More than 80 per cent complaints filed under the seven-year-old domestic violence act have been declared too trivial for such a law to address, raising fears that it is being used to settle scores while graver atrocities go unreported.
However, the nature of many complaints also suggests that women are no longer willing to play a subservient role in marital life.
The highest number of complaints related to charges that the husband refused to let the spouse step out of the home. Close on the heels came another charge: husbands disrespecting wives. Alleged refusal by men to give pocket money to their partners also figured high on the grouse list.
However, since the National Commission for Women (NCW) felt that these complaints could be solved through counselling, they were thrown out. The commission concluded that these cases need not be dealt with under the Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act.
Between March 2009 and February 2010, 2,153 complaints have been filed with the commission from across India. Among them, only 358 — or 16.6 per cent — were found to be grave enough to be registered under the act.
Of the registered complaints, the NCW has addressed and solved 98 through arbitration and counselling while 92 have been referred to the legal cell. Divorce has been granted in eight cases, and proceedings are continuing in the rest.
However, of the 2,153 complaints, the commission has concluded that 1,785 did not require registration under the act while a decision on registration has not been taken on the remaining 10. The domestic violence act is a protective law that seeks to ensure interim relief for the victim, not punishment for the accused. Punishment, if any, will be decided by a court.
“It is very unnerving because it shows that people either have no idea what the act means or it is being misused. There are cases where mere counselling could have solved the problems and there was no need to approach the NCW or the courts,” said Soumya Chetan, a lawyer and activist.
Chetan said many of the cases were filed just to intimidate the in-laws, husbands and sometimes parents.
Deval Shah, who was taken to an arbitration centre after his wife complained that he was disrespectful to her, echoed Chetan.
“The act shouldn’t be treated by women as a medium of expressing their angst. It’s a serious law and it has serious repercussions for the men involved. Families are torn apart and children are uprooted when women go to court just to seek revenge. The data show how women themselves are sometimes unaware of the real purpose behind the act,” Shah said.
Shah said he spent months in a rented apartment with his parents, afraid that his wife would file a case of domestic violence against him and his family. The couple eventually opted for counselling and no case was filed under the domestic violence act. However, differences later cropped up again over other issues.
“Women need to make an informed decision, whether they should get a divorce or file a case against their spouse under the act,” said Vrunda Mahapatra, who works for abused women in the capital.
Mahapatra referred to a disturbing possibility the data could be masking. “The problem is that despite an NCW study in 2005 that showed that 59 per cent women have been victims of domestic violence at least once in their lives, the percentage of complaints registered doesn’t reflect that. The fact that only 17 per cent complaints of domestic violence are registered shows that most such cases go unreported,” Mahapatra said.
