Suffering for the past nine years, Chetna did not
know how to approach the police as the existing laws
demanded physical evidence. But this week she gathered
courage – after learning about the Protection of Women
from Domestic Violence Act which came into effect on
Thursday – and decided to teach her husband a lesson.

“I was aware of the Bill and approached the police
station to file a complaint against my husband. But the
moment he came to know about it, he rushed after me and
apologised in front of the police officers. I warned him
and we patched up. At least now he knows that I am not
going to stay silent forever,” she said.

Chhaya Singhal, 26, who married Anil Kumar Goyal in
May, said: “My in-laws expected us to spend Rs300,000
[Dh24,491] on the wedding, but my father spent Rs
500,000. Despite that, within a few days the demand for
more money began and my husband and mother-in-law
started harassing me.”

Physical torture and abuse led to Singhal trying to
commit suicide within two months of her marriage. She
survived and put up with all kinds of accusations until
some time back Goyal packed her off to her parents’
house in Burari in north Delhi. Confident of being able
to earn a respectable living independently, she is now
seeking a divorce from her husband.

“Although I approached a woman’s organisation for
help, my intention now is to contact the nearest police
station after knowing about the Domestic Violence Act.
This will get me prompt justice and I can get on with my
life. I hope the Act will prove an effective and
powerful tool in the hands of harassed women like me,”
she said.

The government had first passed a Bill on Domestic
Violence on March 8, 2002. Although the President gave
his consent on September 13, 2005, its implementation
was pending for want of framing the rules.

Even while organisations are upbeat about having
achieved what they set out for, there are apprehensions
in the minds of some activists. Sudha Tiwari,
Vice-President, Shakti Shalini, said: “The Bill is
welcomed, but for it to be implemented in the right
perspective there is a need to sensitise the judiciary
and the police.”

“It is also imperative for women in villages to be
made aware of their rights because unless the message
reaches the grassroots level the efforts will be
meaningless. And for that the entire government
machinery at the village and community level needs to be
updated.”

Tiwari did not deny that the Act could be misused but
said a lot depended on how the loopholes would be dealt
with. “Women in distress are often always honest. But in
several dowry-related cases it has been seen that the
lawyers advise them to mould their statements, which is
not how the system should work,” she said.

Mamta Verma is among the millions of women who have
been suffering silently. Married six years ago with two
children, her trauma started when her second child, a
daughter, was born. Upset with her for giving birth to a
girl, her husband and in-laws started torturing her. In
due course she realised that her husband was already
married.

She left with her children to stay with her parents
and filed a case with the Crime Against Women Cell. But
justice eluded her. She has now approached the Delhi
Commission for Women (DCW) and is hopeful that under the
new Act, she will be given better advice.

DCW has been taking up such cases on a day-to-day
basis. “Most women coming to us belong to the lower
strata of society. And 65-70 per cent cases are settled
within a month’s time,” a counsellor said.

In 2003-2004, the DCW received 8,174 complaints, out
of which 1,048 related to physical abuse by husband and
1,074 pertained to harassment by in-laws.

The figures for 2005-2006 totalled 7,461, including
627 cases of physical abuse and 641 related to
harassment by in-laws.

A senior police officer said until now laws were not
strong enough and there was no specific law under which
they could book offenders for domestic violence. “With
the Act coming into force, we hope the situation will
change,” he
said.

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