Domestic Violence is an abuse which is caused by one partner on other partner so that they can get control over another partner. In today's world people think that domestic violence is mostly practiced by men on women but it is important to understand that it can happen with anyone. It is a heinous crime as it will not only hurt physically but also emotionally.

Considering this issue, the Indian Penal Code (IPC) was amended to incorporate both Section 498A[1] and Section 304B[2] (share death). Hence, the amendment to Section 174[3] of the Criminal Procedure Code required chief judges to conduct examinations in cases of suicide or suspicious death involving a woman within seven years of her marriage. Furthermore, Section 113B[4] of the Evidence Act states that if it can be proven that a woman died shortly after experiencing cruelty or harassment by a person related to a dowry demand, then it will be presumed that the harasser is accountable for the woman's death.

The decision in Kaliyaperumal vs. State of Tamil Nadu (2003)[5] established that cruelty is a vital component of both Section 304B and Section 498A offenses. The court can hold you accountable for a crime under Section 498A of the Indian Penal Code, even if it acquits you of an offense under Section 304B for a dowry-related death. "Cruelty" is a definition provided by the illustrative notes of Section 498A. Section 498A makes no notice of such a period.

From October 2006, Domestic Violence Act[6], also known as the Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act 2005, was brought into force by the Indian government. The Domestic Violence Act was initially passed by Parliament in August of 2005 and thus it was consented to by the President in September of that very year. In November of 2007, the Domestic Violence act was sanctioned by four of the 28 state governments in India. The Domestic Violence Act, without precedent for the nation's history, officially characterized an act of domestic violence. The definition has since been utilized in a huge number of legal disputes, both of a common and criminal nature, to indict those people who carry out rough actions against their life partners or friends and family.

Domestic Violence In Rural And Urban Areas

To comprehend the idea of domestic violence in rural areas, we should concentrate on the way of life of the rural population. The Indian rural economy depends on the business of agriculture. The majority of the ranchers are minimal ranchers, claiming even under ten sections of land of land. Only a single yield is developed by the majority of them. They can't care for their land appropriately. This mostly happens when they deal with financial issues like a girl's marriage or a demise in the family, which compels them to sell their land which they use for agriculture.

Marginal farmers, landless labourers, scheduled caste communities, self-employed workers whose occupation is associated with farming, structure more than 90% of the population in rural areas. Each individual from the family, whether old or young, male or female, needs to buckle down for his/her living. Even though a few changes have happened in their work propensities with the utilization of manures, synthetics, machines and present-day correspondence frameworks, these are only shallow.

The society keeps on being a customary one, portrayed by a generally sluggish pace of social change. Youngster relationships are normal. Individuals know about the law against polygamy; however, they track down the provisos in it. They don't think about women to be people, yet to be bits of wood in the chimney.

Women in rural areas have confidence in the conventional lifestyle. They don't have a sense of pride or self-assurance. Persistence and resistance should be the innate characteristics of women. This multitude of elements add to the domestic violence in rural areas.

The dowry system is predominant among the higher stations and rich families in rural areas. The middle and lower middle class additionally follow them to lay out their status in society. In the unfortunate class, the dowry adds up to a couple hundred rupees, wedding garments for the husband and a few utensils. Notwithstanding, this sum is additionally a lot for the lady's dad who procures his bread on day-to-day compensation and if by bad luck the bride's father is not capable of keeping his promises or cannot keep his promises due to financial issues then it creates a lot of problems in bride's family as bridegroom's father wants his demand to get fulfilled and after this, they torture bride which leads to rise in domestic violence. She can't uncover her concerns to her folks. The guardians likewise accept that a wedded little girl shouldn't say anything negative about her in laws or her significant other.

The typical age at which young ladies are married in rural areas is 13-14 years. As per custom, a girl should be married before puberty. Mostly these young wedded lady remains unaware of sexual relations therefore they usually can't co-relate with their husbands and are bugged by him and this is the reason they mostly have repugnance towards sexual relations and, thus prompting her husband's subsequent marriage. Most of the time, the recently wedded young ladies were send away to their folks' homes. There they get no compassion and are compelled to return. Confronted with consistent annoying and harsh violence, many of them end it all by committing suicide.

In rural areas, men doesn't want to depend on their income and always have this mindset that they will take a good amount of money in dowry and when their bride's family is unable to give them large amount of dowry within 2 to 3 years of marriage they start torturing their wives and starts beating them. In such scenario she will not be given sufficient food and will be asked to eat from their partner's leftover. At to put an end, she is thrown out of the house with her children.

In rural areas, 70% of the women who are married need to acquire their everyday wages but still they don't reserve the opportunity to spend their cash. Their husbands who drink daily or are addicted takes away all the money.

Not only is access to routine health care often limited in rural areas, In rural areas access to routine health care is not only limited but also citizens of rural areas tend to have fewer insurance resources and therefore providers may be unprepared to do routine IPV screening, and that is the reason these communities may discourage people from reporting abuse. Locating shelters in rural areas is also difficult because as they are not so easily available.

Some unexpected issues might get introduce by rural living for victims of domestic violence as well as concerning healthcare suppliers rehearsing in rural settings. Unfortunately, research on the particular issues of domestic violence in rural areas is still just a small piece of the work done on domestic violence.

What is accessible recommends a few significant contrasts between domestic violence in rural and urban areas and features subtleties that legitimize further exploration. While the paces of domestic violence in rural and urban areas seem to be comparative, casualty encounters might be altogether different. For rural victims of domestic violence, levels of education, employment opportunities, and income are all lower. More are homeless, and financial and social help choices are for the most part less.

Rural victims likewise seem to encounter misuse prior in their relationships than do urban women. While defensive orders seem, by all accounts, to be similarly compelling in rural and urban areas, rural victims experience more issues acquiring the orders and getting them upheld, and they experience more personal distress and fear than do their urban partners.

The information gathered from 1980 to 1999 showed that general rates for family and close accomplice murders declined, paying little mind to put, while paces of private accomplice murders expanded exclusively with rurality.

In 2012 an examination project was operated in which a survey was done and on the basis of this survey it was found that rural areas there were contradictory and numerous factors that could have affected results as results did not bear a few ends that appeared to be intuitive. Expected discoveries on rural/urban contrasts in hindrances in evaluating patients for IPV[7] didn't emerge in the autonomous survey.

Predominantly, the boundaries generally referred to by healthcare experts were a belief that patients would be resistant to recommendations and an absence of confidence in managing these sorts of issues. There is significant diversity inside non-urban communities. The social, social and financial characteristics of such communities change significantly inside, and between one another. Rural areas frequently come up short on utilities underestimated in urban areas, and rural women get lower pay than women in urban areas.

Also, women's jobs frequently require travelling to significant distance to adjoining towns, while men are bound to locally look for a decent job. Responsibility for conveying children to youngster care can also increase driving time. Different factors are the seasonal idea of men's jobs and the by and large conservative personal and political attitudes of rural populations. Studies have uncovered the occurrence of domestic assault to be similar in urban and rural areas.

Be that as it may, isolation, inadequate transportation and correspondence, the predominance of guns in the home, social norms and values in rural communities, the idea of policing in rural areas, the absence of social and health care services, and inadequate housing all make it harder for rural battered women to think about with the abuse. Policies that seem to have some success in managing battering in urban areas might have little appropriateness in rural areas. Thusly, various policies might be required for rural areas.

Rural society and conditions can add to make domestic violence more challenging to escape. Physical and social isolation, the distance to and inaccessibility of services, and rural culture give challenges to abused women and to health care providers that are unique in relation to the obstacles seen in better-studied urban areas. Elevated awareness can support ID of abuse. Social activity is necessary to change communities and to interfere with the cycle of violence.

Aspects such as restricted access to services, isolation, neediness, and rural social values make rural women more helpless against domestic violence than women living in urban areas. Basically, it is important for people to understand that rural women who suffer from IPV i.e. Intimate partner violence has to face all the geographic challenges so that they can receive correct treatment or support quickly.

Analysing intimate partner violence in this case is significant because it tends to be assessed as one of the most underreported figures of wrongdoing because of individuals' relative weakness. For various reasons, women and victims of IPV might fall silent because of public perceptions, shame, culpability, or embarrassment to give some examples. Regarding injury connected with IPV, rates for violence against women fluctuate geologically, making it challenging to unwind underreported cases among rural and areas. Furthermore, the cohesive idea of rural areas adds one more dimension of injury support evasion.

Domestic violence can show diversely in rural and urban areas because of different factors like local area elements, admittance to resources, and cultural norms.
Here is a nitty gritty examination:

• Access to Resources:
  • Urban Areas: Normally have more resources accessible for victims of domestic violence, including shelters, hotlines, legal guide, and care groups. Urban areas frequently have better-laid out infrastructure for law enforcement and social administrations.
  • Rural Areas: Resources might be limited because of the scanty population and geographical isolation. Victims might experience issues getting to shelters or legal assistance. Also, there might be fewer law enforcement officials per capita, prompting longer reaction times.
     
• Community Dynamics:
  • Urban Areas: Communities in urban settings will generally be more diverse, with more prominent obscurity. This can make it simpler for victims to look for help unafraid of social stigma or counter. Notwithstanding, it might likewise bring about an absence of affectionate encouraging groups of people.
  • Rural Areas: Affectionate communities in rural areas might offer both help and difficulties for victims. While victims might feel areas of strength for an of local area support, they may likewise confront more noteworthy stigma or strain to keep family matters hidden. In smaller communities, keeping up with confidentiality might be more enthusiastically.
     
• Cultural Norms and Attitudes:
  • Urban Areas: Cultural norms and attitudes towards domestic violence might shift broadly relying upon the demographics of the urban population. For the most part, urban areas will generally have more moderate attitudes towards gender equality and violence prevention. In any case, certain subcultures inside urban areas might in any case sustain traditional gender roles or endure domestic violence.
  • Rural Areas: Traditional gender roles and patriarchal values might be more dug in rural communities, prompting higher resilience or standardization of domestic violence. Cultural expectations with respect to family privacy and loyalty might discourage victims from looking for help or reporting abuse.
     
• Economic Factors:
  • Urban Areas: Economic open doors might be all the more promptly accessible in urban settings, furnishing victims with additional choices to get away from harmful relationships. In any case, economic disparities can likewise worsen power elements inside relationships, especially on the off chance that one partner controls financial resources.
  • Rural Areas: Economic open doors might be limited in rural areas, making it harder for victims to accomplish financial independence or track down alternative housing. Economic dependence on a partner can trap victims in harmful relationships, particularly on the off chance that there are not many work possibilities or affordable housing choices close by.
     
• Barriers to Reporting:
  • Urban Areas: Notwithstanding the accessibility of resources, victims in urban areas might still confront barriers to reporting domestic violence, like language barriers, immigration status, or distrust of law enforcement.
  • Rural Areas: In rural communities, fear of counter, social ostracism, or absence of confidentiality might prevent victims from reporting abuse. Limited admittance to transportation or communication infrastructure can likewise make it challenging for victims to connect for help.

Conclusion
Consequently, the impact of urbanization on domestic violence is inconsistent. In one hand the degree of violence is a lot higher in rural India, while when different factors are controlled, urbanization neglects to erode domestic violence. Assuming that urbanization is related with moderate human values of advancement and equity and better social development, it is probably going to diminish family and domestic violence.

While there has been tremendous change in the social and family relations with increasing urbanization, yet violence has not been disposed of from human society and contrary to that, it has reappeared and persevered in new, coordinated and unconstrained structures where unavoidable imbalances exist in patriarchal society there women with better social pointers might be viewed as dangers to gender norms, and subsequently may encounter domestic violence, independent of their background of rural or urban local area. Hence, the relationship among urbanization and gender violence is one such region that should be investigated both from a hypothetical and experimental points of view over existence.

End-Notes:

1. Section 498A, Indian Penal Code, 1860
2. Section 304B. Indian Penal Code, 1860
3. Section 174, Criminal Procedure Code, 1973
4. Section 113B, Indian Evidence Act, 1872
5. Kaliyaperumal vs. State of Tamil Nadu (2003) 2004 (9) SCC 157
6. Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act, 2005
7. Intimate Partner Violence

Written By:

• Tanya Khare - (Student of BBALLB(H) 5th Year 10th semester, Amity Law School, Lucknow)
• Dr. Juhi Saxena - (Asst. Professor Amity Law School Lucknow), Student, Amity Law School