Indian Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act: Stumbling or Striving Ahead?

Abstract

Domestic violence, the most pervasive form of violence against women, is accepted internationally as a violation of human rights and about 125 countries have policies to address it. Women’s movement and activism first brought the issue of violence against women onto the mainstream policy making agenda. The focus now rests on how efficient these policies are. However, few impact assessment studies on these policies are available. This research seeks to fill this gap. An impact assessment of the Indian Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act (PWDVA) 2005 was done in three States of India: Delhi, Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh. The research assessed the impact of accessing PWDVA in the lives of 78 women from these three States. Since States have allocated different resources and used different models of implementation, this research also assessed the impact of the State’s commitment and resources on the outcomes for women. For this research, a gendered impact analysis framework was used, which focussed on assessing the level of strategic gender needs of women that were being met. Feminists have argued that gender-aware policies might not result in gender equitable goals due to the law implementer’s gender bias. The women interviewees reported on the law implementers’ behaviour and its impact on the outcomes. They also reported on their overall satisfaction with the outcomes through PWDVA and its impact on their lives in reducing violence, homelessness and economic dependence. The women rated judges, police, lawyers, protection officers appointed under this Act and NGOs that had been registered as service providers. It was found that the judges were most influential in impacting the outcomes for women inside court and police were most influential outside the court. However, negative behaviours from both adversely impacted outcomes. It was found that judges also highly influenced the relief granted to women and that protection orders were granted to only one third. Maintenance was the relief most often granted. The research findings also show that protection officers, intended to be the main law implementers for the PWDVA, were the least accessed law implementers in the given research sample. Overall, about 37 percent of women were extremely satisfied or satisfied with the outcomes and about same number of women, that is 37 percent, were not satisfied with the outcomes. There were about 23 percent who were partially satisfied. Analysis of the behaviour of the key stakeholders reveals that civil society, in the form of women’s organisations, NGOs and activists, are the only institutions that consistently provide gender-sensitive support to women. The other stakeholders can be characterised as still representing the patriarchal state; with gender-insensitive behaviours negatively influencing the gender relations that women share with men. This research highlights the need to further incorporate civil society into implementation of the Act and into capacity-building for other stakeholders such as the judiciary and police.