India-Gujarat – Domestic Violence Deaths of Women – Study
Author: Womens UN Report Network
Date: February 12, 2006
GUJARAT, INDIA – The challenges : Unnatural Deaths caused by Domestic
Violence against Women
AWAG
– Ila Pathak
Ahmedabad Women’s Action Group
A young married woman going to live at her marital home is expected to
submit fully to her husband and his elderly
relatives.
When she is subjected to domestic violence, she tries
to escape by returning to her natal home.
Parents, following the cultural code of SOCIETY send her back. When this
happens more than once, her
suffering at marital home intensifies.
Unable to continue with life such a woman succumbs to her
death.
(i)
Our study ‘Aftermath of Domestic
Violence Against Women : A Systematic Exploration of AWAG’s Experience with reference to the
operation of Criminal Justice System in Gujarat (India)’, looked into
this.
(ii)
Our ngo, AWAG, took up the
challenge to arrest the ever increasing number of deaths of young women, almost
more than 14 per day on an average in the year 1995, increased upto more than 17
per day is 1998 in the population
of 4,83,87,270 as per census of
2001.
(iii)
Networking among ngos of the
State and restrategising on the issue
with specific steps led to decrease in the number of such deaths over
years. The death toll in 2004 is
more than 12 per day.
(i) Study
Persistence of a specific form of violence studied
AWAG studied the
persistence of unnatural deaths of young women once in 1985 and then in
1995-1999. The study in 1985 had
concentrated on the causes of such deaths and it was found that women met ends
of their lives when they could no longer bear domestic violence meted out to
them.
From 1985 onwards
AWAG was monitoring the data recorded by police of unnatural deaths of women as
registered under heads like, (i) murder (ii) dowry-death (iii) abetment of
suicide (iv) accidental death and (v) suicide. It was clear to us by 1995 that the
number of unnatural deaths increased every year. In the study initiated in the year 1995
AWAG started finding out if police registered the complaints of domestic
violence made by women complainants to them at various police
stations.
In Gujarat
violence against women has been addressed from early 30s. In fact the first
rescue centre was established in Ahmedabad
City (Gujarat) in 1934 and first shelter was established in the same city in 1937.
By the end of the eighties 52 Counseling
Centres, 96 Legal Aid Centres and nine Shelters for women were established in
Gujarat. Despite all that the number of unnatural deaths increased every year.
the following table points to that :
Table No.
1
No. of unnatural
deaths of women from 1984 to 19951
Year |
1984 |
1985 |
1986 |
1987 |
1988 |
1989 |
1990 |
1991 |
1992 |
1993 |
1994 |
1995 |
No. of deaths per |
1418 |
1024 |
2132 |
2220 |
4116 |
4254 |
3986 |
3862 |
4016 |
4521 |
4838 |
5112 |
No. of deaths per |
3.88 |
2.8 |
5.84 |
6.0 |
11.27 |
11.65 |
10.92 |
10.58 |
11.0 |
12.38 |
13.25 |
14.0 |
In 1995 AWAG
convened a meeting of the ngos active on the issue and asked for
restrategising. No consensus could
be arrived at yet AWAG decided to provide trainings to the Counselors working in
Family Counseling Centres (FCCs)
and Social Workers in Legal
Aid Centres (LACs) run by ngos and
funded by the State.
The system
followed thus far in FCCs and LACs was to send the complainant woman back into
her family after negotiating with both parties and making a written document
that she will not be henceforth battered.
Despite such compromises women continued to lose lives in increasing
numbers.
AWAG proposed
that the system needed change. Some specific lessons were put across (i) Listen
to the complainant woman first and ask her what she wants (ii) In case she wants
to return (which most women do) then counsel her not to rush back but hold out
till she finds enough courage within her to say ‘no’ to violence (iii) In case
she does not want to go back because of violence, inform her that she had a legal option, she could file a
complaint against her husband and / or his relatives. (iv) In case she wants to
file a complaint, take her to the police station to help her get the complaint
registered. We named this type of
intervention ‘pro-woman counseling’ as against the custom of ‘family
counseling’.
The trainees were
invited every six months. They brought disturbing news that the police did not
register complaints of these women.
A new section was added from December 1983 in the Indian Penal Code as
Section 498-A (IPC)2 and the police was supposed to register complaints of physical /
mental torture by husband.
Cultural
underpinnings in India are that the parents do not allow a married daughter to
stay back with them. When a daughter turns to them for help, she is asked to return and live with her
in-laws through her life. Such
women have no option but to live at their marital home. when they can no longer
take the beatings or other forms of torture they lose the will to live and
succumb to unnatural death. Another undertone is that a husband is entitled to
beat his wife. This is so widely accepted that some women argue that the
husband’s beating is expression of his love towards them ! But those myths turn into hideous
reality soon.
However, this has
another seamier side. Policeman is
recruited from this very society which accepts husband’s right to brutally treat
his wife. So when a woman goes to complaint against her husband the police asks
her to go back to him otherwise he threatens that she would not be sheltered by
him. This intimidates the woman
complainant and she hesitates.
Worst example could be quoted of a Police Station Officer (PSO) saying “I
also beat my wife this morning, will you also complain against me and put me
in jail ?
Add to this the
tendency of Police Sub-Inspectors (PSI) and Police Inspectors (IS) to ‘counsel’
the couple to reconcile. The
practice largely followed is that the husband is sent for, loudly reprimanded
for beating his wife and made to swear that he would not do so henceforth. As the husband falls at the feet of the
police officer and accepts his recommendation, the woman is asked to go home
with him. The officers honestly
believe that the couple is reconciled to live happily ever after.
AT home, the
woman is again subjected to worse treatment, the additional torture is
punishment for going to seek help outside.
AWAG took up the
issue by proposing sensitization of the police on the issue. Formal permission was sought and from
1998 January to end of 2000 AWAG sensitized 80% of the police force of Gujarat. Insistence was on registering complaints
of battered wives so that they could survive.
The sensitization
workshops yielded results. By the
end of year I of the effort the number of complaints registered under section
498-A increased and the number of unnatural deaths did not increase but actually
decreased. The downward trend
continued. By 2001 this was
obvious. But Gujarat has a
population of more than 4 billion so one cannot jump to conclusions. Later records of year 2004 showed that
the number of deaths definitely decreased.
The following
tables indicate that :
Table no.
2
No.of unnatural
deaths of women from 1995 to 20043.
Year |
1995 |
1996 |
1997 |
1998 |
1999 |
2000 |
2001 |
2002 |
2003 |
2004 |
No.of |
5112 |
5164 |
5525 |
6349 |
6135 |
5583 |
4924 |
4672 |
4749 |
4631 |
No.of average deaths per |
14.0 |
14.15 |
15.14 |
17.39 |
16.08 |
15.03 |
13.49 |
12.80 |
13.01 |
12.68 |
Table no.
3
No.of complaints
registered under section 498-A (IPC) from 1995 to 20044
Year |
1995 |
1996 |
1997 |
1998 |
1999 |
2000 |
2001 |
2002 |
2003 |
2004 |
No.of |
1950 |
2545 |
2415 |
2989 |
3276 |
3563 |
3191 |
|
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