Domestic violence, malnutrition linked in India

Washington, April 25 Preventing domestic violence could be just as effective as a pharmaceutical approach in combating anaemia among women in India, say researchers. They found that women and children in India experiencing multiple incidents of domestic violence are more likely to be anaemic and underweight.

"This is strong evidence that domestic violence is linked with malnutrition among both mothers and children. In India, the withholding of food is a documented form of abuse and is likely correlated with the perpetration of physical violence," said S.V. Subramanian of the Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH)

The exhaustive study included 69,072 (aged 15-49 years) women and 14,552 children (12-35 months) from the Indian National Family Health Survey of 1998-99.

The participants were personally interviewed by trained personnel, and the data collected included body measurements, blood samples and information on women's and child's exposure to domestic violence in the previous 12 months.

The researchers found that women who reported more than one instance of domestic violence in the previous year had a 11 percent increased likelihood of having anaemia and a 21 percent increased likelihood of being underweight, as compared to women with no such history.

The data suggests a relation between domestic violence and malnutrition among women and children in India.

In India, the withholding of food as a type of abuse could be a factor in the link between physical domestic violence and nutrient deficiencies that cause anaemia and underweight.

Additionally, domestic violence has been strongly associated with a woman's inability to make decisions for herself and her family, including the choice of types and quantities of food she prepares


The authors' second explanation is that the link between domestic violence and nutritional deficiencies may also reflect the effects of psychological stress.

Women and children who experience domestic violence tend to have higher levels of psychological stress, which has been associated with anaemia and being underweight.

The findings were published online on March 26 in The American Journal of Epidemiology.

Related links :

- The Protection Of Women From Domestic Violence Act, 2005

- Latest News Headlines - "Domestic Violence Act"

Misuse of anti-dowry law increasing in India

New Delhi, Dec - Vikash Tuteja, who is in his late 30s, had to pay his wife a hefty Rs.1.2 million as the settlement amount in his marriage dispute. It is Section 498 A of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) that has spoilt his life as his in-laws have been using it quite frequently to extract money from him.

Vikash, whose case was settled in a Family Court in Delhi, and many other men and their families have become a victim of this anti-dowry law, which deals with a husband or his family subjecting a woman to cruelty.

The law aims to provide safety and security to women in Indian society where they are often harassed by in-laws for fat sums of dowry at the time of marriage and also subsequently. Punishment can be a maximum of imprisonment of three years and a fine. But there have been many cases of the law being misused.

Mahesh Parekh, a practising lawyer at the Family Court, said: "One out of 12 cases is a vindictive case. It's not as though there is no truth, but, yes, at times it is blown out of proportion to make the husband and the in-laws look criminal and fetch them punishment accordingly."

During the recent Lok Sabha session, it was submitted by the government that more than 11,300 false cases got registered under the Dowry Prohibition Act this year.

The government, which referred to data collected by the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), said the cases were declared false on account of mistake of fact or law.

Gurubaksh Singh, secretary of the Save Family Foundation, said: "There are several cases where the husbands were earning a handsome salary and a case of dowry was slapped against them. Women are misguided by the family and sometimes by lawyers to extract money."

Even the legal fraternity has come forward to stop the misuse of dowry laws and proposed the use of lie-detector tests, brain mapping tests and narco-analyses for bringing out the truth in dowry-related cases.

"Even the amendment in the dowry law in the year 1993 has not brought relief to the grieving husbands. Instead, it has created more problems for them," said D.B. Goswami, a prominent criminal lawyer.

"With the help of lie detector tests things will become easier for the complainant as well as the accused. This step will be a great relief for those who are being harassed without any fault of theirs," added Goswami.

K.T.S. Tulsi, a prominent lawyer, said: "There are instances of wives misusing the law only because they want to get away from a joint family and set up homes of their own for various reasons. If a man resists the move because the parents are aged, his wife goes to police with a complaint of dowry harassment."

The Delhi High Court had recently observed that the number of false dowry cases were increasing day by day. In a recent case, the court acquitted a man and five of his family members sentenced to two years imprisonment by a trial court for dowry harassment and an attempt to murder his wife.

Cautioning the police and trial courts against "false statements" by dowry harassment complainants, Justice Shiv Narayan Dhingra recently said, "Every failed marriage is not a crime. However, the law (498 A of IPC) is being used to convert failed marriages into a crime and people use it as a tool to extract as much monetary benefit as possible. The FIRs are withdrawn once the payment is received by the complainant," the judge said.

In Bangalore, there are over 300 such cases registered with an NGO, Asha Kirana, which also runs a helpline for harassed husbands.

"Our various laws, including the recent Domestic Violence Act, also support the wife even when she is in the wrong. Even before the case is investigated, the police and the judiciary sympathise with the wife. Precisely for this very reason women who are bent on punishing men use the laws very convincingly," said activist Girish who is also a victim.

Activists are of the opinion that the increase in economic independence, materialism, promiscuity, incompatibility and social acceptance, to name only a few trends, are encouraging women to constantly invoke Section 498 A along with the Dowry Prohibition Act and the recent Domestic Violence Act to get out of a marriage.

"Earlier, once married, a woman had no choice but to stay put with the husband. But with society taking an increasingly lenient view of divorce, second marriages and live-in couples - at least in the urban areas - matrimonial relations have become strained," added Girish.

Several networking groups have urged the government to review Section 498 A and the Domestic Violence Act. To start with, the activists want the sub-clause of taking the aged parents and the wards of the husband into custody to be scrapped immediately so that they are not unnecessarily harassed for no fault of theirs.

National Commission for Women (NCW) chairperson Girja Vyas said, "The NCW has the mandate to review all existing provisions of the constitution and other laws affecting women and to recommend changes, if any."

7,913 cases on "domestic violence" registered in One Year

As many as 7,913 cases have been filed since a law to protect women from domestic violence came into force a year ago, according to a national report released Friday.

'Staying Alive', as the report is titled, is the first monitoring and evaluation report of the Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act (PWDVA) 2005.

The report states that the primary users of the law are married women. There are also a number of cases wherein relief has been granted to widows and daughters.

Compiled by the Lawyers Collective (Women's Rights Initiatives) (LCWRI), the report analyses data collected from the office of the Chief Justice of India, the ministry of women and child development and from organisations specifically working on the issue of domestic violence across the country.

"The compilation of the report and the conference is to be regarded as a first step towards evaluation and monitoring which should become an integral component in the implementation of this law," Indira Jaisingh, director of LCWRI, said at the release of the report.

While the most commonly granted relief is for maintenance, the second most commonly granted are residence orders and protection orders.

"There is an urgent need for adequate budgetary allocations to be made by the central and state governments to ensure the effective implementation of the PWDVA," Jaisingh said.

"There is also a need for coordination among different government departments, particularly the departments of women and child development, social welfare, home and law and legislative affairs.

"This is required in order to build a multi-agency response that is uniform across the country in the manner in which it offers relief to women facing domestic violence," she added.

Jaisingh also stressed that the police needed to be trained on providing information about the Act to women who approached them with complaints of domestic violence.