Domestic Violence and Legal Awareness: An Overview

The study is about domestic violence and its effects on women; but it covers several areas such as changing status of women, the causes and nature and domestic violence, its implications on several areas, stress and domestic violence, the coping methods used by victims, awareness of victims about rules and regulations, their help seeking behaviour etc. The study will prove helpful to law enforcing officials to make necessary changes in the existing policies in order to bring down domestic violence. The suggestions can be taken into consideration by nongovernment organisations, counsellors, activists, health care institutions, police, media etc. The Domestic Violence Act of 2005 has reached common men to a great extent and has the merit of putting in place a norm that violence against women is unacceptable, and such a norm is backed by State laws. But having a norm will not by itself end violence. It takes more than judges, protection officers, police and social workers to protect women from violence. Even though domestic violence has now become a legally recognised category, violence against women in homes still persists. Law can easily help women in work places and in public; but that is not the case with violence at home as home cannot be policed all the time.