Anupam Aysha·
Women & Child
···2 views

Economic stability of Women; Issues and concerns in reference to domestic violence in India

The author of this article is Adv. Shilpa U S, LLM student at Government Law College, Thiruvananthapuram.

Through this work, she explains the financial stability of women in India when read with the concerns of Domestic Violence.

INTRODUCTION

Violence against women is not a new phenomenon. It is a primitive practice that has always been treated as a part and participle of the sociocultural environment. Despite the centuries-old history, the exploitation of fair sex has not been acknowledged as a crime in its totality until now. Many forms of degradation, indignity, and oppression are still socially accepted. This form of exploitation has always been socially and culturally justified with the ultimate purpose of sustaining a patriarchal social order.1

“Throughout history violence has been systematically directed towards women. Economic and social processes operate directly and indirectly to support a patriarchal social order and family structure”2 

According to Aristotle, “Women may be said to be an inferior man”.3 Similarly, Indian culture follow the quotation of Tulsidas that, “Drum’s donkey and women need to be beaten”.4

Thus, one may conclude that such male egoistic views against women also played a major role to keep women subjugated and tolerate all kinds of violence and atrocities. Women’s Rights Convention very well defines all these atrocities in brief, as, “The history of mankind is a history of repeated injuries and usurpation on the part of man towards woman, having indirect object the establishment of tyranny over her”.5

‘Domestic violence’ is a serious problem for women throughout the world. Domestic violence does not mean harassment and cruelty at the hands of husband and in-laws only but it also includes offences like incest, mutilation of private organs, rape, abortion of a female fetus, molestation, unnatural sex, female infanticide, torture, bride-burning, sati, etc.6

STATUS OF DOMESTIC VIOLENCE

Usha Kiran Rai7 in her article ‘Freedom from Fear of Domestic Violence’ highlights the fact that the worldwide phenomenon of domestic violence against women is just disempowering women. Domestic violence against women is a violation of the most fundamental human rights of women. In her views, domestic violence includes the abuses like physical abuse, sexual abuse, social abuse, economic abuse, and emotional abuse. She also highlighted the multiple effects of domestic violence on the victim which includes physical effect, social effect, emotional effects, and psycho-pathological effects. According to her, though certain enactments are in place, in the absence of its purposeful implementation, women are not getting any kind of relief in the cases of domestic violence against them.  

Meanwhile, mental health experts said several incidents of domestic violence have been reported since the pandemic hit the state. In 2020, between March 25 and May 31, 1,477 complaints of domestic violence were made by women. This 68-day period recorded more complaints than those received between March and May in the previous 10 years. “The prevalence of domestic violence has gone up probably because spouses are forced to stay together and interact for longer periods due to the lockdown restrictions. The social evil of dowry persists despite awareness and social progress in our society. The attitude of viewing a girl as a commodity and burden is a fundamental error that needs to be cleared. The system of benevolent patriarchy which celebrates masculinity and its associated aggression is also an important reason for this situation.

Women empowerment drives should focus on equal rights and opportunities for women inside the family and should also insist on “democracy” in domestic relationships,” said Dr Arun B Nair, psychiatrist, Medical College Hospital, Thiruvananthapuram8

Despite various legislations (related directly or indirectly), the problem of domestic violence against women remains more and less the same. The legal remedies, exclusive law on domestic violence that is Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act, 2005 with stringent punishment could not solve the problem which has caused the victim nor prevent the further manifestation of such  violence.9 On the other hand, women most of the time never dare to take legal actions, as Amod Kumar Srivastava, a lawyer in the family court says ‘only 5% of women gather the courage to go to court and seek justice, despite laws in place if they take legal actions against their abuser may have to suffer further brutal attack within holding of financial supports by the family members and considerable emotional stress at home in future. Such biased attitudes of the society against women who want to fight against domestic violence inside the home compel them to keep silent.10

Undoubtedly there are many laws to protect and safeguard the victims of domestic violence. But despite the laws, one can see an alarming increase in the cases of domestic violence against women. Many reasons can be attributed to this growing violence against women. One of them is the lack of awareness among women about the laws made for their protection. Secondly, women usually lack the courage to file complaints against the accused ones and go to court because of the fact that the perpetrators are usually their own relatives or neighbours or persons whom they know well. Besides, lack of socio-economic support also prevents women to take recourse to legal action. Thus, due to all these factors women silently face violence against them within the boundaries of home, since time immemorial. 11

Economic Causes of Domestic Violence

It is said by Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru,

 ‘Freedom depends on economic conditions, even more than political and if a woman is not economically free and self-earning, she will have to depend on her husband or someone else and dependents are never free”12

Women’s economic dependency on their family members and husbands is regarded as a major cause of domestic violence against them. Economic causes of domestic violence against women include limited access to cash and credit, property rights, maintenance after divorce or widowhood, limited access to employment in  formal and informal sectors, limited access to education and training for women,13 not providing food, clothes, and medicine for them, preventing a woman from doing the job, not allowing to use her husband’s money, taking away part of her salary, forcing her out of the house she lives in, preventing her from accessing a certain part of the house, not allowing her to use clothes, articles or things of general household use, not paying rent if she is in a rented house, etc.”14

So, economic violence ranges from denial of property to women, use of their unpaid labour as a norm in households, denial of equal access to education, discrimination in labour markets, unequal access to credit, and other markets to practice such as dowry. Domestic violence becomes more possible when women have fewer options to escape from such oppressive relationships because of a lack of assets or economic security in the form of gainful occupations. Thus, economic security can play a vital role to protect women against violence within the home as well as empowering them.15

Facts it is highly unfortunate that in reality women’s economic condition is worst in India and this is the only reason that the recently released ‘Annual 185 Global Gender Gap Report of the World Economic Forum (WEF)’ ranked India 114 in a list of 128 countries. The data also captures the magnitude of the gap between men and women also in economic participation and opportunity.”16

The main reason behind this poverty is that patriarchal laws and policies have prevented females from achieving economic security, men generally get the best job receive more pay than women for the same work, and make the major decision for community and state. At the same time, women remain at the lower end of a segregated labour market in many countries. According to the UNGC (United Nations Global Compact) India study, Female labour-force participation in India has declined from 34 per cent in 2006 to 24.8 per cent in 2020. “Globally, 38.7 per cent of employed women are working in agriculture, forestry, and fisheries, but only 13.8 per cent of landholders are women, gender stereotypes and lack of infrastructure has traditionally side-lined women from core manufacturing functions. As a result, not many are able to reach leadership roles,” it said.17

The factors which are highly responsible for the economic vulnerability of women are18

• Persistence of male domination at higher ranks in the workforce. 

• hiring of men in core and better-paid positions.

• Disproportionate hiring of women in peripheral, insecure fewer value jobs including home-based casual and temporary work. 

• Disproportionate existence of women from paid work in times of economic crisis.

• Persistent of lower pay (According to the Monster Salary Index (MSI) published in March 2019, women in the country earn 19% less than men)

• Persistence of unpaid household labour 

• In developing countries, long female work hours exceeding men by 30%. 

• Prohibition against females working outside the home.

 • Burden for women who work outside having the ‘double role, double burden’ (at the workplace and at the house)

 • Globalization and feminisation of labour markets (female labour exploitation by multinationals).

 The unorganized sector where female workers are highly vulnerable to exploitation as it is totally uncovered by the labour law. The unorganized sector is characterized by;

 1. No fixed working hours,

 2. No fixed employment benefits,

 3. No trade unions or organizations,

 4. No maternity benefits.19

Economic space also includes women’s ownership of access to or control over immovable property such as house, land, commercial space, etc.

ECONOMIC STATUS OF WOMEN

Surprisingly, it is found in a survey done by Bina Aggarwal that, the incidence of violence is less if women own immovable property. It dramatically lowers the incidence of both physical and psychological violence. Despite Kerala’s favourable human development indicators, it is found in the survey that 49% of the women who owned neither land nor house has suffered long term physical violence, compared with the 18% and 10% respectively of those who owned either land or a house and 7% of those who owned both. The effect of property ownership on psychological violence is even more dramatic while 84% of the property owner women had suffered less such abuse. The figure was 16% for women owning both land and a house. In other words, women’s ownership of immovable property clearly serves as a protection against all forms of domestic violence. In a survey of those women who experience long-term physical violence, 43 left the house. The percentage leaving the house was much greater among those who are holding the property 71% than among the property less than 19%. Moreover, of those who left home, although 24 returned, 88% of the returning women were propertyless. Few of the propertied women returned. In other words, not only are propertied women less likely to face marital violence, they are also more able to escape further violence. The study also revealed interestingly, that while a fair proportion of women (propertied and propertyless) faced dowry demands, only 3% of the propertied women faced dowry-related beatings by in-laws and husbands, compared with 44% of the property less. This reveals that owning personal property can protect women.  20

Women’s right to property can reduce not only the risk of poverty and destitution for women but also for their households. It has been found that women generally use 188 of their earnings for the well-being of their families. 21

In a nutshell, women’s access to immovable property such as housing and land is important not only for well-accepted reasons of enhancing women’s livelihood options and overall empowerment but also for reducing the risk of marital violence.22

Therefore, the analysis indicates that women’s property status could play a crucial role in preventing domestic violence against women and can really be instrumental in creating a respectful position of women in the family.23

 Despite the fact that ownership of land can remove their subjugation women have always been denied these rights. The main reason behind the denial of this right is that, in the Indian socio-cultural setup men are supposed to be the economic providers, as in an ancient Sanskrit Drama it was emphasized,

“A man becomes a woman when he is economically dependent on her” 24

 But it is observed in reality that men do not always ‘fulfil their duties as providers and women do not always get their rights as wives, daughter, daughter-in-law and mothers’. Experience shows for men rights are actual and duties nominal, and for women rights are nominal and duties actual. Besides the perception that ‘girls will go away when they get married’ generally discourage women themselves from accepting unequal or no property rights because male heirs are considered to have a ‘natural right to property and because in their late years (woman) will automatically be looked after by their son.25

 This is the main reason that in many communities women’s access to land is restricted in terms of ownership and tilling of agricultural land. 26

Indian socio-cultural set-up has always favoured patriarchy at the cost of women’s disempowerment, as a consequence of the denial of property rights of the latter. In a survey of rural widows in seven states, it is found that only 13% of the daughters of land-owning fathers inherited any land and even fewer effectively controlled it. The reason not to give girls title to agricultural land includes arguments that girls have to marry and shift to a distant place.27

Therefore, the division of economic resources within a family is strongly biased in favour of men and disadvantageous to women. 

Therefore, it can be understood that the economic dependency of a woman on her family members and husband is also one of the major causes of domestic violence against them.28

CONCLUSION

“Sati came to an end not because it was banned by law but people such as Raja Ram Mohan Roy could project it as a crime in the collective conscience of a generation. We need a radical social change like that,” he says.

To conclude, the protection of women against violence in general and domestic violence, in particular, requires a multi-dimensional approach. Looking into the political economy of domestic violence, one may realize that it is not merely a legal problem but has explicit roots in socio-economic, religious-cultural and political factors. In fact, the problem of domestic violence is largely a product of women’s poor socio-economic-political conditions added to the patriarchal notions resulting in her subordinate status. Therefore, it is necessary to ameliorate her socio-economic condition. Economic empowerment simply does not mean a job and economic/financial independence but it means ‘freedom of choice’. Empowerment also means taking away the surplus power from the powerful i.e., dismantling patriarchal notions that believe in the subordinate status of women that has to be maintained at any cost – even by the use of force. Thus, a change in the attitude of people towards women has to be altered. Delegitimization of violent practices is essential but awareness about law, rights and the will to fight against the exploitation has to be there in the victims. At the same time, there has to be training of law enforcement agencies to sensitize them towards the issue. 

End Notes.

  1. https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/144526937.pdf (July 2021)
  2.  Ahuja, Ram (1987). Crime against Women, Jaipur: Rawat Publications, p. 175.
  3. Lewis-James, R. and Skutsch, Carl (eds.) (2001). The Human Rights Encyclopaedia, Vol. 1, New York: Sharpe Reference, p. 690.
  4. Mishra, Rekha (1967). Women in Mughal India: 1526-1748 A.D., Delhi: Munshiram Manoharlal, Oriental Publishers and Book Sellers, p.129
  5. “General Assembly Resolution Adopting the Declaration on the Elimination on Violence against Women”, GA document 48/104, 20 December 1993.
  6. Supra note
  7. Rai, Usha Kiran (2007). “Freedom from Fear of Domestic Violence”. International Journal of Women and Gender Research, Vol. 1, No. 1, January-June.
  8. https://www.newindianexpress.com/cities/kochi/2021/jun/23/till-dowrydo-us-part-keralas-tryst-with-domestic-violence-is-not-new-2320023.html (July 2021)
  9. Supra note
  10. https://www.newindianexpress.com/cities/kochi/2021/jun/23/till-dowrydo-us-part-keralas-tryst-with-domestic-violence-is-not-new-2320023.html (July 2021)
  11. https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/144526937.pdf (July 2021)
  12. Nandi, Anindita (2006). “Women: Then and Now”, Women’s Link, Vol. 12, No, 3, July-September, p, 36.
  13. www.Unicef-icde.org/Pbulciations/Pdf/digset6e,pdf (July 2021)
  14. Paramar, Sumita (2007). “The New Domestic Violence Act, 2005: A Response”. International Journal for Women and Gender Research, page no;10
  15. https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/144526937.pdf (July 2021)
  16. Rajalakshmi, T.K. (2008). “Woman as Victim”. Frontline, Vol. 24, No. 25, 4 January, p.4.
  17. https://www.business-standard.com/article/pti-stories/female-labour-force-participation-in-india-declined-from-34-pc-in-2006-to-24-8-pc-in-2020-study-120030601403_1.html (October 2021)
  18. Billson, Janet-Mancini and Flucher, Carolyn (eds.) (2005). Female Weil-Being: Towards a global theory of Social Change, London: Zed Books, p. 366.
  19. Kaushal, Rachana (2009). “Women and the Issue of Development in Post-Colonial India” Legal News & Views, Vol. 23, No. 1, January, p. 3.
  20. Agarwal, Bina and Panda Pradeep (2006). “Home and the World: Revisiting Violence”, Women Watch, Vol. 3, No.3, page no 16-17 
  21. https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/144526937.pdf. (July 2021).
  1. Agnes, Flavia (2005). “Matrimonial Home and Legal Strategies: Law Justice and Gender”. Women’s Link, Vol. 11, No. 3, July September, p. 57.  
  2. Agarwal, Bina (1994). A Field of One’s Own Gender and Land Rights in South Asia, Cambridge University Press.
  3. Krishna, Sangeeta (1999). “Gender Bias in the Socialization Process: The Girl Child in Bihar”, lASSI Quarterly, Vol. 18, No. 2, October, p. 98.
  4. Mukund, Kanakalartha (1999). “Women’s Property Rights in South India: A Review”, Economic and Political Weekly, Vol. 34, No. 22, 29 May, p. 1353. 
  5.  Kaushik, P.D. (2007). Women’s Rights: Access to Justice, New Delhi: Bookwell. Page no 45
  6. Unni, Jeemol (1999). “Property Rights for Women’ case for Joint Titles to Agricultural Land and Urban Housing”, Economic and Political Weekly, Vol. 34, No. 21, 22 May, p. 2513
  7. Supra note
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