the treatment of women with humane conditions, this kind of ill-treatment is not only confined to one particular class of the society but unfortunately it prevails in every class. In a country where constitution guarantees equal rights to women and men, it is disheartening that women have to struggle even for small things.
INTRODUCTION
Although home is considered safest place but for a woman it is not always the same. There is nothing to be surprised when it comes to violence against women in India. Women have been victims of domestic violence since long back. It is a bitter reality of the Indian society. In the patriarchal set up, where females are dominated by males, abuse has become humdrum of our society. Domestic violence is not only confined to physical attacks but also mental and emotional violence too. Domestic violence is executed by the biological or affinal relative. These abuse haunt woman intrusively and it is anti-pathetic. Countless women are trapped with perpetrators. Domestic violence is not only a problem of people belonging to lower class but the same is felt by women belonging to middle and upper class. So basically it is not restricted to any section on a society. This violence is not only an issue in India but several other developed countries too. The women in most of the cases do not report such issues because of guilt, shame and family’s pride. While some women are victims to these, on the other hand there are women too who acts as an ‘opportunist’ and use this violence as a tool of personal benefit complimented with revenge.
‘Stay home, stay safe’ is the current step taken to protect ourselves from COVID-19 pandemic shattering the world. This outbreak is making homes the best place to safeguard ourselves but it is unsafe for women. The women have to stay all day with the wrongdoers who perform these inhumane activities. As lockdown and quarantine are important measures to suppress COVID-19 but the same is accompanied with trapping women and their abusive partners under the same roof. Since, India has patriarchal set up and abuse to women has become an acceptable norm. These violence have most of times increase in a those set ups. As India is currently battling over a deadly virus, the women in a parallel way are facing brutality. The reports of domestic violence is booming across the globe. The reason primarily for this upsurge is the closure of organizations. Other reason which contributes to this issue is stress due to unemployment, reduction in income, frustration, limited social support etc. As COVID-19 required all people to isolate themselves and complete closure of the entire nation, so this perpetrated the world to mandate lockdown. This situation got worse for women who are currently facing this sort of violence. The present ongoing condition during this pandemic has become an important issue. Since government has no option left for controlling the pandemic but they did not take into mind the surge of domestic violence and risk of lives of women. Gender-biased violence is no new thing for us. The open-ended pandemic epitomizes global isolation, so it is nothing to be astonished about the increasing cases of domestic violence. The national lockdown has brought increment of 50% in cases of domestic violence. A gender-biased atrocities is an issue that will never end by any vaccine. Since increasing cases of CORONAVIRUS made it a pandemic, within no time domestic violence will also be characterized into a pandemic.
LEGAL CONSTRUCTION OF DOMESTIC VIOLENCE:
To curb this practice and to make this world a better place for the women our government has enacted some laws which protect women against violence and torture. Basically there are three laws in India which directly deal with domestic violence: The Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act 2005, The Dowry Prohibition Act, 1961 and Section 498A of Indian Penal code, 1860. The protection of women from Domestic violence Act, 2005 is a civil law it provides protection to women in household , from men in the household. This law not only protects women who are married to men but it also protects women who are in live-in relationship as well as family members including mothers, grandmothers,etc. This law gives protection against domestic violence, financial compensation, the right to live in their shared household , and they can get maintenance from the perpetrator in case they are they are living apart the good thing about the act is the fact that it deal with domestic violence regardless of the religion of the parties as many times the abusers are protected by their personal laws but this act has tried to shut down all the doors of escape for the perpetrators . The Dowry prohibition Act is a criminal law and Section 3 of the Act punishes anyone who is either giving or receiving dowry, they can be imprisoned to 5 years and fined up to Rs.15,000. Section 4 of the Act punishes if someone demands dowry they can be imprisoned for 6 months or they can be fined up to Rs.10,000. The third law that exist to protect women who are facing violence is Section 498A of the Indian Penal Code this is also a criminal law it applies to husbands or relatives of husband who are cruel to women and cruelty includes any kind of physical or mental harassment torture for dowry or any brutality which leads to stress or injury to her health, the punishment under this law is imprisonment for 3 years. The laws which prevail in our system are quite enough to protect the women but formulating law is one step and enacting those laws is the next we have formulated the laws but we are unable to enact those laws, during this lockdown situation there were a bunch of helpline numbers which was designed by our government but only a handful of literate and urban women were able to avail these services and almost a significant section of poor and the most affected were not in the situation to protect themselves.
LOOPHOLES OF THE ACT
The legal construction dealing with domestic violence is envisaged with loopholes. The increase in the number of cases which is registered under this act reveals that women are gradually getting over internationalism of domestic violence. The response that is taken by the agency authorized is not encouraging at all. The domestic violence act primarily is a civil law with a pinch of criminal law fused in it to ensure its effective implementation. But the act provides merely a comprehensive definition of domestic violence which includes sexual abuse within marriage. There is no provision of marital rapes faced by women. We have hardly encountered such cases or have heard about them in news. This is because the women do not bring into light these barbaric acts by abusers into light. Generally when the cases of domestic violence is reported, the onus of settlement lies on the women, such a counselling is detrimental and defeats the provision of laws. In most of the cases the victims are not informed about the remedies available through his act by the authorities assigned. Many a times the protection officers and other authorities are not very much clear about the implementation of the laws. The failure to enact these laws properly is because people are not very much aware about them and thus unawareness leads to lack of efficiency in implementing these laws. The other concern is not only the attitude of the police but also a few magistrates still believe that the welfare of the family should come before the rights of women , half the magistrates responded at a training conducted by the women rights initiative that for a successful marriage women needs to be trained by their husbands and women make a hue and cry of this training as domestic violence, or they were even of the view that women invite themselves to such violence by entering into live-in relationships. Other ambiguities also persisted there are infrastructural and procedural lacuna too which acts as hindrance while implementing the law with productive results.
CONCLUSION
This pandemic has affected the whole world we all are fighting with the virus and are working on inventing a vaccine but we fail to address a serious disease which has grasped our society so firmly that people treat this as normal, and this behavior is a result of the male chauvinist ideology , laws are there to protect women but still we come across a huge number of cases which are not even reported or if reported then too no fruitful result comes out thus to ensure that our society is free of such heinous acts we need to change the orthodox thinking of the people in the society, and it has to start from home the very place which is the witness of this crime , eradication of this unlawful, immoral, unethical act has to begin from the house only family members have to stop the discrimination between a boy and a girl they should treat them equally then only we will be able to curb this cruelty and brutality. This article has the reasons of such brutality we need to ponder on them and come put with a more efficient and comprehensive way to stop such injustice .
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