India’s New “Domestic Violence Act” – A Study Report

Compiled by Rudolph D’Souza and Others

For centuries in India women were treated like goddesses – or devis. Even though there was sati (suttee), with widows voluntary taking to and immolating themselves on their late husband’s funeral pyre, as devout Hindus believe, or forced to do so, as opponents of sati believe, it was purely a religious custom, that had nothing to do with women rights¹. Man was the head of the family, but at home in fact he was his wife’s puppet, a situation described by the wry aside: “He is the BOSS of the House – he has his wife’s permission to say so!”

The worth of a civilization can be judged from the position that it gives to women. Of the several factors that justify the greatness of Hinduism's ancient culture, one of the greatest is the honored place ascribed to women. Manu, the great law-giver, said long ago, “Where women are honored there reside the gods.” According to ancient Hindu scriptures, no religious rite could be performed by a man perfectly without the active participation of his wife – his wife’s participation being essential to any religious rite. Married men could perform sacred rites on the occasion of various important festivals only when accompanied by their wives. Wives are thus befittingly called 'Ardhangani' (better half). They are given not only important but equal position with men (Source http://www.bu.edu/wcp/Papers/Huma/HumaSing.htm by Dr. Ms. Rekha Singh of M.D.D.M. College.

The Indian Domestic Violence Act

According to the Indian Domestic Violence Act:

Domestic violence can be defined as a pattern of behavior in any relationship that is used to gain or maintain power and control over a female partner.

Abuse can be physical, sexual, emotional, economic or psychological actions or threats of actions that frighten, intimidate, terrorize, manipulate, hurt, humiliate, blame, injure or wound the female partner.

Domestic violence can happen to anyone of any race, age, sexual orientation, religion or gender – except to males. It can happen among couples who are married, living together or who are dating. Domestic Violence affects people of all socio-economic backgrounds and education levels.

A woman may be in an emotionally abusive relationship if her male partner:

1.Calls her names, insults her or continually criticizes her,
2.Does not trust her and acts jealous or possessive,
3.Tries to isolate her from family or friends,
4.Monitors where she goes, who she calls and who she spends time with,
5.Does not want her to work,
6.Controls finances or refuses to share money,
7.Punishes her by withholding affection,
8.Expects her to ask permission,
9.Threatens to hurt her, her children, her family or her pets,
10.Humiliates her in any way.

A woman may be in a physically abusive relationship if her male partner has ever:

1.Damaged property when angry (thrown objects, punched walls, kicked doors, etc.).
2.Pushed, slapped, bitten, kicked or choked her.
3.Abandoned her in a dangerous or unfamiliar place.
4.Scared her by driving recklessly.
5.Used a weapon to threaten or hurt her.
6.Forced her to leave her home.
7.Trapped her in her home or kept her from leaving.
8.Prevented her from calling the police or seeking medical attention.
9.Hurt her children.
10.Used physical force in sexual situations.

And also... a woman may be in a sexually abusive relationship if her partner:

1.Views women as objects and believes in rigid gender roles.
2.Accuses her of cheating or is often jealous of her outside relationships.
3.Wants her to dress in a sexual way.
4.Insults her in sexual ways or calls her sexual names.
5.Has ever forced or manipulated her into to having sex or performing sexual acts.
6.Held her down during sex.
7.Demanded sex when she were sick, tired or after beating her
8.Hurt her with weapons or objects during sex.
9.Involved other people in sexual activities with her
10.Ignored her feelings regarding sex.

By contrast, the Indian Domestic Violence Act specifically and clearly exculpates women from being prosecuted as the principal accused of Domestic Violence, excepting mothers, sisters, etc. of the accused man being prosecuted as abettors etc., and also specifically provides that the prescribed reliefs, such as maintenance, restraining orders, can be obtained ONLY by a woman and NEVER against a woman!

These rules which are set out in the Indian Domestic Violence are totally biased, and work, not to protect the institution of marriage and families, but to break marriages and families, giving ample opportunities for misuse, with no remedial measures provided for.

Together with the so-called “Section 498 (A)” of the Indian Penal Code and the associated amendment to the Evidence Act, these legislations have resulted in widespread misuse and social malaise. Additionally, under these legislations, the indirect sufferers will be women in majority of the cases, as daughters-in-law file case against husbands, mothers-in-law and sisters-in-law.

Homes and relationships cannot be run by State terrorism and force. Money can’t make any one happy, otherwise, no one would have yearned for family and friends and children.

Women can not both obtain “relief” and also retain relationships by taking recourse to these legislations, a fact that should be fully understood by one and all. The relationship between men and women is by heart and voluntary, otherwise, it results in prostitution.

What this Act really mean...

According to these legislations, the following is a list of women’s rights:

1. The right to control and subjugate the male partner
2. The right to publicly humiliate and physically abuse the male partner and his entire family
3. The right to divest the male partner of all his money and property
4. The right to send the male partner and his entire family to jail on her whims and fancies
5. The right to force the male partner to be a slave to her family
6. The right to kick out the male partner from HIS house at her will
7. The right to commit adultery (and send the male partner to jail if he dares object)
8. The right to kill an unborn child regardless of the male’s partner’s wishes
9. The right to have all “rights” and no responsibilities

The Main reasons “Modern Women” file Police Complaints under these legislations:

1. She is possessive and suspicious
2. She is self-centered and feels the need to dominate the relationship and every aspect of decision-making
3. She is used to living beyond her means
4. She came from a middle class Family and married a man who was wealthier than herself
5. She has some political connections
6. She is a control freak
7. Her father is hen-pecked and her mother dominates her family
8. She listens to and acts in accordance with her parents’ wishes at all times
9. She lacks discretion in dealing with her married life
10. She wants to alienate her husband’s affection from his parents and siblings
11. She wishes her husband to commit the crime of abandoning his aged parents
12. She is hypersensitive
13. She opposes every word of her husband, his parents, siblings, etc.
14. She wishes to blackmail and intimidate her husband, his parents and siblings to fulfill her unreasonable demands
15. She does not wish to adjust to or with the husband’s family or take on any domestic responsibilities.
16. She is suffering from pre-existing mental problems

In Details........

Section 32 (2) says that under the sole testimony of the aggrieved person, the court may conclude that an offence has been committed by the accused.

This means with one word of women, it will empowered her to punish men at her will. This is very dangerous for innocent men. As it is in the Divorce, alimony, rape, and dowry laws are already in favour of women. This law will not allow men to escape from the clutchs of women who would lodge false complaint. All she has to do is, go to police station and shed some crocodile tears. thats all, and husband will be full time member of jail at no cost; SORRY tax payers cost.

Ch.IV, S.17 makes the “right of residence” a powerful tool in the women’s hands whether or not she has any title in the household.

An adulterous woman can abuse her husband or in-laws and threaten them of false domestic violence but she cannot be thrown out of the house as per the Act. This is open license to women to harass innocent men. She could even bring her lover to the house and the husband or in-laws can’t do anything or stop her. Even husband has no right if she has sex in front of her husband, may may file case for stoping her from enjoying, ist harassment for her.

(Ch.II, S.3) of the Domestic violence Act includes actual abuse or threat of abuse — physical, verbal, emotional or economic.

it means whatever husband do to his wife is wrong, but same if she do, thats ok, Even with hold sex, shout at him, slap, insult, Humiliate


Section 18 allows the magistrate to protect the woman from acts of violence or even “acts that are likely to take place” in the future and can prohibit the respondent from dispossessing the aggrieved person or in any other manner disturbing her possessions, entering the aggrieved person’s place of work or any other place that the abused woman frequents….

If women says her husband and in laws stoping her from Bringing her lover home, judge will order husband and his old parents not enter thier own home.


The Act also says that husbands can’t pressure wives to watch porn or to have sexual relationship.

Some Indian women says Kissing is PORN, so soon all indian men who watch movies, Watch these movies together in jail.


Ch.III, S4 of the Act says that the information regarding an act or acts of domestic violence does not necessarily have to be lodged by the aggrieved party but by “any person who has reason to believe that” such an act has been or is being committed. Which means that neighbours, social workers, relatives etc. can all take initiative on behalf of the victim

When husband Stop wifes lover entering his home, he can file complaint in behalf of his lover.

Preventing one’s wife from taking up a job or forcing her to leave job are also under the purview of the Act.

Only solution is to save Institute of Marriage and Family of india, we should ask all organisations not to appoint women at any cost.

Another flaw in the Act is inclusion of live-in partners or any sexual partner (Ch.I, S.2(a))

This clause give men to make use of this law, if a lover of man come home , his legally wedded wife cann`t do anything she cann`t kick her out. husbands now take advantage of this bill ? its law against women not in her favor

The Act will actually worsen the domestic problems leading to breakdown in marriages as women will be now encouraged to go to courts ,without giving any chance to settle thier differences The Act discourages women to rectify their mistake. The Act not only gives powers without taking any responsibilities to women but also takes away all the rights of men.

it is not only marriage breaker but also whole family spliter, women can file case against any male member of Family, its a chain reaction, one crack in a marriage can ruin husbands other brothers family too. its massive bomb waiting to Explode.

There is ample chance to misuse coz there is no clause of punishsment if misused, just like Dowry law.

Feminist want Domestic Violence not Domestic harmony, thats why there is no word of spouse instead man.

With the help of this law now women can stop Father of her children to meet them, this is total breakdown of Social structure of Indian Society it is best tool for black clad corrupt lawyers and Money minting machinary for police, women organisations and politicians.

If there are abusive men, then there are Abusive women too. Laws should be gender balanced not Gender Biased.

Real Statistics on Domestic violence:

One of the most pervasive myths of our society is that domestic violence is something men do to women. Solid scientific research reveals that domestic violence is something women do to men more frequently than men do to women.

While it is true that men account for most violence outside the home, women instigate most domestic violence and they injure men more frequently and more severely.

The Family Research Laboratory at the University of New Hampshire, under grants from the National Institute of Mental Health, recently finished the last of three national studies on domestic violence. The first two studies revealed results similar to the latest study. Anyone who would like a copy of it may order it from the University of New Hampshire (ask for Document V55). The data tape and documentation of the 1975 and 1985 studies are available from the Interuniversity Consortium For Political and Social Research at the University of Michingan.

Original data is also available on CD-ROM from Sociometrics, Inc. in Palo Alto, CA.

The average results in the 'severe assault' category are reported below:

* Wives report they have been severely assaulted by husband 22 per 1000

* Wives report they have severely assaulted husband 59 per 1000

* Husbands report they have been severely assaulted by wives 32 per 1000

* Husbands report they have severely assaulted wives 18 per 1000

* Husbands & wives both report wife has been assaulted 20 per 1000

* Husbands & wives both report husband has been assaulted 44 per 1000

There are dozens of other studies that reveal similar findings. For instance:

* Women are three times more likely than men to use weapons in domestic violence.

* Women initiate most incidents of domestic violence.

* Women commit most child abuse and elder abuse.

* Women hit their male children more frequently and more severely than they hit their female children.

* Women commit most child murders and 64% of their victims are male children.

* When women murder adults, the majority of their victims are men.

* Women commit 50% of spousal murders.

* Eighty-two per cent of all people have their first experience of violence at the hands of a woman.

Wives report they have been severely assaulted by husband 22 per 1000 (Vs 59%)

[Source: http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0JJC/is_3_22/ai_81835579 ]

Who is behind this Sabotage of Society?

Rajendra K.Gupta, “India-Force” Yahoo! D-List (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/India-Force )

What the dirty, overfed and corrupt politicians and misguided women in various forums and organizations are doing is causing widespread damage to India’s social fabric.
We have almost reached the point of no return. Men are being forced to remain in marriage - once entered - under threat of law. This is sickening. Instead of making divorce easy and simple and time bound these politicians enact more and more laws to intimidate people and fool women and men alike.
Once a relationship is broken it will result into divorce. There is no point in trying to save it and that too by force and threat of police arrest. There has been wholesale abuse of women's laws as much as 90% cases in case of 498A and other dowry laws.
But in fact I know of several women whose jewellery and other effects are in custody of brother-in-laws and ex-husbands and nothing is done by police or courts. They don't even bother to listen about it. The whole system in India is corrupt and fraudulent. These laws are merely for terrorizing and harassing and in order to provide opportunity to policemen and government employees to extort money.
Genuine cases are never taken up by police or courts. They invariably act on false cases.

Whenever special laws are enacted the procedure and definitions should be very clear and goals of law should be clear. These should have built-in safety and higher punishment for abuse of law and making false complaints. Policemen should also be prosecuted for false action. Unless this is done, Indian society is headed for severe crisis, unrest and breakages of homes and ultimately women will be the largest sufferers.

The situation is such that I would advice youth not to marry if they can avoid it. A new set up will have to be evolved in society till these corrupt and brainless people in power learn lessons and withdraw all foolish andmala fide laws enacted including reservations.

Just imagine - a boy marries a girl and marriage lasts for a few weeks but he has to provide her a home, money and maintenance for her whole life and also face charges against 498A and 406 and etc laws. He can't sell his house any more without consent of that woman. It is sheer ridiculous and contradictory to many other basic laws and principles of the Constitution. Would it be advisable to go for marriage in India anymore? Marrying is now a very risky and costly act.
In fact what happens in most urban disputes is the incompatibility and intolerance by the bride towards the groom’s family and the wife’s insistence on living separately. Relations sour and reach breaking point, which is when the whole act of vendetta and State Terrorism begins. Go to police file a complaint under Section 498(A) without any evidence, facts or prima facie reason. Now she will go to court lodging a complaint under the so-called D.V. Act. The DV act provisions are nothing but outright foolish, absurd, illogical and exist to perpetrate Sate Terrorism and blackmail only. How such law can be passed in any democratic society ?
It is time people stop marrying like in USA and many other western countries. There appears to be a sinister plot to finish Indian society and its family unit and thus India’s advantage.
People should write to the Ministry of Law, the President and to the Chief Justice of India (CJI) to withdraw these illegal legislations immediately and arrest the members of the “National Commission for Women” (NCW) for injuring the commonwealth.
This boneless and corrupt person working as prime minister should immediately resign. He should be ashamed for all his failures and for dividing society by intense reservations and bringing in several silly and idiotic laws never heard before.
People should not sit quiet. People have to rise when unreasonabelity reaches its peak. That is what Krishna preached and all great leaders in world preached. Don’t suffer in silence. Demand action against these boneless and corrupt politicians and take them on. They won't listen to the calls of logic and voices of sanity. They are totally blinded by lure of vote banks and making wealth. Today Indians are playing into the hands of western powers with full abandon. And the leftists though they call themselves leftist are actually supporting all these anti-social acts as they are also making huge amount of money

The Gender Divide

Source: http://gender-indian.blogspot.com/2006/12/time-to-wean-away-women-from-economic.html]

In India for centuries until the mid-twentieth centuries women were not granted permission to engage in economic activities. They were made to be an economic burden on some man – their fathers, brothers, husbands, sons, etc.

As a result, the dowry system was fashioned and observed by many communities on the principle that it was unfair to place a woman’s entire economic burden on the husband.

As the twentieth century progressed the hurdles towards women participating in the economic activity were gradually eliminated and by the 21st century the hurdles have been more or less removed in most sections of Indian society. Strictly speaking, now that women, by and large are economically independent, there is no longer any need for her to be dependent on a man.

However it is being seen that the Courts still treat women as "Abla Naari" needing financial assistance from some male, mostly her husband. Given the current social scenario, it now becomes imperative that women be weaned away from this dependency on income earned by the husband’s sweat. There is no longer any need to demand financial assistance from husbands to live their lives.

The Hindu Marriage Act (HMA) also clearly states that when a woman has access to independent income then she is not entitled to financial assistance in form of maintenance or alimony.

Unfortunately financially independent women are still misusing the maintenance laws (Section 125 of the Criminal Procedure Code) and Section 24 of HMA to demand financial settlements as “maintenance”.

Hidden Agendas Behind Proposed ‘Sexual Harassment Law’

Most of the contemporary pro-feminist legislations of India, dating from the 1980s, turn out to be totally one-sided, with unacceptable hidden motives and just plain wrong.

The new proposed legislation against ‘Sexual Harassment’ being pushed by the Ministry of Women and Child Development, National Commission for Women and other Femo-Fascist organizations continues with the Femo-Fascist agenda of destroying Democracy and the Principle of Equality before the law, by criminalizing all men and excluding them even from judicial powers.

Wrong 1: Constitution of the Committee:

The proposed legislation practically means:
The Committee at Parliament-level which will look into allegations of sexual harassment in Parliament will have 3 members, exclusively women, of which, one will be a professional women's rights activist from outside the parliament.

Similarly, at the district level committee in all courts, there will be 3 members, all exclusively women, one of then being a professional women's rights activist.

Chartered Accountants will have at every state or the union territory level, a similar committee, comprising have 3 members, exclusively women, of which, one will be a professional women's rights activist.

Similarly for the Bar Councils, Orphanages, Charitable Homes and also for Children’s Homes

Objection: Why are men being systematically excluded from these very powerful legal commity(s)?

Are we saying that all the men in parliament are not competent, but women members are competent?

That all male Additional District Magistrates (ADMs) and Civil & Sessions Court Judges are incompetent to be part of this Committee but women judges are competent?

That all the highly educated male Charted Accountants in India not even good enough to be part of this very powerful Judicial Committee(s)?
Reason for objection: I think there are 2 persons involved, one is male and one is female. Sometimes man may find it easy to express themselves to men, and women may find it easy to express themselves to women. We should have both man and women in the committee, equality for men, if not in laws at least minimum in this very powerful judges committee. The committee should have 50% men and 50% women. There should not be a bar that maximum only 3 persons can be in these committees; this should be left to the establishment if they want to have more members. The committee should be headed by two equal co-chairpersons, one a male the other a female.

Wrong 2: The proposed ‘Sexual Harassment’ legislation practically means:

For most companies with more then 50 persons, medical hospitals, prison, public establishments etc., the committee should be headed by a woman and should have more then 50% women members, with one woman member being a professional women's rights activist selected by the “Protection Officer” under the proposed ‘Sexual Harassment Act of that district.
Reason for objection: The apparent aim is not to balance the Committee by including a few men in the committee, but to keep more then 50% women and to top this, all powers are with the head of the Committee who must necessarily be a women. There is no provision that if not all members agree they can voice this in writing, and even if this is done, there is no way this will make a difference to the defendant’s case. All powers are vested with female head of the Committee. This way the men are there only for cosmetic reasons, just to make fun off by feminists (since Committee members will have no real powers), to make men feel inferior, to abuse the men committee members. This constitution of the committees is simply wrong and is unacceptable. It is evident that this is an underhand attempt to institutionalize Femo-Fascism in the Indian government. I suggest that the Committees should be constituted of an equal number of men and women, and have two equal co-chairpersons, one a male the other a female.

Wrong 3: Under Section 19 of the proposed legislations, providing funds to the women’s rights activists is not made clear, while travel expenses is mentioned, other expenses like Dearness Allowances, etc, are deliberately not made clear. To breed more young feminists, press has to go to them for news; all these women rights activists are again given powers to employ more persons.

TRUE lies :

News Agencies( http://www.msmagazine.com/news/uswirestory.asp?ID=9970) have refered to http://www.unfpa.org [UNFPA] as the source of these statistics, “United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) found that an astonishing 70 percent of women who are married are beaten and sexually abused.”

How can two different organizations of UN (ie. UNDP and UNFPA) take on the same research and produce the same results by wasting funds?

We would like to request the Indian blogger community to check if they can get the source of the these statistics.

In the meantime, David R. Usher of MensNewsDaily, world’s most [ http://mensnewsdaily.com/2006/11/12/domestic-violence-rumor-mill-runs-the-united-nations ] famous Men’s Rights Blog. He also could not confirm the statistics and accused UN of manufacturing lies.

Then, we found that the http://www.unfpa.org [website of UNFPA]

has a Histogram, which shows percentage of ever-married Indian women between age 15 to 49 ever beaten* by a spouse of partner in 2005. The histogram shows the percentage as just 19%http://www.unfpa.org/swp/2005/presskit/factsheets/facts_vaw.htm [unfpa article]

(*In most surveys includes having been hit, slapped, kicked and physically hurt.)

So, what is the percentage of Indian women getting physically abused in a year by their so called wife-beater husbands?

That is 19/(49-15) = 0.56%.

Lets compare 0.56% women between age 15-49 facing domestic violence and the figure of 70% women facing domestic violence as reported in Media in last 20 days. Feminist hypocrisy is out in open.

On A Lighter Note

A good way to find the truth in the legislations drawn up by the Ministry of "women and child development" and NCW feminists, is to start reading near the bottom. They invariably put the main objectionable point near the end, then put so much confusion at top and middle by confusing use of word, that maybe Parliament’s members, while deciding whether to pass the law or not, will not read with full concentration until the end in details. So you know that as expected, the constitution of the Additional District Magistrates and Civil & Sessions Judges Committees, and the Parliament Committee, etc., are given at the end of the proposed legislation. Cheers.

Money and employment for Feminists

Though simple readings will not tell you, but a thorough logical examination of the text of the proposed legislation will reveal that this law is intended to create employment and money for feminists. See the draft of the proposed legislation at http://wcd.nic.in/draftsexharrsement.htm

Noted quote:

What do you say about the Prevention of Domestic Violence Act that has been passed by Parliament recently?

The unity of family is already under threat in our country. This Act has been given another weapon in the hands of women. Before bringing any law, we need to educate people about its usage. George Washington was presented an axe by his father on his birthday in his childhood. Since he did not have the knowledge of using it, he destroyed the whole garden. The misuse of this Act will take women away from their family and the society. There are forces in the country who are jealous of our strong family system. Now they have started entrapping women. I am against crime against women, but I doubt whether the Act would be used to protect the family." [Source: http://www.organiser.org/dynamic/modules.php?name=Content&pa=showpage&pid=169&page=12 ]

Recent Developments:

1) Mangalore: Bus front entrance reserved for women [Source: http://www.mangalorean.com/news.php?newstype=local&newsid=38630]

2) Delhi schools bans male teachers [Source: http://news.sulekha.com/nlink.aspx?cid=340673]

Footnotes:

1. Sati or Suttee was practiced only by upper class Hindus, and it was never a universal custom. Additionally, historians believe that the practice was imported from Central Asia during early mediaeval times, and it has no sanction in the Hindu scriptures.