Implementation of PWDV Act, 2005
Implementation of Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act, 2005Enabling access to women to seek legal justice.
The Wajood project is focused on the implementation of the Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act, 2005 (or PWDVA) taking 59 cases to court on intimate partner violence with the aim to enable survivors of violence to access justice using the DIR given by the law to gain relief and “stop violence” injunctions. 900 Sampark Families Engaging Men and Boys to Create No Violence Homes – The “Sampark program” aimed to build “No Violence Homes” is rooted in the concept of changing attitude towards women from “Womb to Tomb”. Through discussion we understand the causes of son-preference and daughter aversion which is one of the major causes of discrimination and violence against women. Changing attitudes to GBV begins at home, not limited to intimate partner’s violence. PWDVA is the most comprehensive legislation addressing violence against women.
2006: National Secretariat of PWDVA– Action India set up the secretariat for the Domestic Violence Act forum after receiving the mandate from the First National Women’s Conference in 2006. Combined with the efforts of the National Commission for Women, Lawyers Collective and the Secretariat the PWDVA was notified and brought into operation in mid-October 2006.
2016: A decade later women’s organisations are struggling to bring the benefits of this revolutionary law PWDVA, 2005 to the victims and survivors of violence. On the 26th of October 2016, at the Women’s Press Club, Delhi, we raised a demand that 26th October be declared as a National Day to protest against domestic violence.
Our report on RTIs filed in Delhi shows that the courts in Delhi have not sought the assistance of any welfare expert in the last 9 years ever, nor have the 18 Protection Officers ever prepared a single Safety Plan for any survivor of domestic violence. The Domestic Incident Report (DIR) which was meant to be simple and women friendly is not being taken on record in all cases filed under PWDVA in Delhi. The Protection Officers are not filing the DIRs on behalf of the woman to reach the Magistrate directly for an injunction. They wait for the full case to be filed in court, after which they file the DIR only if the Magistrate orders them to do so. Welfare experts have never been consulted by the Magistrates. Cases under PWDVA have become like any other case in the courts of law.
We were fortunate to have the judge from DLSA, Monika Saroha, who has suggested the following in terms of way forward:
- Working in the New Delhi district and with partners such as FICCI to position that DV is prevalent even among the economically well to do classes and the educated.
- Planning workshops where we can take up actual court cases to understand what the woman got, what was missing and what could have she done to ensure that she got better reliefs from courts of law. This we feel will be very useful and help our paralegal workers understand and be enabled to get better justice to women suffering from violence.
Ongoing Projects
