FROM THE DESK OF THE NATIONAL SECRETARIAT ON PWDVA
PROTEST LETTER TO THE MINISTER FOR WOMEN AND CHILD DEVELOPMENT, MS RENUKA CHOWDHURY

Ms Renuka Chowdhury
Minister of State
Ministry of Women & Child Development
Shastri Bhawan
New Delhi

Respected Minister Ms Renuka Chowdhary, 

We write to you with respect to the news report dated 6 Jan 2008, 1330 hrs IST, PTI and also at Ttimes of India which says:

“It is strange but true. Men may get an opportunity from the Women and Child Development ministry to voice their concerns. The government has decided to amend the Domestic Violence Act and incorporate certain changes in it to ensure that it is not misused. Besides, the Women and Child Development Ministry would also organize a conference to incorporate men's perspectives in the Act to give it a holistic view. The proposal is in the process of finalization, sources said. To factor in concerns of people across different economic profiles, the government would invite CEOs of renowned companies, middle-level officials from government and private offices and also employees serving at lower positions to give their views, sources said. College students would also be given an opportunity to voice their opinion on the provisions of the act in the conference, they said.  

"The Minister was interested and wanted all along to incorporate the views of men who have been at the receiving end due to legal barriers. The conference will provide them a platform to talk about their experience. This would certainly help us to understand the other side of the story," highly placed sources in the ministry said.  

Madam, we wish to point out that the PWDVA is no ordinary law drafted randomly by bureaucrats and lawmakers. It is a law that came as a response to a ten-year long struggle by women’s groups and organisations nationwide. Women felt that their struggles for justice and freedom from violence were seriously handicapped by the absence of a law to give them the right to residence in shared households as well as restraining orders to prevent violence against them in these households. It was to meet women’s desperate need for safe shelter that the domestic violence law was conceived of by women’s organisations and legal activists who worked together over a long period to draft a suitable law. There were serious NGO consultations nationwide to discuss

and debate the draft law before it was recommended to the Government of India which subsequently enacted it in an amended and somewhat inadequate form. The women’s movement, although not completely satisfied with the legislation, endorsed it and lobbied for the speedy enactment of rules under the Act. Over the past one/two years the National Secretariat of the PWDVA has taken upon itself the task of ensuring that state government implement the law in its letter and spirit.

The PWDVA Secretariat represents an alliance of 500 national partners and NGOs from 23 states dedicated to the task of ensuring implementation of the law. We may, incidentally remind you that you were the Chief Guest in 2006 at the 1st national conference held in New Delhi where you voiced your support for the law.

It comes, therefore, as a great shock to find that your Ministry is considering revision of the law because of what seems to be a backlash from patriarchal males. We wish to share the following concerns with you. We hope you will be able to reply to us immediately so that we can share the same with our 500 national partners. Many of them have written to us or have been calling us to express their dismay. We are under tremendous pressure to get back to them with clarifications and assurances. Hence we ask you the following: 

• Is this news report true that the MoWCD headed by you has decided to go ahead with some amendments to the PWDVA despite protests by the entire women’s movement?

• As per the news report, the MoWCD intends to review this law to ensure that it is not misused. Is this decision a result of a backlash from patriarchal forces? What steps are being envisaged by the MoWCD to curb the increasing crime rate against women of which ample evidence exists in available statistics and media reports?

• Since when has the MoWCD, whose task it is to represent the interests of women, started talking of men and their help and protection? This is not at all acceptable to women’s groups.

• Is it because this law has been proposed and pushed by the women’s movement that this law is being rubbished by the MoWCD?

• Why is MoWCD not working on the Sexual Harassment Bill when even ten years after the Supreme Court issued the Vishaka Guidelines there is a failure of implementation and there is no conviction of defaulters in the absence of a law?

• Who is the force behind this proposed move? Is the men’s lobby too strong for the MoWCD to cope with? None of the women’s groups has suggested any change in this law.

• We have case studies to show that the PWDVA in its present form has helped a number of women and given them the relief required. So why does MOWCD want to change this law and under whose instructions?

We the women’s groups of India are immensely distressed by the news of the decision by the central government to ignore the voice of women and go ahead with setting up a committee to review the provisions of the PWDVA.

It is just over a year since the law has been in operation. This is too short a period to come to any hasty conclusions about it. It is far too early to evaluate the law. We request you to let it function for some more time before commissioning a study on the state of its implementation and any problem areas that may exist. If some men have a strong view  

Members of the PWDVA Secretariat have traveled to many states and over the last one year, we have successfully activated the civil society and state government machineries to wake up and respond to the need to put in place the requisite infrastructure for the PWDVA. Now that states have started taking positive actions (for example please look at the initiative of Andhra Pradesh and also proposed action by Haryana and Rajasthan), we cannot allow this collective energy to be diluted.

Madam, we request you to help defeat the forces which are trying to engage us in a needless confrontation with you and our very own ministry. We jointly appeal to you not to succumb to the pressures to review the law.. We know you as a strong woman activist and vocal leader and we have confidence in you that you will not let us down. Our experience shows that a large number of women are getting genuine relief from the law.  We can show cases to you where the law in its present form has saved the lives of many of our sisters. Suggestions that the law is being abused seem to be motivated by vested interests that do not have a single proven instance till date of the misuse of the law.  

Lastly, we believe that the approach in India to domestic violence has to be determined by the women’s movement and no one else. Unless the movement demands a review to the PWDVA, we will not allow any one else to go ahead with either review or amendment. Certainly not the men’s lobby! 

IN PROTEST & WITH SOLIDARITY 

ON BEHALF OF ALL MEMBERS of THE NATIONAL SECRETARIAT ON PWDVA

1. Gouri Chowdhury(Action India, New Delhi)
2. Srilata Swaminathan(AIWPA)
3. Prasanna (Pune)
4. Anjali Deshpanade(Journalist)
5. Sujata Madhok(Journalist, New Delhi)
6. R.Vaigai (Advocate, Chennai)
7. Dr Rukmini Rao(Gramya Resource Centre for Women, )
8. Mridul Eapan (Kerela)
9. All other members and supporters of our campaign.