Abstract
Gender-based violence (GBV) remains one of the most pervasive and deeply ingrained abusive forms of human rights violations despite constitutional guarantees of equality, dignity, and non-discrimination. In India, GBV takes its form forms including domestic violence, sexual assault, workplace harassment, trafficking, acid attacks, and structural economic discrimination. Over the past decades, significant legislative and judicial developments—particularly the Criminal Law (Amendment) Act, 2013, the Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act, 2005, the Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act, 2013, and recent reforms under the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023—have bought to strengthen the legal response to such violence. Yet, the persistence of gender-based crimes raises fundamental questions the law’s transformative power.
This Article critically examines gender-based violence through the framework of constitutional morality and social transformation. The study adopts a doctrinal and socio-legal methodology, drawing upon statutory analysis, judicial precedents, policy developments, and international instruments such as the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), UDHR etc.
The study in this article concludes that law has the potential to function as a catalyst for gender justice, but its transformative promise can only be realized through a rights-based, victim-centric, and structurally responsive approach that bridges the gap between constitutional ideals and lived realities.
Keywords:Gender-Based Violence; Social Transformation; Constitutional Morality; Criminal Law Reform; Victim- Centric Justice.
Introduction
Gender-Based Violence (GBV) is one of the most pervasive violations of human rights across the world. It refers to violence directed against a person because of their gender, or violence that disproportionately affects persons of a particular gender, primarily women and girls. GBV is not merely a private or individual issue; it is deeply rooted in unequal power relations, patriarchal social structures, and historically constructed gender roles. GBV is recognized as an obstacle to social transformation, equality, and justice. Gender-Based Violence is not just physical violence; it also includes psychological, sexual, emotional, and economic abuse that keeps gender hierarchy in place. It stems from socially constructed concepts of masculinity and femininity, which sustain inequitable power dynamics between genders. Feminist legal academics contend that gender-based violence (GBV) should be perceived as a structural phenomenon ingrained in cultural, theological, and economic frameworks, rather than as discrete criminal occurrences.
Nonetheless, the mere existence of legislation does not provide adequate protection. Deficiencies in execution, procedural procrastination, societal opposition, and insufficient awareness persist in obstructing substantial access to justice. Consequently, comprehending gender-based violence necessitates an analysis of both legal frameworks and the socio-cultural context in which they function.