‘But … Where Will I Live?’

Abstract

The chapter deals with women’s unequal rights to housing and draws on the related concepts of security of tenure and ownership rights, to explores the interlink between housing rights and domestic violence to show that protection of right to housing enhances and positively impacts women’s negotiating capacity in dealing with domestic violence. Locating domestic violence within the right to housing under international law the author demonstrates that domestic violence in the absence of security of tenure in the form of ownership or tenancy rights for women is a major cause of forced eviction and homelessness. The PWDVA provides security of tenure through Right to Reside and Residence Orders, in some situations barring the violent household member from remaining on the premises. Analysis of jurisprudence under ‘right to reside’ unmasks the complex nature of the Indian household and the nuances in the way the right has been interpreted and enforced by courts.