Three years ago, Pema's husband came to her asking for Rs. 2 lakhs to pay off a loan. She knew he was being unfaithful, and relations broke down. He threatened to sell the house unless her parents came up with the funds. Eventually she fled, with the two children, to her brother-in-law's house in Coimbatore over 200km away. When members of her local SHG asked her why she was again and she explained, they agreed to get the Violence Against Women (VAW) committee to review her case. She went to meet with the VAW in 2021 in Theni. The VAW lodged a complaint with the police and arranged for Pema to stay with her elder brother in Theni. They notified the Theni District Social Welfare department, but they were not particularly helpful. They just asked what Pema wanted, which is to have full custody and to receive some compensation and childcare funds from their father. Unfortunately, the husband heard that they were taking some action and went to Theni to cause a huge scene shouting at Pema and her brother in the street. When COVID came in hard, Pema and the children went to go live back with her parents in Ponnamalpatti. Her husband, living close by, came into the house and physically beat her in front of her parents and son. He stuck her with a bicycle key, leaving a scar on her left cheek. The husband even struck her elderly father before fleeing the scene.
The VAW came back in at this point to file the case with the police in Andipatti. However, it seems that the husband had got there first and managed to bribe the police to deny the complaint. The police said she had no proof of the attack, but the VAW helped pressure the police, threatening to go to the district level and finally the police accepted the First Information Report (FIR), which authorises an arrest. They brought him into the station but held him there for only one day before releasing him. Fed up with the police, the VAW filed a Domestic Incident Report at the Collector's Office. After a long process of providing much documentation the Protection Officer finally filed the report. Once a domestic violence incident report is prepared, the protection officer must forward a copy of the same to the officer in charge of the police station and Magistrate. The case finally went to court.
In June 2022, the court hearings finally started. The state provides a Free Legal Aid lawyer for Pema. In the first hearing the husband never showed up. In the second hearing the husband arrived with an expensive lawyer. The free lawyer provided to Pema was essentially useless and so with TSPI they appealed and managed to get a new lawyer. One and a half years, and around forty court hearings later, and they are still awaiting a verdict. They suspect some foul play in court, and he only shows up to one in every three hearings or so. Legal cases of personal disputes are meant to take no longer than three months in Tamil Nadu, but the judicial bureaucracy is so dysfunctional that this state of affairs is common. He attempted to appeal that he should be allowed to live back with the family again but thankfully the court rejected that notion. We are now just waiting for the divorce and financial compensation to be rightfully granted. Her husband earns quite well and uses a truck for distributing agricultural products as well as owning some land. They feel confident they should be able to secure some remuneration and we eagerly await a resolution.
After the interview, Pema told us, with full sincerity that she knows of many more cases in which women are in serious need of social, economic, and legal support. India is still very patriarchal, and women suffer discrimination on a daily basis. There is clearly much more work that needs to be done and VAW say that there are still many similar new cases coming in from young brides. We need support to eliminate this diabolical trend.
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