‘Firm collective action across states is crucial’: AMAN Network’s ground learnings on enforcing the Domestic Violence Act
The February 2026 issue of ‘Staying Alive’ – a special series to commemorate 20 years of the Domestic Violence Act – explores how feminist networks on the ground have navigated a legal regime riddled with enforcement-related flaws.
AMAN Network
Published on: 26 February 2026, 07:46 am
FEMINIST MOVEMENTS IN INDIA have long since identified domestic violence as a structural violence rooted in unequal power structures within intimate and familial spaces. Instead of looking at abuse as a matter contained within the private space, the feminist legal critique has positioned it within a continuum upheld by patriarchal societal norms enforced through institutional practises that have given precedence to the preservation of family structures over women’s bodily autonomy & integrity.
Women seeking protection frequently encounter disbelief, moral scrutiny, and pressure to reconcile. Police responses often push for mediation, legal procedures are dragged out, and enforcement of relief measures remains uneven. Even progressive laws operate within institutional cultures shaped by gender hierarchy.*
The Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act, 2005 (‘PWDVA’) marked a decisive feminist intervention. The Domestic Violence Act expanded the limits of the legal framework and recognised domestic violence as a violation of civil rights. It thus created scope for civil remedies like – residence, maintenance, custody, protection & compensation. However, fundamental potential has always depended on steady implementation and sustained feminist engagement.
Why feminist solidarity is crucial
The PWDVA envisioned a coordinated, multi-agency response involving Protection Officers, police, courts, legal services authorities, shelter homes, service providers, and medical institutions. However, on ground feminist organisations across India were faced with systemic gaps and challenges like vacant Protection Officers post, lack of clarity regarding service provider registration, delays in service of summons, inconsistent judicial interpretation of residence rights, and limited institutional accountability for enforcement of maintenance and compensation orders.
Across varied socio-political and legal contexts, the common collective reflection was the striking similarity of the barriers faced by women irrespective of their varied demographics. Across metropolitan centres as well as remote districts, practitioners reported similar patterns of procedural delay, institutional lag, and resistance to survivor-centred interpretation. Implementation challenges were structural rather than incidental.
It was within this shared recognition that the AMAN Network—Global Voices for Peace in the Home, was formed on December 7, 2006.
AMAN conceived as a decentralised feminist network tied together with threads of solidarity, shared learning, and collective praxis. The collective stated that in-depth realisation of the PWDV Act required sustained cross state knowledge exchange, mapping and tracking of patterns and gaps, strategic engagement with statutory bodies and coordinated support systems for survivors that help in negotiating uneven responses.
AMAN Network’s journey alongside the Domestic Violence Act
At inception, AMAN articulated a vision of a world free from violence where dignity, equality, and rights are realised irrespective of gender. With its inception in 2006 as a non-funded network of eleven organisations across nine states, AMAN consisted of practitioners with similar commitments focused around: survivor autonomy, ethical counselling, rights based legal processes & understanding of domestic violence as a societal structural problem.
