Priyansha Choudhary
Political Science
July 2025
This study discusses the efficacy of the Protection of Women against Domestic Violence Act (PWDVA), 2005, in India by looking into the legal framework, procedural challenges and limitations of the social-cultural realities. The Act was a progressive law enacted to respond to a multidimensional, prevalent problem of domestic violence through the creation of civil remedies with the aim of offering immediate relief to the survivors, including protecting orders, the right to residence, and cost accommodation. Nevertheless, although it has a thoroughly worked structure, there exist large loopholes regarding enforcement, interagency coordination, and education among others. Such restrictions are further compounded by traditional patriarchal standards, inadequately funded institutional processes, and social exclusion that puts the women who may belong to the rural communities or be marginalized away in seeking help and reporting the crimes. Based on secondary data, i.e., national surveys (NFHS-5), judgments of the courts, NCRB statistics, and policy reports between 2021 and 2025, and using a doctrinal and qualitative research design, the research considers how the Act works in practice. Interpretation of the results shows that despite the existence of the legal protection of the paper, the inherent slowness of the system, inadequately trained officers of enforcement and the increasingly significant danger posed by technology-driven abuse has made the law less effective. The recommendations provided in the conclusion of paper include specific amendments to legislations that deal with digital abuse, mass-scale training of institutional actors, enhanced inter-agency collaboration, and the establishment of more inclusive support models that are survivor-based in order to increase protection and legal solution to the victim
259- 267
© Airo Journals 2021
