Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. As per this logic, injustice behind the doors is also a grave threat to the notion of justice in our mind and milieu. Generally,we are only concerned with the physical violence outside the doors i.e, at street or any other public place. Violence behind doors also deserves our attention. We have been witnessing the upsurge in no. of domestic violence cases in recent times even in this so called developed world. There is proper legislation to curb this menace but the problem has not come to an end. That is why in this piece, I want to focus on the psychological aspect which is generally ignored in our society. As per criminal jurisprudence, there is a presence of mens rea(Guilty mind) behind every criminal act. Here , I want to analyse the mental element that often leads to such a deplorable act.
Women are an integral and important part of our society. As per our mythological texts, even God had to incarnate through women’s womb to free the earth from demons. Nonetheless, the status of women is venerated only in the library and in those mythological texts where we call them ‘devi’. In practical terms, the situation is otherwise.
Most women are tagged with the word ‘housewife’ though they are working 24*7 without any pay. Even worse, in this patriarchal set up of society,they have been placed in men’s subjugation and that is why they are struggling to get an equal say in familial issues. When they claim their say, the husbands (Not all) who have been taught by this society to be strong and tough, try to show all their toughness and strength in front of their easy target i.e, their wives. Perhaps the mentality of such husbands is that they are the master and the sole breadwinner of the family and so they can control the conduct of their wives or if not, they can thrash them and unfortunately they do it with immunity from the society. It is despicable and appalling. Such mentally challenged husbands can’t imagine the mental pain inflicted upon their wives. They are unable and perhaps unworthy to sense the repercussions of the assault inflicted on her body as well as on her soul. Sometimes, due to our ill social set-up, women are so subjugated that they can’t even think of lodging a complaint of any torture they have undergone. Most of the time, women silently suffer all these problems because speaking out may be inimical to their children as well as their family at large. It is because of the fact that women are generally taught during their upbringing, in more or less every Indian society, to maintain the happiness of the family by going to any extent. This social pressure enhances the biological burden put upon them per defaltam by almighty, which is certainly not fair. Now, the question is why husbands are not so concerned with this issue. Perhaps because they are already tasked with earning money , they think that to suffer or to be silent in the interest of the family is not their sphere of duty. When they return home from their offices...wives are there to bear the anger of office load or any other problem thereof on pretext of dissatisfaction of anything in home.
WAY FORWARD :-
What are the solutions or ways forward to such a problem which is a serious threat to the social structure and also to the community standard. On the basis of the above analysis, two things which are at the heart of the problem comes in front of us i.e, society and psychological aspect of its being.
Society can’t be set in order through any panacea(rambaan). The opinion of society is the manifestation of its being. If we want to cure the society ,first we have to cure its inhabitants otherwise it will be mere day-dreaming to find a solution to this problem. One can easily suggest that with the increase in no. of educated people such problems will come to an end. Here it is noteworthy that the matter of domestic violence is not restricted to only uneducated people. Several highly educated people have been convicted in the cases of domestic violence. Therefore, we need educated people in real sense, not those ‘literate one’. Inculcation of moral values, discipline, respect for other beings especially for women among students, and lessons that can make students sensible towards such problems in this rapidly evolving practical world, is the need of the hour. It is important to teach them that violence is not the solution to any problem. Every war comes to an end with a treaty and therefore it is imperative to tell them that dialogue can solve almost all the problems and can create a win-win situation. Through these little efforts in this money-centric society we can prepare better human beings as well as better future couples who can solve their familial problems without resorting to violence ( be it physical or mental). If all these would be implemented in the true sense , the neighbours would not get to hear unfortunate violent sounds from the closed doors of others. Problem, sometimes, lies in perception... so mard should remember that.... wo kaisa mard jisko dard na hota ho... actual mard wo jisko dusro k liye dard hota ho.(It may be the immediate solution ☺ )
