2018 Gender Violence in India Report

On Human Rights Day, we launched the 2018 Gender Violence in India Report, compiled this year by 2018 Rajaram Fellow, Jhuma Sen.

2018 was a year of landmark judgments, horrific reports of sexual violence especially targeting children and #MeToo revelations, and this report provides definitions, data, legal FAQ and a review of recent case law.

As the Introduction notes:

2018 has been a remarkable year in many ways. ‘Gender violence’ has been at the forefront of conversations with #MeToo taking shape in India. In September, several women from the entertainment industry and media publicly accused men in position of power of sexually harassing them; of abusing their positions of power. As testimonies emerged and entered the juridical realm from the social and the political, solidarities too were forged between women cutting across class, caste, gender and other axes of marginality. Significant developments took place in the legislative and the judicial arena as well. Several landmark judgments were delivered by the apex court, leading to decriminalisation of India’s colonial law, especially Indian Penal Code Section 377, which criminalised consensual sexual relationships between same sex adults; decriminalisation of yet another colonial relic, Section 497 or India’s adultery law, recognising that wives were not chattels, allowing entry of women of menstruating age to Sabarimala temple, to name a few. Patriarchy however did not give in without a fight, and as this report was being prepared, feminist movement also saw a tremendous backlash from men’s rights groups and conservative clerics, be it, in opposing women’s entry to temple, or to make the domestic violence law a toothless legislation.

Prajnya’s Gender Violence in India Report has been taking stock of the state of gender violence in India since 2009. This year, the Gender Violence Report has been prepared by R. Rajaram Gender Violence Research and Information Taskforce (GRIT) fellow Jhuma Sen. The Report is meant to be used as a ready reference for activists, journalists, students, lawyers and anyone with an interest in gender justice. The report in addition includes definitions of the various forms of violence, defined internationally as well as in national laws and policies. The data is primarily collected from the National Crime Records Bureau, but wherever possible, other relevant statistics by other state agencies, NGOs, international as well as domestic have been relied upon. Finally, the report also reviews the last year’s significant developments in law, policy as well as important judicial decisions.

We hope you will find this report useful.

Access the report here: http://prajnya.in/storage/app/media/gvr18final.pdf