Facing violence at home? Safety, help and your first steps

If you are in danger right now, call 112 (police) or 181 (the national women's helpline). Read the rest when you are safe.

What may be happening

Someone you live with, or used to live with, is hurting you. It may be a husband, a partner, his relatives, or a member of your own family. It may be beating and pushing. It may also be insults, threats, being watched and controlled, being kept without money, having your jewellery or salary taken, or being told to leave the house.

The law has a name for all of this. Under Section 3 of the Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act, 2005 (the "DV Act"), domestic violence includes:

• physical abuse — hurting you or putting your life or health in danger;
• sexual abuse — any conduct of a sexual nature that abuses, humiliates or degrades you;
• verbal and emotional abuse — insults, name-calling, humiliation, and repeated threats to hurt you or someone you care about;
• economic abuse — taking away money, stridhan (the jewellery and gifts that are yours) or property you are entitled to, or stopping you from using your home;
• harassment for dowry.

None of this is your fault, and you do not need to wait for it to get worse before asking for help.

What to do, step by step

1. Get safe first. If you are in danger, call 112. Call 181, the national women's helpline, for help and advice. If you need somewhere to stay, a shelter home must give you shelter when you, a Protection Officer or a service provider asks (Section 6). It cannot turn you away because no report has been written yet, and if you ask, it must keep your stay secret from the person you are complaining against (Rules, Rule 16).

2. Get medical help, and get injuries recorded. A medical facility must give you medical aid when you, a Protection Officer or a service provider asks (Section 7). Tell the doctor how you were hurt. The medical record is evidence later. A Protection Officer can arrange the examination and send the report to the police and the Magistrate (Section 9).

3. Contact the Protection Officer. A Protection Officer is an officer the state appoints in each district to help women under the DV Act. You can tell the officer what happened by speaking or in writing; the officer writes it down, has it signed, and gives you a copy free (Rules, Rule 4). The officer must, among other things:

• help you make your complaint and your application to the Magistrate;
• prepare a safety plan with you — steps to prevent further violence (Rules, Rule 8);
• arrange legal aid, medical aid and transport to a shelter if you need it;
• write a domestic incident report, a record of what happened, and send it to the Magistrate and the police station (Section 9).

In an emergency, the Protection Officer or a service provider must get the police to come with them and bring the report to the Magistrate without delay (Rules, Rule 9). A service provider is an organisation registered with the state to help women under the Act, with shelter, legal aid or medical help (Section 10).

4. Start a record, and keep it somewhere safe. Write down each incident with the date, what happened and who saw or heard it. Keep photographs of injuries, medical papers, threatening messages and voice notes. Keep copies outside the home — with someone you trust, or in an email account only you can open.

5. Know your two main routes. You can use one or both. The DV Act adds to your other rights; it does not take any away (Section 36).

• An application to the Magistrate under the DV Act. This is not a criminal case against the abuser. It asks for orders that stop the violence and support you: a protection order (Section 18), a residence order so you can stay in your home (Section 19), money for expenses and maintenance (Section 20), temporary custody of your children (Section 21) and compensation. If the application shows violence has happened or is likely, the Magistrate can pass an urgent order before the other side is heard (Section 23). The full process is in Domestic violence application.
• A police complaint. Cruelty by a husband or his relatives is a criminal offence under Section 85 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023, punishable with imprisonment of up to three years and a fine. Section 86 explains cruelty: wilful conduct likely to drive a woman to suicide or to cause grave injury or danger to her life, limb or health, mental or physical, or harassment to meet a demand for property or money. Information about a cognizable offence — one the police can act on without first asking a court — can be given to a police station whatever the area where it happened, by speaking or by electronic communication (Section 173, Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023).

6. Ask for free legal help. A police officer, Protection Officer, service provider or Magistrate who receives your complaint must tell you about your right to these orders and your right to free legal services (Section 5). The Protection Officer must make sure you get legal aid and must give you the complaint form free (Section 9).

Timeline and costs

When	What	Who pays
Today	Safety: 112 or 181; shelter and medical aid on request	Nothing
As soon as you can	Protection Officer records what happened; domestic incident report	Nothing
When you apply	Urgent order possible before the other side is heard (Section 23)	Nothing, with free legal aid; or a private advocate's fee, which they quote first
Within about 3 days of the court receiving it	First hearing should ordinarily be fixed (Section 12)	—
Within about 60 days of the first hearing	The Magistrate should try to decide the application (Section 12)	—
Within 30 days of the order being served	Either side can appeal to the Court of Session (Section 29)	Advocate's fee, quoted first

These are the times the Act asks the court to aim for; in practice they can be longer.

Documents to keep handy

You do not need any of these to get help. They make the application stronger.

• Your own ID, and your children's birth certificates and school details.
• Proof of the relationship: a marriage certificate, wedding photographs, or anything showing you lived together.
• Proof of the home: the address, a rent agreement, bills, a ration card.
• Your written list of incidents with dates.
• Medical records and photographs of injuries.
• Messages, emails, call records or recordings of threats.
• A list of your stridhan and belongings, and what you know of his income and assets.
• Copies of any police complaint or earlier case.

Mistakes that make things harder

• Waiting until it is "bad enough". Emotional and economic abuse are domestic violence too. You can ask for help now.
• Leaving without your papers. If you can do it safely, take your ID, your children's documents and your phone. If you cannot, leave them: your safety matters more.
• Keeping evidence only on a shared phone. Back it up where only you can reach it.
• Thinking you must leave the house to get help. You have a right to live in the shared household, and the Magistrate can protect it (Sections 17 and 19).
• Believing you must pick one route. You can apply under the DV Act, make a police complaint, and claim maintenance. See Maintenance.

If you are thinking about the marriage itself

You do not have to decide about the marriage now. Protection and support come first. Later, if you want to live apart legally without a divorce, see Judicial separation; if you want to end the marriage, see Contested divorce. A 30-minute call with an independent advocate from our panel starts at ₹999, and a written police complaint can be prepared at ₹299.