The National Commission for Women said on Wednesday that the law to protect women from domestic violence needs to be given more teeth at the level of implementation and people working on it should ensure that its provisions are not watered down in revision.
The Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Rules, 2006 has recently been referred to a Committee on Subordinate Legislation of the Rajya Sabha, headed by Bharatiya Janata Party leader Najma Heptulla.
"The NCW will also present its suggestions to the committee as we want to ensure that the bill is not diluted as the rules governing it are revised," commission chairperson Girija Vyas said at a national consultation programme on the implementation of domestic violence bill by the Centre for Social Research. The committee has invited suggestions from individuals, organisations, institutions and experts on the efficacy of the rules by April 19.
Vyas said the Bill on domestic violence was purely a civil law to protect women victims from the hassles of criminal cases and it came with an assurance of resolution and compensation within three months, however achieving this is very difficult, and several lacunae have been discovered.
"Except Andhra Pradesh, which has done a comparatively better job, in no other state the machinery to implement the law in functional, the bill should be given more teeth, more money should be allocated by the states, more courts need to be there to dispose the cases in three months,"Â Vyas said.She said the lack of awareness was the main problem confronting the proper implementation of the bill as women, families, and in some places even service providers and police officers are not well aware of its clauses."We want to realise the spirit of the law that resolution is done in three months," she said.
Ranjana Kumari, Director, Centre for Social Research, said women groups were surprised by the "sudden announcement" of this revision and are wondering what kind of a review is in the offing. She said the national body represented by her would formulate concrete recommendations and present a strong case ahead of the committee as they were aware that "several organisations" were active against the bill. "It is not yet clear what prompted this sudden announcement of revision, our only worry is that it should not dilute the law against domestic violence," she said."The implementation of the law is facing serious problems on the ground, and the machinery to implement the law has to be strengthened," she said.
Chandresh Kumari, Chairperson, Committee on Empowerment of Women in Lok Sabha said the problems of implementation with the bill lay in the society's mindset which needs to be changed through aggressive campaigns.
