Published Paper Details:

Domestic violence against women is a universal problem. It could broadly be defined as any act of gender-based violence that results in or is likely to result in physical, psychological or sexual harm or suffering to women including threats of such acts. It was recognised as a criminal violence in India in 1983 but most violence inside the homes goes unreported. Primarily because family and community structures render it difficult, if not impossible for women to report abusive husbands or in-laws, the verry people upon whom they are most dependent (Agnes, 1992). Though domestic violence against women is fairly common across all socio-economic and cultural/ caste configurations across India and is documented fairly extensively in the context of dowry related violence in the middle-class context, the specificity of violence faced by Dalit women in domestic space largely remains neglected in the activism and discourse around domestic violence due to several reasons. Despite clear indications from various surveys and sociological studies that prevalence of women facing domestic violence at physical and psychological level is much higher among Dalit women in comparison to other dominant caste women, it is often (wrongly) treated as insignificant issue in comparison to threat of or actual violence experienced by them in the public spaces.