ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the challenges women face as complainants in the courts. It concludes that though the law has helped to provide a platform for women to raise their concerns, yet it has failed to make a dent on the patriarchal culture. While the law tries to bring order, it itself has been enmeshed in a complex cultural framework of saving families rather than protecting the rights and dignity of women as citizens. Those who enforce the law see wife beating as a prerogative of the husband. Extensive reliance of the women’s movement on the law has not helped to address the systemic and structural inequities, though it may have enabled women to secure short-term gains. The norms of equality and justice are not internalized within the system.
