CHENNAI:
Years of my married life went on a toss when I came to know about my husband's relationship with another woman," says Ambika, her eyes filled with tears. She was asked to appear before women's protection cell with her 13 day old kid to testify her statement in front of the officials. Months passed like passing clouds as she tried to find a lawyer to fight the issue legally. Like most women, she is willing to rejoin with her husband, working as a driver in a nationalized bank.
The ineffective enforcement act and everlasting case proceeding have made her a victim of the act.
People like Ambika comes to the police station or courts with loads of questions running in their mind regarding who to approach, what would be the verdict at the end.
In most cases related to domestic violence the woman is victimized at various junctures leading to frustration and suicide.
The gathering was organised to discuss the domestic abuse and violence, its alarming rise and women committing suicide in India. In a male dominant society, females voluntarily accepted certain works and started to keep up her angst and get suppressed, said Sp Thenpan dian, founder secretary of People for Human Rights. 'The issue of domestic violence starts from birth of a girl child; conducting a study in certain districts there is a change in birth ratio after government offered welfare schemes to encourage birth of girl child. Unfortunately the data from other districts shows a negative growth in birth ratio,'says Thenpandian. He recollects the decadelong legal battles and protest about the growing demand (lobbying) from male protection groups to scrap the law, citing reason of insecurity and discrimination in society. Terms and terminology, delaying tactics practised by certain lawyers and certain provisions of the Domestic Violence Act 2005 were discussed in the seminar jointly organised by Pengal Urimai Iyakkam and People For Human Rights. The seminar was headed by Badar Sayeed, an advocate and exMLA.Explaining domestic violence act, Suresh Babu, an advocate, said it is mandatory to issue a verdict in such cases within 60 days. He recalled India signing the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA) Agreement back in 1979 to ensure protection for women against domestic violence. Only then the Indian government enacted laws and amended existing ones to comply with the accord, he said. After decades of struggle, a truce was obtained when the the government passed Domestic Violence bill in 2005 which ensured basic protection for the complainant. It also denotes that the male must reconcile with his partner and live together, else arrange for proper compensation which was missing in other laws dealing with family disputes.
