The screams were followed by uncontrollable sobs. I was plainly shocked for Vandana (name changed) had appeared so serenely happy with her husband Ankit and their five-year-old son Ashish. When I had moved into the adjoining flat a year ago it was she who had stepped forward to make feel comfortable in my new home by offering tea and snacks. It was she who told me the way to the nearest milk bar and whom to contact for repairs and odd jobs. I was pleasantly surprised to discover that this ‘happy’ housewife with a compact family was also an Economics doctorate and had been a lecturer in a college in Jaipur, her hometown. Now when I think of it, I had liked her husband Ankit too.  A mild-mannered software engineer Ankit was working with a reputed multinational and had just returned from abroad. The ‘beatings’ – I learnt that they occurred repeatedly – were being instigated by interfering in-laws. According to a UN study two-thirds of women fall victim to domestic violence in India. Now consider an important fact: a single violent incident causes the victim to lose seven working days. Now consider another significant fact: No less than 70 percent married Indian women fall prey to domestic abuse, rape, marital rape, beatings and the like. Calculate the number of valuable working days lost and your mind truly boggles. Going by statistics, the same report predicts that at least one in three women are likely to be beaten, raped or forced into sexual compliance or abused in several ways. As expected, the violence – particularly instances of wife-beating – is ‘justified’ by the victims. Among the women interviewed for the study, quite a few reported that they were beaten (quite ‘rightly’) for neglecting the children or for failing to cook. Some said that denial of sex had incited the violence. Significantly, most cases involving domestic violence have gone unreported, the reason being lack of emergency relief for the victims and long-drawn court proceedings apart from ,of course, the social stigma attached to the abuse. The Domestic Violence Act, which is designed to protect women from physical as well as emotional abuse, came into effect on October 26, 2005. For the first time, ‘abuse’ was defined clearly in the physical, emotional and even in the conjugal context. Equally significant is the fact that the law recognizes, for the first time, relationships outside the wedlock. All this looks fine on paper, certainly. But what about implementability? Do we have a police force sensitized to women’s issues, to begin with? The answer, unfortunately, is ‘no’. The same can be said of the judiciary to a large extent. What about society then? As a postscript to Vandana’s case, let me add another incident. This month the neighborhood woke up to a volley of screams one early morning. This time everybody heard Vandana yelling ‘Fire! Fire!’ at the top of her voice. Faces began peeping out of windows. Vandana’s husband raised hand came down sheepishly. I haven’t heard any screams since…