Domestic violence topper for 7 years - Trafficking and sale of girls for prostitution also high in Bengal: NCRB data

Chandrima S. Bhattacharya, TT, Calcutta, Nov. 25: Home is the most violent place for women. And Bengal leads - in domestic violence.

Official statistics show Bengal, which has enjoyed a reputation for being relatively safe for women, has reported the most cases of domestic violence for the last seven years, 2008-14.

According to the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), of the 81,344 cases reported in the country in 2008, 13,663 were from Bengal. The number rose steadily every year, to reach 23,278 of the 122,877 nationally reported cases in 2014, rising 70.4 per cent in seven years.

The NCRB figures, collected from police stations, were analysed by Swayam, a city-based organisation that works to support victims of domestic violence.

In 2006 and 2007, Bengal had occupied the second position after Andhra Pradesh.

This is only the tip of the iceberg. The real bad news lies below.

Activists and scholars agree that more reporting of violence means women in Bengal feel empowered to go to the police station.

"It indicates the success of the women's movement and also a change in the attitude of the police," says Ruchira Goswami, who teaches at the National University of Juridical Sciences, Calcutta, and is an activist.

Goswami warns that the figures indicate higher reporting but may not represent the actual incidence of violence, "as for every case registered, numerous are not".

"Till the mid-90s, most districts of Bihar did not report any crime against women and since then, reported rapes in Bihar have increased, probably because of an improvement in the law enforcement machinery," says Ranjita Biswas, psychiatrist and activist.

The NCRB data coincide with rising numbers of political clashes and bloodshed in Bengal and other extreme crimes against women, such as rape and murder.

Bengal's lead position in domestic violence against women comes on top of its record in other crimes against women. According to NCRB data for 2014 analysed by the organisation CRY, Child Rights and You, the state accounts for many of the registered cases of procuration of minor girls in the country. Of the 82 cases of "selling of girls for prostitution" reported in the country, 67 were in Bengal. It leads in trafficking too.

"Methodologically it cannot be said whether violence is on the rise or not," says Samita Sen, of the School of Women's Studies, Jadavpur University. Incidence, says Sen, can be measured by "victim surveys, such as the landmark 2005-2006 National Family Health Survey".

It interviewed 124,385 women between 15 and 49 years, single and married, and came up with the shocking revelation that 35 per cent of them had experienced physical or sexual violence. The number among married women was 40 per cent.

In Bengal, 40.3 per cent married women had reported domestic violence - 30.4 per cent among urban and 44.1 per cent among rural women.

If this was the brutal reality 10 years ago, all that can be said about the state now occupying the top spot in domestic violence is that it has, if not always, then for a very long time, been treating women badly.

"Bengal has always been violent towards its women," says activist Anchita Ghatak, who is behind Parichiti, an organisation of domestic workers. "Look at the way it has treated its women historically, from drowning girls to dealing with widows. It still abandons the largest number of widows to Benares or Mathura," she says.

"What happens within the home isn't comparable to anything outside. It is spoken about, yet not spoken about," says Ghatak. For this violence is not seen as violence. It is often the language of intimacy, even of love.

"It is accepted as normal," says Anuradha Kapoor of Swayam.

The law has helped and not.

Swayam, which is organising a series of events to discuss domestic violence, held a news conference today on the implementation of the Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act.

Commonly known as the domestic violence Act, it came into being 10 years ago and is often used in conjunction with Section 498A of the Indian Penal Code.

While Section 498A is criminal law, which initiates criminal proceedings against the accused, the domestic violence Act, which is quasi-civil with provision for criminal procedure in case of violation, entitles the woman complainant to right to residence without violence in the husband's home and free legal aid, medical help and counselling with the help of a protection officer employed with the state social welfare board. It also addresses the issues of maintenance and custody of children.

But how many know this? And how many access the law?

"If the law that exists is implemented, a lot of good can happen," says Kapoor, listing reasons for poor enforcement.

The cases often drag for months, even years. A husband is ordered to provide money to the wife, but if he does not, the woman has to go back to court every time. The right to residence often does not work out.

Besides, Bengal has only 24 protection officers, a little over one per district.

In 2014, Kapoor said, the Bengal government had allocated only Rs 68 lakh for implementation of the domestic violence law, but Swayam is hopeful after a meeting with Shashi Panja, the state minister of women and child welfare and social welfare.

Debashis Banerjee, a human rights lawyer who has fought many cases of domestic violence, is hopeful, though he feels frustrated by the dismal implementation of the law. For him, the reporting of more cases is uncomplicated good news: it means more awareness.