The social and legal regulation of domestic violence : examining the implementation of the Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act 2005 in the Kesarwani community, Kolkata

Abstract

This thesis attempts to investigate domestic violence within a business community, the Kesarwani community, in the metropolitan city of Kolkata. This study is undertaken in the backdrop of the enactment of the Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act 2005 (the PWDVA), which is the first domestic violence legislation in the country to recognize a range of abuses as domestic violence. The PWDVA recognises domestic violence as a legitimate ground for a victim to access legal relief of various kinds, like a right to reside in the household, protection from further acts of violence, compensation, medical aid and custody of children. Of interest to the thesis is the exploration of the interconnections between the experiences of violence endured by Kesarwani women in everyday familial life and the efficacy of addressing the violence through the victim response system envisaged under the PWDVA. The thesis analyses the relevance of the formal law or the legal regulation of domestic violence in the context of the social regulation of domestic violence displayed in the familial lives of the Kesarwani community. The thesis uses ethnography and draws on various research methods to describe the Kesarwani communal life, the lives of women within the community and the experiences of domestic violence within the community. The thesis uses the Bourdieusian framework and intersectional theories to interrogate the crossovers and linkages between the Kesarwani community and the key stakeholders of the PWDVA which include government and non-government organizations. The thesis traverses non-Kesarwani spaces like a hospital, a non-governmental organization, a local police station, a local court and a local government social welfare office along with Kesarwani familial and communal spaces, to understand the implementation of the formal law and decipher the power structures and processes that follow a victim centred legislation. Thus, the thesis extends the relevance of the formal law by taking the language of the law from the narrow confines of the formal legal structures to the arena of everyday Kesarwani life.

Date of Award	2020
Original language	English