Researching Gender-Based Legal Protections Against Domestic Violence In India And Other Countries

Abstract

The question of whether Indian law is genuinely gender-neutral remains grave in the context of child protection and domestic violence. Although the Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act, 2005 (PWDVA) offers important remedies but restricts its scope to women as aggrieved persons, thereby excluding men, transgender, and gender-diverse individuals from equal statutory protection. The Protection of youngsters from Sexual Offences Act, 2012 (POCSO), adopts genderless framework, recognizing that boys, girls, and gender-diverse children can all be victims of abuse, often within domestic spaces. This divergence reveals a doctrinal inconsistency in India’s legal approach, where inclusive child-protection legislation coexists with gender-specific domestic-violence laws. This research examines whether India’s domestic-violence framework can be considered truly inclusive and compares it with international models in Canada, South Africa, the United Kingdom, and Singapore, where gender-neutral and family-centric approaches have been progressively adopted. Using a doctrinal and constitutional analysis of statutory provisions, judicial precedents, and international human-rights standards, combined with an empirical lens through case law, survivor narratives, and institutional data, the study argues for harmonizing the PWDVA with POCSO’s inclusive protections. The paper proposes phased statutory and institutional reforms to create a comprehensive, gender-inclusive domestic-violence framework, ensuring substantive equality and alignment with evolving global trends.