The PWDV Act is aimed at providing protection to wife or female live-in partner from violence at the hands of the husband or male live-in partner or his relatives.

• According to the "Crime in India 2022" report by the NCRB, around 4.45 lakh cases of crimes against women were registered in 2022 with majority crimes as Cruelty by Husband or his Relatives.

Key aspects of the Act include

• Definition of Domestic Violence: Includes actual abuse or threat of abuse, whether physical, sexual, verbal, emotional, or economic and harassment by way of unlawful dowry demands. 
• Institutional Mechanism: Requires State Government to appoint Protection Officers, register Service Providers, and notify shelter homes and medical facilities. 
  • Protection Officers make domestic incident report to Magistrate, ensures legal aid to aggrieved woman, and make available a safe shelter home. 
  • Service Provider provides legal aid, medical, financial or other assistance to the aggrieved woman. 
• Reliefs: Aggrieved woman can seek various reliefs such as protection order, residence order, custody order, monetary reliefs, shelter and medical facilities. 
• Residence Rights: Act provides every woman in a domestic relationship the right to reside in the shared household.