News & Updates

Myth 1. Domestic quarrels, beatings, and fighting are characteristic of the lives of uneducated and poor people. For people of higher economic or educational classes, such occurrences are rare.

Violence against women has no economic or class distinctions. It happens everywhere in all social classes and groups. 

Myth 2. Domestic violence is a new phenomenon caused by the economic and social change of modern life, our speedy way of living, and new social stresses.

The custom of wife beating is as old as marriage itself and in some cases has been openly encouraged by the law. Similarly most forms of violence against women have a long history.

Myth 3. Domestic violence is now rare. It is an occurrence of the past when people were more violent and women were considered the property of men.

The incidence of domestic violence is very frequent in our times. Legal experts and women’s human rights advocates in many countries consider it to be one of the most under-reported crimes.

Myth 4. If women wanted to, they would leave. If they stay, they must find some masochist pleasure in this behavior.

Women don’t leave for many reasons, including the shame of admissions., fear of future beatings or escalation of violence, economic dependence, lack of emotional or financial support or lack of a place to go or more likely a combination of all these factors.

Myth 5. Violent men are mentally ill or are alcoholics.

Few violent men are mentally ill. They are just asserting what they see as their right to dominate women. Alcohol can exacerbate violence against women but it does not cause it. Abusive men with alcohol problems abuse their partners both when they are drunk and when they are sober.

Myth 6. Women misuse the law.

All laws are capable of being misused, but this does not mean that laws should be scrapped. Similarly, although some women may have misused the laws, this does not mean that the laws protecting women should be scrapped. India has very high rates of violence against women. The number of dowry deaths is increasing every year in India. As per the statistics of the NCRB, the number of dowry deaths for 2014 is 8,455. The vast majority of women do not use the law.