Gendered Violence: Forms, Incidence and Legislation in India

Abstract

The wide range of oppressions women suffer in most of the South Asian and Middle East countries include child marriages, codes of honour, the veil, polygamy, lack of property rights, female foeticide, honour crimes and denial of basic rights. These are age-old and continuing practices that are directly connected with the patriarchal nature of these societies. Denials, discriminations and overt violence against women are part of the unequal gendered relations in this region. Violence, whether domestic or in any other form, is not merely a criminal act of physical force perpetrated against women; it covers the entire gamut of exploitation, discrimination, maintaining economic and social structures and the creation of an atmosphere of terror and threat, all of which are supported and mandated by the socio-economic context of power relations (Vindhya 2005, p. 197).