DOMESTIC VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN

Violence against women in general is general is defined as a force, whether overt or covert, used to wrest from a woman something that she soes not want to give of her own free will and which causes her either physical injury or emotional trauma or both. Thus rape, kidnapping, wife beating, sexual abuse, eve teasing mental harassment, physical torture are all examples of violence against women.

 

 

Definition of Domestic Violence may be broad or focused. It is very important to define domestic violence from the viewpoint of responses. For shaped by a particular understanding of what constitutes domestic violence, whether it be legal reform or the provision of support services and whether it is to be conceptualized as an intra-family conflict or a criminal violation of rights.

 

The definition of Domestic Violence as implied by law is especially critical as it defines standards and thus impacts broader social perception of the problem. Elements of the definition that need to be considered are, the norms of acceptable behaviour and the specific acts that constitute violence. The frequent understanding of domestic violence against women is that it is limited to physical harm perpetrated on adult women within a marital relationship. While this conception may capture a large universe of the experience of womn, it is predicated on the assumption that women primarily live in nuclear families. However, there are varieties of living arrangement ranging from joint families to nuclear families, to single parent families. Women may also be found in an established relationship or in the process of divorce or seperation. Violence may not always be restricted to current husband but may extend to boyfriends, former husbands and other family members, such as parents in law and in laws. A definition of Domestic Violence that covers these multiple dimensions would lead to intervention that is more inclusive of the experiences of the women.    

 

The definition of Domestic Violence rests upon both the relationship between the perpetrator and the victim, as well as, the norms of acceptable differences of opinion reagrding which bnehaviour should be considered violent and also the intensity and frequency required tabling a relationship as violent. Another related issue is how to evaluate the intent of the act - why the act was initiated and whose view should determine this. This is further complicated by a common belief that violent acts are expression of love and merely a desire to help the subject to be a better person.

 

The core of definition of domestic violence consists of all the acts that constitute violence. Some definitions are narrow and focus on specific acts of violence, while others are broader and incorporate the full range of acts. A further critical element in the definition is as to whether it is framed as an exclusively interpersonal act or seen more broadly as an expression of power that perpetuates the subordonation of women. If it is the former, the definition would include those acts which might be seen as crimes and thus focus only on acts which result in physical injury or violence. If it is the latter, it would be include all acts of physical, verbal, visual, mental or sexual abuse that are experienced by a woman, threats, invasion, or assaults and that have the effect or hurting her, or degrading her and or taking away her ability to control contact with another individual. This type of definition coveres more fully all the different processes by which women undergo subordination within intimate relations and fits more rightly in human rights perspective. 

 

Domestic violence attempts to be as brioad as possible and includes physical, mental, financial and sexual abuse inflicted upon a woman by any member of the family directly or indirectly. Hence, domestic violence is defined as physical, emotional, sexual and finacial abuse experienced by an adult woman within her home.

 

The domestic violence against women may be classified as under:-

a) Physical Violence

b) Emotional Abuse

c) Economic Abuse

 

Each of the above may take different forms and only the most common forms which are frequently used by the perpetrators may be described as under - 

 

The most common and frequently used forms of physical violence used against women are - 

1. Slaps, 2. Beating, 3. Pulsing, 4. Kicking, 5. Throwing objects, 6. Beating with cane, 7. Burning with rod, 8. Holding with rope, 9. Sexual coercion or assault.

 

The mental or emotional abuse of a woman may take the following forms - 

1. Using abusive language, 2. Insulting her in the presence of children, other member of the family and relatives, 3. Blaming her for everything that goes wrong in the family, 4. Charging her frequently on small and negligible issues, 5. Makinig her feel guilty for no fault of her, 6. Calling her names, 7. Giving her threat of divorce, 8. Treating her like a servant, 9. Keeping a strict watch on her movements, 10. Prohibiting her from meeting her friends and relatives, 11. Suspecting her for extramarital relations, 12. Using ugly and insulting language for her parents, 13. Insulting her for house keeping, 14. Demeaning her family background, 15. Criticizing her for lacking intelligence, 16. Threatening her to commit suicide, 17. Giving her verbal threats to use physical force, 18. Threats to kill or burn.      

 

Following are the most frequently used forms of economic abuse against women - 

1. Preventing her from taking a job, 2. Forcing her to leave present job, 3. Not allowing her to purchase things of her linking and choice, 4. Stopping her from access to resources or money, 5. Pressurizing her to bring money from her parents and so on. 

The cause of domestic violence as found are parents' failure to pay full amount of dowry, refusal to bring money from patriarchal family, parents' faliure to keep promises and fulfil commitments made at the time of marriage, pre - marital love affairs suspected, extra marital relations, resitance to sexual, abuse, unemployment, husband was the cause of domestic violence in one fourth of the cases. The observation relating to cause of domestic violence revealed that a single cause was not at the root of violence in all cases but a mix of causes was observed in sufficiently large number of cases.