Domestic Violence In India

Domestic violence is a problem in other parts of the world not just in the United States of America. It may not be heard on the news or get much attention, however, it is a growing problem that exists. This paper will examine, 1) What is domestic violence and what are some forms of violence in India that is consider to be domestic violence, 2) the historical factors that brought domestic violence to the attention of the country, 3) the values in the society that have impacted this problem, 4) What was the role of the non-governmental agencies had in policy and programs and what steps were taken by the government to address this problem, and 5) how does domestic violence in India compare to the domestic violence of the United States of America?

Everyday all over the world, women are beaten, raped, and brutalized by their husbands and families (Prasad). It is estimated that 10% to 69% of women in the world would experience some form of violence at the hands of their husband or male partner (Ahmed,Koening,Stephenson). Over the last decade, violence against women in developing countries has emerged as a growing concern among researchers and policymakers interested in women's health and empowerment. In developing countries, women are vulnerable to many forms of violence, and domestic violence represents the most common form.

According to Oakland County Coordinating Council Against Domestic Violence (OCCCADV) domestic violence is behaviors used by one person in a relationship to control the other. Partners may be married or not married; heterosexual, gay, or lesbian; living together, separated or dating. It can also be defined as a pattern of abusive behavior in any relationship that is used by one partner to gain or maintain power and control over another intimate partner. Domestic violence can happen to anyone regardless of race, age, sexual orientation, religion, or gender. Domestic violence affects people of all socioeconomic backgrounds and education levels.

Although, both men and women can be abused, most victims are women. Forms of violence recognized in India are persistent denial of food, insisting on perverse sexual conduct, constantly locking a woman out of the house, and denying the woman access to children; thereby causing mental torture, physical violence, taunting, demoralizing and putting down the woman with the intention of causing mental torture, confining the woman at home and not allowing her normal social interaction, abusing children in their mother's presence with the intention of causing her mental torture, denying the paternity of the children with the intention of inflicting mental pain upon the mother, and threatening divorce unless dowry is given (www.indiatogether.org).

The most common type of domestic violence in India is dowry deaths. Dowry deaths occur when the new wife family can not afford to pay any more money or give property to the husband family. Then the husband family would beat, cause mental torture and eventually end up killing her. In India the risk of wife beating had indeed been shown to increase with smaller dowry payment. The frequency and severity of violence against wives who bring too small a dowry to their marriages are perpetrated by their husbands and their husbands’ families, and is a growing problem. The National Crime Records Bureau of the Government of India keeps track of the crimes against women over dowry-related issues. In 1998 6,917 dowry deaths were recorded in India and increase of 15.2% over the 6,006 deaths in 1997 (National Crime Records Bureau, 1998).

Men who have little education and those who are extremely poor are also more likely physically abuse their wives (Martin et al., 1999b). These social cultural factors combine with individual level factors of the perpetrator, including witnessing martial violence as a child and alcohol use can also raise the risk of abuse (Hesise et al., 1999). In India, wife beating is closely linked with other less acceptable behavior on the part of men like gambling, alcohol consumption and extra-martial and premarital sex (Martin et al, 1999a; Rao, 1997).

Wife beating has been widely accepted as an integral part of the patriarchal social structure in India, under which women are considered to be inferior. Indian society has used the concept that women have a “special” role in society and in the family as an excuse to deny women their equality, civil liberties and the right to be free of violence (Paul). In this culture, men are taught they have authoritarian power over their wife and women are taught to take care of the home, children, cooking and cleaning. In Indian culture women do have not a voice. In the Indian culture domestic violence is considered a private matter. It is taboo to talk about it with your family and or friends. In most cases, the wives family will not get involved because of the social stigma attached to a married daughter returning back to her parental home.

A study was done in 1995-1996 in five districts of Northern India examining the characteristics of wife abuse in five districts of northern India as reported 6,700 married men. It looked at the association between wife abuse and social demographic factors (Maitra,Marinshaw,Martin,Tsui). It showed abuse is more common among families under stress. The study showed that 18% to 45% men reported physically abusing their wives and 18% to 40% reported they have nonconsensual sex with their wives and 4% to 9% of men physically forced their wives to have sex (Maitra,Marinshaw,Martin,Tsui).

Another study done with 109 married couples, who resided in a small rural village in the Jullundur district of Punjabalso, showed that 75 percent of lower-caste men reported beating their wives as did 22 percent of the higher-caste and approximately 3 percent of the men reported that their wives required medical treatment for injuries sustained during violent episodes.

With the emergence of the women’s movement in the early 1970s, violence against women has received attention from women’s rights activist, lawyers, and many nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) in India. It was not until the birth of MANUSHI in 1978 which happened to coincide with the unfortunate rise in reported cases of domestic violence and murder. Some of these appeared to be linked to dowry demands.

When MANUSHI organized one of their first demonstrations was, in early 1979, to protest against the police gang up with the murderer’s family by registering the death of the newly-married Tarvinder Kaur as a case of suicide. Nearly, 1500 people of the neighborhood joined in calling for a social boycott of the family. This protest received widespread publicity in the media. As a result, MANUSHI and other organizations that joined in that protest were flooded with cases of married