Family Violence in India : Human Rights, Issues, Actions and International Comparisons
Contents: Introduction/Swati Shirwadkar. I. Human and legal rights: 1. On the fringes of human rights discourse: violence against women in intimate relationships/Veena Poonacha. 2. Human Rights Movement and Domestic Violence--an uneven terrain: reflections on the Human Rights Movement in Andhra Pradesh/U. Vindhya. 3. Captive subjects: gender, intimate violence and the crises of international human rights interventions/Oishik Sircar. 4. Age of marriage and the debate on human rights/Jaya Sagade. 5. Taking women seriously: an introspection on law's engagement with the evil of dowry/Sanjay S. Jain. 6. Family violence with special reference to section 498A of Indian Penal Code/Meena Gokhale. 7. Violence against women in the family: a human rights violation?/V.S. Elizabeth. 8. Child sexual abuse: a violation of human rights?/Shalini S. Phansalkar-Joshi. 9. Cruelty and physical torture against children in family: socio-legal dimensions/Durgambini Patel. II. Contextual issues in Indian family violence: 10. Declining sex ratios in Maharashtra: gift of technological advance/Sanjeevanee Mulay. 11. Globalizing India and domestic violence against women/Ranjana Kumari. 12. Married men's perspective: attitude towards wife beating/Savita Kanade. 13. Ending domestic violence: Self-Help Groups can help/Milind Bokil. 14. Battered and bound in their own homes: does family violence have an answer?/R. Indira. III. Special topics for Indian research: 15. Witchcraft, witches and social exclusion/Kanchan Mathur. 16. Emotional abuse in family, an act of power play: a human rights debate with special reference to Scleroderma patients/K. Asha. 17. Desh-Pardesh: Indian Immigrants and Canadian Domestic Violence Policies/Swati Shirwadkar. IV. International campaigns: 18. A sociological overview of the domestic violence field in the United States/Edward W. Gondolf. 19. Domestic violence: comparative analysis of German and British research findings/Helmut Kury and Ursula Smartt. 20. Violence against women in France, in light of the Indian debate/Hugues Lagrange. 21. Local solutions for global problems: the challenges encountered by the anti-domestic violence campaign in Armenia/Armine Ishkanian. V. Conclusion: 22. Family violence and human rights/Justice Sujata Manohar. Index.
"Current research and factual data from all over the world have revealed different types of abuse taking place within the family, which highlights the necessity to address the issue of family violence. However, at societal level, family matters are still seen as a private domain, not to be intervened due to the culture of silence.
Looking at the issue of family violence in the human rights perspective and the legal context, this volume explores the socio cultural factors and the patriarchal prerogatives enmeshed in the process of development and globalization in India. The need for both qualitative and quantitative research is demonstrated through the articles.
The volume presents cross-cultural research in order to balance the local and global perspectives (including countries such as U.S., Canada, Germany, U.K., France and Armenia). With the human rights perspective, the papers present complexities of intervention, different aspects of violence within the family and against the special groups, contextual issues, and limitations and Dilemmas of ideologies and the local barriers to intervention strategies. Collectively, they show some direction of social change and therefore will be of immense help to those interested in the subject." (jacket)
