A small victory for Indian women
For the first time, women in India have legal protection against abuse in their own homes under a law which came into force yesterday. It is the first time Indian law has recognised marital rape, sexual, emotional or verbal abuse of a woman by her husband as crimes. India is a country where the streets are safe - but a woman is not safe inside her own home.
There is a remarkably low rate of violent crime against strangers in most of the big cities, and it is safe to walk the streets of Mumbai or Bangalore late at night. But every six hours, a young married woman is burnt to death, beaten to death, or driven to suicide by emotional abuse from her husband, figures show.
More than two-thirds of married women in India aged between 15 and 49 have been beaten, raped or forced to provide sex, according to the UN Population Fund.
Read the full story here.
I had watched a news piece on how a similar protection which is in place for harassment against dowry (Section 498A)is misused. Esp because the onus is not on the husband's family to disprove it and there is no punishment for false claims.There's been practical extortion using Section 498A. That doesn't mean there is no need to address domestic violence and marital rape.. I just hope that it leads to the solution and not a another problem.
ReplyDeleteThat's quite true, Pea. Most of us know for a fact that the law in India is often just something that takes up volumes in dusty courts and law colleges.Not much of it trickles down to ground level.
ReplyDeleteLet's hope the tide is changing though, one law at a time. Without that hope, it's almost too depressing.