Full Description
The Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act, 2005 (PWDVA) was enacted following a concerted campaign by Indian women's groups. The law was envisaged to provide emergency civil reliefs to women facing violence within their homes. Over the years there has been a massive increase in cases filed under the PWDVA. Interactions with lawyers indicate that that the law is useful because of the comprehensiveness of the definition of domestic violence and the scope of reliefs provided in it; and that it allows women direct access to courts. The objective of this publication is to take stock of the progress made towards achieving statutory objectives in the first decade of its implementation. In this regard, the work attempts to cover themes relating to state accountability in terms of providing a supportive framework to facilitate women's access to justice, experiences in court, and jurisprudence evolved by appellate courts. It also seeks to trace and document the history behind the enactment of the PWDVA 2005. The work will capture the experience of key functionaries under the law, and analyse judicial trends by examining orders and judgments passed by the courts of magistrate, various high courts, and the Supreme Court.
Contents
Preface
List of Tables
Section I: Causes and Consequences
1 Unscrambling the Images: Conflict in the Shared Household
Indira Jaising
2 Some Thoughts on Domestic Violence: Using Violence to Regulate a Patriarchal Family
Uma Chakravarty
3 Mapping Legislative Changes
Asmita Basu
Section II: Critical Issues
4 'But where Will I Live?': Domestic Violence and the Right to Reside
Pinki Mathur Anurag
5 Of 'Keeps' and 'Concubines': Rights of Cohabitees under Domestic Violence Act
Brototi Datta
6 Marital Rape as Domestic Violence: A Case for Criminalizing Marital Rape
Ajita Sharma
7 Towards Uniformity of Rights: Muslim Personal Law, the Domestic Violence Act, and the Harmonization of Family Law in India
Saptarshi Mandal
Section III: Expectations from the Law and Its Enforcement
8 Analysing Orders Granted Under the PWDVA 2005
Aparna Chandra
9 Long Road to Justice: Implementation of the Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act (2005) in Haryana
Monica Sakhrani, Trupti Jhaveri Panchal, Radhika Chakraborty, and Manisha Kande
10 Nature of Services Available to Women Survivors: One Stop Crisis CentresReview and Recommendations
Padma Bhate-Deosthali and Sangeeta Rege
11 Changing Contours of Fiscal Policy and Budgets to Address Violence against Women: An Analysis of Two States
Kanika Kaul
Index
About the Editors and Contributors
