Renuka tips for Mao vow

http://www.telegraphindia.com/1080321/jsp/nation/story_9043887.jsp

CHARU SUDAN KASTURI
New Delhi, March 20: Six decades after Chairman Mao famously remarked that “women hold up half the sky”, China has turned to India for assistance in curbing domestic violence that thrives in the communist state despite a ban.
China has conveyed a desire to discuss with India measures taken here to control wife beating, a practice rooted in dominance men have traditionally enjoyed over women in both societies, senior Indian officials have said.
The issue will be on top of the agenda when women and child development minister Renuka Chowdhury meets government officials during an eight-day trip to China that started today, sources said.
In 1949 — the year of the Chinese revolution — Mao Zedong had promised to quash gender inequality, indicating with his remark that women would have equal rights as men in the new China.
But they continue to be victimised at home, according to statistics provided by the All China Women’s Federation, the country’s largest women’s NGO, which works closely with the government.
Over 50,000 cases of domestic violence were reported last year to the NGO, which has invited the Indian minister. The Chinese government does not keep an official count of domestic violence cases.
The figure — provided to The Telegraph by the NGO today — marks a 70 per cent hike in domestic violence cases from 2006-07.
Around 8,000 cases from across India were registered last year under the Domestic Violence Act, 2005, according to figures released by Chowdhury’s ministry.
“The Chinese have officially banned domestic violence, under a clause of their marriage act. But that clause does not even define domestic violence, which has led to protests there, the Chinese government has told us,” a senior official at the ministry said.
The Marriage Law of the People’s Republic of China, amended in 2001 to ban domestic violence, says the abuse “shall be prohibited”. It also lists domestic violence as a reason that can be cited for divorce.
“But the law is not clear about what comprises domestic violence. For instance, is the law confined to physical violence? It isn’t clear,” a member of the Chinese NGO said. The NGO and activists have been pressing for a more stringent domestic violence law.
Under the Indian act, emotional trauma suffered by a wife at the hands of her husband is also categorised as domestic violence. The law — at least its implementation — has its own share of critics though, with the government failing to provide dedicated protection officers in each district to help women fight cases.