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Domestic violence in India includes any form of violence suffered by a person from a biological relative but typically is the violence suffered by a woman by male members of her family or relatives.[1][2] Although men also suffer domestic violence, the law under IPC 498A specifically protects only women. Specifically only a woman can file a case of domestic violence. According to a National Family and Health Survey in 2005, total lifetime prevalence of domestic violence was 33.5% and 8.5% for sexual violence among women aged 15–49.[3] A 2014 study in The Lancet reports that although the reported sexual violence rate in India is among the lowest in the world, the large population of India means that the violence affects 27.5 million women over their lifetimes.[4] However, an opinion survey among experts carried out by the Thomson Reuters Foundation ranked India as the most dangerous country in the world for women.[5]
The 2012 National Crime Records Bureau report of India states a reported crime rate of 46 per 100,000, rape rate of 2 per 100,000, dowry homicide rate of 0.7 per 100,000 and the rate of domestic cruelty by husband or his relatives as 5.9 per 100,000.[6] These reported rates are significantly smaller than the reported intimate partner domestic violence rates in many countries, such as the United States (590 per 100,000) and reported homicide (6.2 per 100,000 globally), crime and rape incidence rates per 100,000 women for most nations tracked by the United Nations.[7][8][9]
There are several domestic violence laws in India. The earliest law was the Dowry Prohibition Act 1961 which made the act of giving and receiving dowry a crime. In an effort to bolster the 1961 law, two new sections, Section 498A and Section 304B were introduced into the Indian Penal Code in 1983 and 1986. The most recent legislation is the Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act (PWDVA) 2005. The PWDVA, a civil law, includes physical, emotional, sexual, verbal, and economic abuse as domestic violence.
- ^ Cite error: The named reference
autogenerated1was invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ Cite error: The named reference
ellsberg2008was invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ "Women's Empowerment in India" (PDF). National Family and Health Survey.
- ^ Cite error: The named reference
lancet1was invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ Foundation, Thomson Reuters (26 June 2018). "Factbox: Which are the world's 10 most dangerous countries for women?". www.reuters.com. Retrieved 4 April 2021.
{{cite news}}:|first=has generic name (help) - ^ National Crimes Record Bureau, Crime in India 2012 – Statistics Archived 20 June 2014 at the Wayback Machine Government of India (May 2013)
- ^ S. Harrendorf, M. Heiskanen, S. Malby, INTERNATIONAL STATISTICS on CRIME AND JUSTICE United Nations Office on Drugs & Crime (2012)
- ^ Intimate Partner Violence, 1993–2010, Bureau of Justice Statistics, US Department of Justice, table on page 10.
- ^ Global Study on Homicide 2013, United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, page 12, ISBN 978-92-1-054205-0