Women's Experiences of Domestic Violence and Their Access to Law: Looking at the Domestic Violence Law (PWDVA) in India

Within the Indian subcontinent, law is a major process through which domestic violence is defined. Although the courts are inevitably involved in adjudicating such cases, the civil law route allows women themselves to define the circumstances under which domestic violence may be deemed sufficiently oppressive to call for legal action. Yet within the rigid boundaries of legal definitions, experiences of women are tailored to fit certain interpretations. A version of the truth is created within law, and anything that does not corroborate with that is seen as deviant or unimportant.

Based on my MPhil thesis on women’s experiences of domestic violence in this paper I look critically at the design of the Protection of Women from the Domestic Violence Act, 2005 (PWDVA) and unpack the jurisprudence behind it. I conducted most of my fieldwork during the pandemic, which is also when the cases of domestic violence increased globally, so much so that the UN termed it a “shadow pandemic”. The PWDVA is considered a significant feminist contribution to the field of family laws, affirming the survivor’s agency, and envisioning violence through multiple registers. Along with critically analyzing this law and its implementation, and looking at a few survivors’ own lived experiences of this violence, my paper will also look at a few judgments spanning the almost twenty years since the law has been around. Some of the questions my paper will try to address include: How does the PWDVA change the way domestic violence has been understood historically in the Indian legal scenario? How has the trajectory of use of this law changed and what does it mean in the context of social and cultural ideas of family? What is the role of women’s experience in the articulation of such ideas of justice?