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Legal Protection Against Domestic Violence in India: Scope and Limitations

NCJ Number
235346
Journal
Journal of Family Violence Volume: 26 Issue: 4 Dated: May 2011 Pages: 319-330
Author(s)
Biswajit Ghosh; Tanima Choudhuri
Date Published
May 2011
Length
12 pages
Annotation
This paper examines the legal measures to curb domestic violence against women in India.
Abstract
This paper deals with the scope and limits of legal measures to curb domestic violence against women in India. The Indian State has enacted several laws in the past to address the issue and recently a new comprehensive law is added to the list. The new law has become an alternative to many urban victims. Yet, a review of the performance of the old and new laws on domestic violence proves that legal measures to curb domestic violence have serious limitations. They could neither guarantee any reduction in the extent of such violence, nor could they expedite the justice delivery system in India. Much remains to be done to ensure gender justice in a patriarchal society. Discussion here is based on secondary data and supplemented by field data collected through qualitative research informed by feminist epistemology in the district of Burdwan, West Bengal. (Published Abstract)