ASSIGNMENT

SOCIOLOGY

TOPIC- DOMESTIC VIOLENCE

PRESENTED BY- ENROLLMENT NO.

KAREENA BATRA A3211123182
ARCHITA SHARMA A3211123154
SHREYA PANDEY A3211123175
MARYAM A3211123131
COURSE- BA, LLB(H) Sec- C
BATCH- 2023-2028
Domestic violence is a pattern of coercive and assaultive behavior that includes physical, sexual, verbal and
psychological attacks and economic coercion that adults/adolescents use against their victims in a domestic
setting.1
A mother, a brother, husband, wife, sister, father, son, daughter, uncle, aunt, niece, nephew, cousin – regardless
of who does it, to who, in heterosexual or homosexual setting, regardless of their ethnicity, income, religion,
education, sexual orientation - it’s domestic violence.
Greed. Power. Money. Sex. Humans are driven by these factors to do anything and everything they do and
when they set their minds to achieving the object of their desire, they can be very cunning. More often than not,
the same happens when victimizers choose their victims, consciously or subconsciously. It was found that
people - submissive in nature, with poor self-esteem, economically and/or emotionally dependent, uncertain of
their own needs or with traumatizing pasts that leave them wanting, needing basic emotional connections – are
most likely victims of such cruelty.
Sometimes the people who are supposed to love us and protect us from monsters turn out to be monsters
themselves.2 That gives the victimizers even more power over their victims.
Types of Domestic Violence
1. Physical abuse
It is the most easily recognizable form of domestic violenc ine. It involves hurting or trying to hurt a
partner by hitting, kicking, burning, grabbing, pinching, shoving, slapping, hair-pulling, biting, denying
medical care or forcing alcohol and/or drug use, or using other physical force. It includes:
 Damages property when angry (throws objects, punches walls, kicks doors, etc.).
 Pushes, slaps, bites, kicks or chokes you.
 Abandons you in a dangerous or unfamiliar place.
 Scares you by driving recklessly.
 Uses a weapon to threaten or hurt you.
 Forces you to leave your home.
 Traps you in your home or keeps you from leaving.
 Prevents you from calling police or seeking medical attention.
 Hurts your children.
 Uses physical force in sexual situations

2. Intimidation
It is a type of domestic violence which attempt to control victim by forcing them to change any behavior
that the perpetrator doesn’t like. It includes:
  Yelling and screaming
 Breaking or destroying furniture
 Stalking

3. Coercion and threat

Trying to force the victim bending to perpetrators will. It includes:
 Threatening, suicide
 Stopping someone to follow their religion/ culture
 Harming other family members

4. Sexual abuse
It generally happens within relationship and marriage. It includes:
 Threatening into unwanted sexual contact
 Forcing you to watch pornography
 Forcing into particular sexual behavior

5. Verbal abuse
It includes:
 Derogatory comments
 Insulting about victim’s appearance
 Cutting their victim off into silence

6. Emotional abuse
It involves undermining a person's sense of self-worth through constant criticism; belittling one's
abilities; name-calling or other verbal abuse; damaging a partner's relationship with the children; or not
letting a partner see friends and family. It includes:
 Humiliating and shaming
 Trying to guilt you as control mechanism
 Using your goodwill against you
 Giving silent treatment

7. Isolation
Aim is to separate victim from their regular support network. It includes:
 Controlling who you can see and where you can go
 Insisting on when you should be home
 Checking up on you while you’re out
 Limiting spending money
 8. Economic and financial abuse
It is another way of restricting freedom and autonomy of victim. It includes:
 Controlling access to family money
 Incurring debts on behalf of you both without your consent
 Making all decision about finances and spending on behalf of you both

9. Child abuse
It includes:
 Drowning
 Choking
 Burning or scalding

10. Psychological Abuse

It involves causing fear by intimidation; threatening physical harm to self, partner or children; destruction of
pets and property; “mind games”; or forcing isolation from friends, family, school and/or work..

1. DEMOGRAPHICS

National Family Health Survey (NFHS) 2019-2021

1. According to thee (NFHS), 2019-2021, “29.3 per cent of married Indian women between the ages of 18 and
49 have experienced domestic/sexual violence; 3.1 per cent of pregnant women aged 18 to 49 have suffered
physical violence during their pregnancy.”
2. That is only the number of cases reported by women; there are frequently many more that never make it to
the police.
3. In 2021, just 507 instances were registered across India under the Protection of Women from Domestic
Violence Act, 2005, whereas 136,000 complaints were registered under Indian Penal Code Section 498A
(cruelty by husband or his relatives).According to NFHS data, 87 per cent of married women who are
victims of marital violence do not seek help.
4. The United Nations defines gender-based violence as “any act of gender-based violence that results in, or is
likely to result in, physical, sexual, or mental harm or suffering to women, including threats of such acts,
coercion or arbitrary deprivation of liberty, whether occurring in public or in private life”.
5. The National Commission for Women said in 2020-21, it received 26,513 complaints from women, an
increase of 25.09 per cent, compared with the 20,309 complaints registered in 2019-20, testifying to the
global trend that during the pandemic, more women were victims of domestic violence than before.
The Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) target 5 is to eliminate all forms of violence against women and
girls, and the two indicators of progress towards this are the rates of intimate partner violence (IPV) and non-
partner violence.
The World Health Organization (WHO) estimated a 26% prevalence of IPV in ever-married/partnered women
aged 15 years or more globally in 2018, and this prevalence is higher at 35% for southern Asia region in which
India falls . The self-reported domestic violence (majority by an intimate partner) in any form is reported
between 33 to 41% among ever-married women from India.
Furthermore, the suicide death rate among women in India was reported to be twice the global rate , and
housewives account for the majority of suicide deaths, the reasons for which are documented as
“personal/social”.
The major official source of surveillance for domestic violence in India are the reports compiled by the National
Crime Records Bureau (NCRB). Though under-reporting in NCRB reports is well documented for certain types
of injuries, it remains the most comprehensive longitudinal source of domestic violence available at the state-
level for India.

5.CONTRIBUTING FACTORS OF DOMESTIC VIOLENCE

Domestic Abuse also known as domestic violence or family abuse, is a pattern of behavior that is used to hurt,
terrorize, manipulate, or gain control over a family member. The factors can be subsumed under different
groups:
1. Individual factors(relating to an individual)
a) Low age, that is the partners’ youth which is associated with their personal maturity, physical and
psychological predispositions; opportunities to become parents and to function in this role,
b) Excessive alcohol consumption of one of the partners,
c) Usage of some other narcotics by one of the partners,
d) Mental illness, disorders, serious depressive states,
e) Strong temperament, lability, affectivity
f) Any or only basic or vocational education
g) Financially poor ranked job classification of low income in general
h) Dispositions of domestic violence that are encoded by individuals from their original family environment.

2. Factors rooted in the idea of our society-so called social factors

a) In society there is a family arrangement where the man represents the head of the family and he is its
guardian and leader,
b) Hierarchy of relationships between a woman and a man in which woman has a subordinate, inferior and
less-ranked position,
c) Social perception of a woman solely as a wife and a mother with which the care of the household, the man,
the births of the babies, and their upbringing is connected,
d) The existence of norms that help the survival of violence in society.

3. Relationship factors
a) Quarrels and conflicts in partnerships, parent-child relationships, or the one between children, grandparents,
etc.,
b) Incompleteness of families,
c) Pathological and criminal behaviors in families,
d) Instability in relationships,
e) Excessive male dominance,
f) Preference of one of the offspring,
g) Poverty,
h) Economic imbalance.

4. Factors of community
a) The absence of legislation that deals effectively and comprehensively with the problem of domestic
violence,
b) Difficulties in detecting and proving domestic violence,
c) Relatively low sanctions against aggressors for their violent behavior in domestic violence,
d) Benevolence against domestic violence, its oversight, its alleviation, the accusation of victims,
e) Low social awareness
f) Weak community cohesion
g) Disinterest.

6.PREVENTION AND MANAGEMENT OF DOMESTIC VIOLENCE THROUGH LAWS

Stanford University conducted an experiment placing random people in a prison setting with half acting as
police officers and half as prisoners. After not even two days it was observed that the police officers who were
respectable citizens and had never even dreamed of it, found themselves acting the epitome of violence and
abuse. What happens when someone has had that kind of power for most, if not all of their lives - an absolute
tragedy?
The fight against this unequal power share has been going for ages. Prohibition of Sati Act 1898 set a precedent
for the direction India was heading. The world agreed in 1998 when signing the Roman Statutes to establish the
International Criminal Court.
Laws lay down the base foundation of a country. It's imperative to have proper laws in place to begin the fight.
India brought about

1. Prohibition of women from Domestic Violence Act 2005-

An Act to provide for more effective protection of the rights of women guaranteed under the Constitution who
are victims of violence of any kind occurring within the family and formatters connected therewith or incidental
thereto.
2. Dowry Prohibition Act 1961 providing protection for women suffering abuse from men.
3. Dowry Prohibition Act 2005 criminalizes the tradition of dowry (property, goods, or money given by either
party to the marriage, by the parents of either party, or by anyone else in connection with the marriage).
4. IPC Section 498 (A) prescribes up to 3 years of imprisonment and/or fine in cases of cruelty by husband or
his relatives for dowry.
5. IPC Section 304 (B) punishes husband or his relative 7 years to life imprisonment in cases of dowry death. It
defines dowry death as death caused by burn or bodily injury or under normal circumstances within 7 years of
marriage if the victim was subjected to cruelty and harassed for dowry.
6. Prohibition of Women from Domestic Violence Act (PWDVA) 2005 is a civil law defining physical, sexual,
verbal and economic abuse - domestic violence. Any woman regardless of their relationship with the abuser
( mother, sister, wife, widow, partner living in a shared household) and children can appeal for relief under
PWDVA.
7. IPC Section 313 - 316 criminalizes female infanticide
8. IPC Section 305 - 306 abetment of suicide
9. IPC Section 340, 349 wrongful confinement and restraint.
10. Save Family Foundation (Delhi) conducted a survey showing that 85 percent are victims to psychological
abuse but as of now no specific laws have been created for men or people in homosexual relationships. All the
same they can appeal for relief under IPC section 329 read with 323 hurt, section 320 read with 324 grievous
hurt, section 339 - 348 wrongful restraint and wrongful confinement, 349 - 352, 335, 357 (offenses) of Criminal
Force and assault.
11. Section 24 of the Hindu Marriage Act provides for maintenance to both men and women, taking their
incomes into account.
12. Article 21 of the Indian Constitution provides the right to protection of life and liberty. Laws may lay the
foundation to the fight against domestic violence but only knowledge has the power to bring about real,
substantial change.

7.WHAT TO DO IF YOU ARE THE VICTIM OF DOMESTIC VIOLENCE ?

Leaving domestic violence can sometimes be a process that doesn’t happen all at once, because of fear of the
abuser and needing to ensure you have the resources to leave and continue your life in peace. Your local
community will often have services to help you do this via a woman’s shelter or woman’s health center (for
women; less services are available for men in most communities).
You can also reach out to the National Domestic Violence Hotline toll free at 800-799-SAFE (7233) or the
National Sexual Assault Hotline, also toll-free, at 800-656-HOPE (4673). These hotlines are staffed by trained,
compassionate people who can help you figure out what’s best for you in your situation, because every situation
is different.

8. LANDMARK CASE OF DOMESTIC VIOLENCE-

Lalita Toppo v. the State of Jharkhand, (2018)

1. Facts
a) It was heard by the Supreme Court of India, the Complainant, who was not the Respondent’s legally
wedded wife, approached the Court to obtain maintenance under the provisions of the Protection of Women
 from Domestic Violence Act, 2005, supposing that she will not be allowed to maintenance under Section
125 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973.
b) In this instance, the Appellant was in a live-in relationship, with whom she had a kid. When the couple got
separated, the Appellant sought support from her spouse, for which the Gumlaw Family Court allowed,
giving her Rs 2000 per month and Rs 1000 to her child. The Appellant filed an appeal in the High Court,
which found the family court’s ruling to be incorrect and ruled in favor of the partner. The Appellant then
went to the Supreme Court.
2. Issue
Whether a live-in partner can seek maintenance under the Domestic Violence Act, 2005?

3. Judgement
a) In the Supreme Court a three-judge Bench composed of the then- CJI Ranjan Gogoi, Justices U.U. Lalit and
K.M. Joseph observed that a live-in partner will be obligated to even more relief than that envisaged by
Section 125 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973.
b) Making reference to the provisions of the Domestic Violence Act, the bench noted that the petitioner in the
case would have a remedy to seek maintenance under the Act despite the fact that she is not the legally
wedded wife and thus not obligated to be maintained under Section 125 of the Code of Criminal Procedure.
c) It was also observed by the Court that domestic violence, according to the provisions of the Domestic
Violence Act, also includes economic abuse.