What is the fate of a woman?

Justice K Bhaktavatsala of the Bangalore High Court has shocked the nation. Law Minister Salman Khurshid is perturbed by his comments. Chief Justice of India S H Kapadia has received a petition against Bhaktavatsala, who now has been barred from judging family cases including guardianship and child custody. The Karnataka State Commission for Women is up in arms as are other activists. And rightly so. 

Should someone, who has been given the charge of protecting the rights of an individual, in this case women, ask a victim of wife-battering to ignore being slapped around as long as her husband earns well? No. Can violence be condoned in the name of ‘adjustment’ to keep the marriage going? No. Nothing can justify the comments made by the judge when dealing with the case of a 28-year-old woman, who knocked on the door of his court complaining that her husband beat her up regularly. 

While there should be zero tolerance for the sentiments expressed by Bhaktavatsala and he deserves public chastisement, the moment calls for another relevant related discussion. It is time to bring up for debate an extremely worrying fact of our society. Why do a significant number of women in India still justify beatings by their husband? Though there is outrage from important quarters on Bhaktavatsala’s comments, there is no running away from the troubling fact that a sizeable percentage of women find little wrong with what he has said. Many women from poor as well as affluent homes, rural as well as urban zones hold the view that husbands have a right to slap wives around if they have misbehaved, have been disobedient or neglected their duties. This shocking approval of wife battering by women themselves is revealed in reports and surveys done in the last six years. 

A 2009 UN agency report reveals that 54 per cent of Indian women are ‘OK’ with wife beating. It goes on to underline that approval of this form of domestic violence depends on the wife’s level of education. Wife beating is more acceptable amongst women in rural India than by their urban sisters. Step back to the 2007 National Family Health Survey-III in which 1.25 lakh women across 28 states were interviewed. The survey revealed that 41 per cent of the women interviewed justified beatings by their husband because they had been ‘disrespectful to their in-laws’. Thirty five per cent justified it because they had neglected household chores. The moot point highlighted is that these women feel that wives can be punished by husbands if they are doing something ‘wrong’. They do not see wife beating as physical or mental cruelty.

Four recent cases sourced from police and a help group records show that there is little change in the mindset of such women. They also demolish certain myths about wife beating.  

On one hand there is the inspirational example of Flavia Agnes, a domestic violence victim, who courageously stepped out to become one of the best known women’s rights lawyer and on the other, there are the Roshans, the Naazs, the Buladevis and Khusbus still trapped in a violent marriage even justifying the beating they get. Why this dichotomy? Is it because the likes of Bhaktavatsala reassert age-old male domination? His response to wife beating reaffirms in the mind of women the social response that a husband has the right to beat his wife. This will not help change the mind set of those women who have yet to learn to fight for their dignity and their rights. The change must come. [IPA]