Family Violence in India Human Rights, Issues, Actions and International Comparisons

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.

Swati Shirwadkar is Professor and Head in the Department of Sociology, University of Pune. Her areas of Interest are Violence against women, Sexuality and violence issues, apart from Education and social change. She has worked as a Visiting Professor and Diversity Fellow in the S.F. Austin State University, USA. She was also awarded the Shastri Indo-Canadian Fellowship to visit Canada. She has published Books and articles in national and international journals.

Introduction/Swati Shirwadkar

Section I : HUMAN AND Legal RIGHTS :
Chap. 1 : On the Fringes of Human Rights Discourse : Violence Against Women in Intimate Relationships/Veena Poonacha
Chap. 2 : Human Rights Movement and Domestic Violence-An Uneven Terrain : Reflections on the Human Rights Movement in Andhra Pradesh/U. Vindhya
Chap. 3 : Captive Subjects : Gender, Intimate Violence and the Crises of International Human Rights Interventions/Oishik Sircar
Chap. 4 : Age of Marriage and the Debate on Human Rights/Jaya Sagade
Chap. 5 : Taking Women Seriously : An Introspection on Law's Engagement with the Evil of Dowry/Sanjay S. Jain
Chap. 6 : Family Violence with Special Reference to Section 498A of Indian Penal Code/Meena Gokhale
Chap. 7 : Violence Against Women in the Family : A Human Rights Violation?/V.S. Elizabeth
Chap. 8 : Child Sexual Abuse : A Violation of Human Rights?/Shalini S. Phansalkar-Joshi
Chap. 9 : Cruelty and Physical Torture Against Children in Family : Socio-legal Dimensions/Durgambini Patel

Section II : CONTEXTUAL ISSUES IN INDIAN FAMILY VIOLENCE :
Chap. 10 : Declining Sex Ratios in Maharashtra : Gift of Technological Advance/Sanjeevanee Mulay
Chap. 11 : Globalizing India and Domestic Violence Against Women/Ranjana Kumari
Chap. 12 : Married Men's Perspective : Attitude Towards Wife Beating/Savita Kanade
Chap. 13 : Ending Domestic Violence : Self-help Groups can help/Milind Bokil
Chap. 14 : Battered and Bound in their Own Homes : Does Family Violence have an Answer?/R. Indira

Section III : SPECIAL Topics FOR INDIAN Research :
Chap. 15 : Witchcraft, Witches and Social Exclusion/Kanchan Mathur
Chap. 16 : Emotional Abuse in Family, an Act of Power Play : A Human Rights Debate with Special Reference to Scleroderma Patients/K. Asha
Chap. 17 : Desh-Pardesh : Indian Immigrants and Canadian Domestic Violence Policies/Swati Shirwadkar

Section IV : INTERNATIONAL CAMPAIGNS :
Chap. 18 : A Sociological Overview of the Domestic Violence Field in the United States/Edward W. Gondolf
Chap. 19 : Domestic Violence : Comparative Analysis of German and British Research Findings/Helmut Kury and Ursula Smartt
Chap. 20 : Violence Against Women in France, in Light of the Indian Debate/Hugues Lagrange
Chap. 21 : Local Solutions for Global Problems : The Challenges Encountered by the Anti-domestic Violence Campaign in Armenia/Armine Ishkanian

Section V : Conclusion :
Chap. 22 : Family Violence and Human Rights/Justice Sujata Manohar