Parasitic Liaison
(Image source: pickiest.com)
Any living being is never devoid of emotions: be it a rabid
tramp on the streets, a drenched kitten on a rainy day, a squeaky rat
maundering the city manholes, a migrating ruby-throat-ed hummingbird and
unyielding human beings are no different either. We live in a world of
political revolutions, economic cataclysms, and disharmony with Mother Nature
where emotions range from hope, rhapsody, fear and contrite.
Homo sapiens have
evolved from the era of caves to the technology-oriented epoch of the twenty-first
century. Nevertheless one constant factor which has traversed through various
period is that humans have lived in a society where men have largely chosen to
hunt and protect their clan, while women complete chores inside the house.
Every relationship we forge with people from various walks
of life acts as a catalyst for acquiring life experiences. Our relationships
with others can either be a symbiotic one or a parasitic one; an immense
audacious strength is warranted to address an abusive relationship and redress
a parasitic liaison.
The foundation of domestic abuse is based on the fact that
one partner feels the need to control and own the other either by generating
trepidation, remorse, ignominy or coercion. The probability of men and women
both being victims of mistreatment is prevalent, nonetheless there has been an
accretion in incidence of women as sufferers of maltreatment. Though there is
an accrual of self-reliant, economically independent women who are pillars of
strength and inspiration; yet there are countless who are embroiled in the web
of several societal evils. Indian women face various hurdles among which
domestic abuse strangulates the life out of their bosom.
Abuse by one or both partners in a personal relation as in matrimony
and cohabitation is never unpremeditated thus cannot come about by mistake. Those
who practice abuse and the sufferers are entangled in a tedious cycle. Individuals
who indulge in maltreatment of their partners are relentlessly concocting plans
to belittle and cause harm. They pretend to be in good humor and when the
victims fall prey they unleash jaws of death on them. After their ‘castle in Spain’ is
fulfilled they appear penitent of the act so as to achieve confidence of the battered
victim in order to fulfill an adjunct fantasy.
An abusive association abets in diminishing self-confidence,
self-esteem and identity of the victim. Most women who tolerate a violent
relation are usually holding onto a feeble strand of hope for reform and redress
in their partners’ behavior Ill-treated women try to put wool over their eyes
and frequently fabricate to protect their reputation and partner. However, the abuser
only gloats with more confidence to inflict injury.
Social observation has indicated that predilection of
inflicting abuse is correlated to sore and painful experiences in ones own
childhood which leaves behind a blemish in the persons’ mind. Those individuals
as adults express their anger in an aggressive manner often causing corporal
and emotional harm onto their partners. Women caught in such situation have to indeed
muster a lot of courage to accept the harsh reality of their situation and confide
in people they trust, instead of shielding their tormentor through intermittent
lies.
The Indian system of justice has formed various laws that
can help prevent domestic abuse from culminating into blameworthy homicide. Husbands
and their alliances who indulge in harassment of their partners may be booked
under various sections of The Indian Penal Code (IPC) such as section 113A of
the Indian evidence act of 1872- to determine abetment by a husband or his
relative in his wives’ suicide within seven years of marriage. Section 498A and
section 304B of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) was instituted to combat accretion
in dowry deaths in India, the Dowry Prohibition Act of 1961 and the recently
amended the Domestic Violence Act of 2006.
On the other hand, numerous women from all walks of life
balk from availing these laws instituted for their protection in a patriarchal India
due to stigmatization by the society, defiling family honor lengthy judicial
proceedings, financial woes, tactless institutional response to FIR on domestic
abuse. Women welfare organizations like All India Women’s Conference (AIWC),
Women Welfare Association of India, and Human Rights Law Network are among
numerous who are striving towards justice against perpetrators of domestic
abuse.
