right intention, not so right outcome: addressingdomestic violence through women's cell

This paper is an attempt to understand the ways inwhich the Indian Stateresponds to and constructs the issue of domestic violence through collaborationwith civil society organizations. Women’s groups have for a long time attemptedto infuse gender sensitivity into state machineriesin various ways for a betterhandling of women’s cases. For this purpose they have conducted gendersensitization campaigns, workshops and conferenceswith police, lawyers andjudges. Another such attempt is the establishment of women’s cell within thepremises of the police stations. These women’s cells run by Non GovernmentalOrganizations (NGOs) in collaboration with, and within the structure of policesystem aims at helping the police deal with cases of domestic violence in a gendersensitive manner.My paper attempts at an understanding of the functioning of one such women’scell at Orissa, India. The paper looks at the termson which the Orissa policecollaborate with local NGOs and studies the impactof such an initiative uponwomen’s quest for justice. In this effort it is tobe seen whether the statemachinery (i.e. the police system) subsumes the civil society organization (i.e theNGO) or vice versa, or is it mutually beneficial for both. My paper also focuses incritically analyzing the different functions performed by such women’s cells(members of which come from both police force as well as NGOs) especially itseveryday dealing with cases of domestic violence. The attitude of women’s cellpersonnel as regards the issue of domestic violenceis analyzed. Methods such asobservation of cases at women’s cell within policestations, content analysis of themonthly booklet published by such cells and interviews of women’s cellpersonnel is used to collect data for the study. This study brings forth the ways in which women’s cell personnel interpret andimplement existing laws on domestic violence and inthe process construct andreinforce concepts such as ‘women’, ‘marriage’, ‘family’, ‘masculinity’ and‘femininity’. My paper also illustrates that the capacity of the women’s cell tofulfill many of their original objectives is necessarily limited by their problematicposition within the police bureaucracy. Yet in thecurrent social scenario, wheregeneral police stations are dominated by a masculinist culture these women’s celldo provide a more gender friendly environment. Thuswomen complainants mightfind this space more accessible and compassionate than a police station wherethey fear sexual harassment in addition to other problems.