INSTITUTIONAL REDRESS MECHANISMS FOR VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN AND DOMESTIC VIOLENCE (Pages 146-159) by Professor B. R. Dugar in THE INTERNATIONAL MANAGER / ISSN: 2348-9413 (Online); 2348-9405 (Print)

Atrocities against women especially domestic violence is a world-wide phenomenon. The United Nations took the first step to focus on this issue. The Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) was established by UN in 1979. This was the first agency to address women’s rights in all areas of their lives, including political, economic, social, cultural, and family. CEDAW’s primary goal was to eliminate discrimination against women and to promote a respect for the human rights of women across the world. Another apprehension is that CEDAW would destroy the fundamental structure of the traditional family and the various roles of men and women. Domestic violence was recognized as a criminal offence in India for the first time in 1983. The offence chargeable under section 498-A of the Indian Penal Code relates to domestic violence as any act of cruelty by a husband or his family towards a married woman. Until recently, there was no separate civil law addressing the specific complexities associated with domestic violence, including the embedded nature of violence within familial networks, the need for protection and maintenance of abused women, and the fact that punishment and imprisonment for the husband may not be the best resolution in every case. Only after a lengthy process of consultations and revisions for more than a decade did a comprehensive domestic violence law come into force in 2006, which is known as the Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act 2005. Keywords: Domestic Violence, Violence against Women, CEDAW, PWDVA