Annual Report - National Human Rights Commission

A Review of Laws
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addressed by the Chairperson and Secretary General of the Commission are at Annexure 18
and Annexure 19 respectively.
17.6 Till such time, the Child Marriage Restraint Act, 1929 is repealed, the Commission hopes
that all the State Governments and Union Territories would continue to organize awareness
campaigns, on a large scale, on the demerits of child marriage in order to educate people at large
and save the girl children from falling prey to the age old custom and evil practice of child marriage.
2] Protection from Domestic Violence Bill, 2002
17.7 There is no denial of the fact that domestic violence is a universal phenomenon that cuts
across culture, religion, class and ethnicity. Despite this widespread prevalence, such violence
is not customarily acknowledged and has remained invisible. The social construction of the
divide between the public and private domain underlies the hidden nature of domestic violence
against women. Legal jurisprudence has historically considered the domain of the house to be
within the control and unquestionable authority of the male head of household. Thus, acts of
violence against members of the household, whether wife or child, have generally been
perceived as discipline, essential for maintaining the rule of authority within the family.
17.8 In the last two decades, apart from the Indian women’s movement that has contributed
largely to a growing public awareness of violence against women, international conventions
also have been equally explicit in acknowledging the State’s responsibility for human rights
violations by private actors in both the public and private spheres. The Vienna Accord of 1993
and the Beijing Platform of 1995 together crystallized the principle that women’s rights are
human rights.
17.9 Keeping this in view, the Department of Women and Child Development in consultation
with the Ministry of Law, Justice and Company Affairs drafted a Bill on the Protection from
Domestic Violence that was also introduced in the Parliament on 8-03-2002. As reported in the
preceding annual report, the said Bill was referred to the Standing Committee of the Parliament
pertaining to the Ministry of Human Resource Development for further examination and for
suggesting changes, if any, required in the draft Bill. After the Standing Committee submitted its
report, the Department of Women and Child Development sent a copy of the draft Bill, along
with a copy of the report of the Standing Committee, to the Commission for its comments. Both
these documents were carefully examined by the Commission and comments/modifications
suggested by it were later forwarded to the Department of Women and Child Development.
The comments/modifications suggested by the Commission have already been reported by it in
its annual report for the year 2002-03.
17.10 In the Memorandum of Action Taken on the Annual Report of National Human Rights
Commission for the year 2002-03, the Ministry of Home Affairs has stated that the aforesaid
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