Domestic violence in India
[4] However, an opinion survey among experts carried out by the Thomson Reuters Foundation ranked India as the most dangerous country in the world for women.
The PWDVA, a civil law, includes physical, emotional, sexual, verbal, and economic abuse as domestic violence.
[14] This figure includes all forms of forced sexual activity by husband on wife, during their married life, but not recognised as marital rape by Indian law.
As the same report suggests that domestic abuse against women in poorer families was far higher than the middle or upper class.
[22] Worldwide, the percentage of women who suffer serious injuries as a result of physical domestic violence tends to range from 19% – 55%.
[2] Physical injuries as a result of domestic violence against women are more obvious than psychological ones, and can be more easily discerned by health professionals as well as courts of law in the context of legal prosecution.
Psychological abuse can erode a woman's sense of self-worth and can be incredibly harmful to overall mental and physical wellbeing.
[22] Women who experience domestic violence overwhelmingly tend to have greater overall emotional distress, as well as disturbingly high occurrences of suicidal thoughts and attempts.
According to a study by the National Centre for Biotechnology Information, suicide attempts in India are correlated with physical and psychological intimate partner violence.
[26] The Section 375 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) considers the forced sex in marriages as a crime only when the wife is below 15.
[27] The marital rape victims have to take recourse to the Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act 2005 (PWDVA).
A newly married brides suffer domestic violence in the form of harassment, physical abuse or death when she is thought to have not brought enough dowry with marriage.
Women who lived in cities, had higher household wealth, were Christian and educated had significantly lower risk of physical and sexual domestic violence.
[45] In contrast, wives of men who drank alcohol had significantly higher risks of experiencing both physical and sexual violence.
[13] This figure includes all forms of forced sexual activity by husband on wife, during their married life, but not recognised as marital rape by Indian law.
[48] According to Unicef's Global Report Card on Adolescents 2012, 57% of boys and 53% of girls in India think a husband is justified in hitting or beating his wife.
There are strong links between domestic violence and dowry, a cultural practice deeply rooted in many Indian communities, which is the money, goods, or property the woman/woman's family brings to a marriage to now become under the ownership of the husband.
This practice continues even today in India although banned by law since 1961, and in recent years dowry amounts have risen dramatically.
[55] Domestic violence was often not handled as a legitimate crime or complaint, but more of a private or family matter while negating the rights of women as citizens.
[59] Other factors outside culture that demonstrate differences in domestic violence prevalence and gender disparities in India include socioeconomic class, educational level, and family structure beyond the patriarchal framework.
[10] Victims suffer many types of physical and emotional abuse as a result of illegal actions taken within the private home, and those who have experienced some form of domestic violence tend to have greater long-term mental disorders and drug dependencies than those who do not.
[60] In India, reducing domestic violence is imperative not only from an ethical and human rights perspective but also because of obvious instrumental and immediate health benefits that would be gained from such reduction.
[2] Physical health outcomes include: Injury (from lacerations to fractures and internal organs injury), Unwanted Pregnancy, Gynaecological problems, STDs including HIV, Miscarriage, Pelvic inflammatory disease, Chronic pelvic pain, Headaches, Permanent disabilities, Asthma, Irritable bowel syndrome, Self-injurious behaviours (smoking, unprotected sex)[62] Mental health effects can include depression, fear, anxiety, low self-esteem, sexual dysfunction, eating disorders, obsessive-compulsive disorder, or post traumatic stress disorder.
[62] On 19 March 2013, the Indian Parliament passed a new law with the goal of more effectively protecting women from sexual violence in India.
Men's rights activists such as the "Save the family foundation" in India argue that the law is often misused by women.
For men, even a simple relief of having a male or female aggressor stay away from them (a restraining or protection order) is not afforded by the current law.
The bench of Justices Kurian Joseph and Rohinton F Nariman ruled on 6 October 2016 (Thursday) that this provision frustrated the objective of the legislation since "perpetrators and abettors of domestic violence" can be women too.
