Protection of women from Domestic Violence is a _________ .

The correct answer is Legal Right.

Key Points

• Legal rights are the rights that exist under the rules of legal systems or by virtue of decisions of suitably authoritative bodies within them.
• Protection of women from Domestic Violence is a legal right because it is recognized by the 'The Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act, 2005'.
• Protection of women from Domestic Violence is neither provided in the chapter of fundamental rights in the constitution nor it is provided as a Constitutional Right.

Important Points

• The Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act, 2005
  •  The Act, in a bold break from prior legislation, gives a very expansive definition to the term domestic violence, a term hitherto not even used in legal parlance. 
  • Domestic violence is defined in a comprehensive way in the Act, comprising physical, mental, verbal, emotional, sexual, and economic abuse, harassment for dowry, acts of threatening to abuse the victim or any other person related to her.
  • An important addition to the law ensures that an aggrieved wife, who takes recourse to the law, cannot be harassed for doing so.
  • A woman who is the victim of domestic violence will have the right to the services of the police, shelter homes, and medical establishments.
  • She also has the right to simultaneously file her own complaint under Section 498A of the Indian Penal Code.
  • The Act is an extremely progressive one not only because it recognizes women who are in a live-in relationship but also extends protection to other women in the household, including sisters and mothers thus the Act includes relations of consanguinity,