Saxena, Tulika
Description
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...[Show more] 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.
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