In Delhi, official data and field reports indicate that domestic violence remains a persistent feature of urban life, cutting across income groups and educational backgrounds.

According to the National Family Health Survey (NFHS-5, 2019–21), approximately 29% of ever-married women in India have experienced spousal violence at some point, with urban prevalence slightly lower than rural figures but still significant in absolute numbers due to population density.

Police records from the National Crime Records Bureau show that cases registered under “cruelty by husband or his relatives” consistently account for the largest share of crimes against women. In its latest available annual report, the NCRB documented over 100,000 such cases nationwide, with Delhi among the cities reporting a high volume of complaints relative to its population.

A 34-year-old resident of East Delhi, whose identity is being withheld for legal reasons, described repeated instances of physical and psychological abuse over several years of marriage. Her case was registered under provisions of the Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act, which provides for civil remedies including protection orders, residence rights, and financial relief.

According to court filings reviewed by legal aid groups, delays in enforcement and procedural bottlenecks often limit the effectiveness of these protections.

India’s legal framework addressing domestic violence includes both criminal and civil provisions. Section 498A of the Indian Penal Code criminalizes cruelty by a husband or his relatives, while the Domestic Violence Act of 2005 broadens the scope to include physical, emotional, economic, and sexual abuse.

Despite this, implementation remains uneven.Data from the Delhi Commission for Women indicates that complaint volumes surged during periods of restricted mobility, particularly during pandemic-related lockdowns, when access to support networks was limited.

While complaint numbers have since stabilized, officials say underreporting continues to be a structural issue. Social stigma, economic dependency, and concerns about familial disruption are cited by advocacy groups as key factors discouraging women from seeking formal recourse.

Legal practitioners working with survivors report that interim relief orders, though provided by law, are not always issued in a timely manner. Court backlogs and administrative delays can extend proceedings over months or years.

Shelter homes and protection officers, mandated under the Domestic Violence Act, remain unevenly distributed across districts, limiting access for vulnerable populations.

Research conducted by the International Institute for Population Sciences, which coordinates the NFHS, indicates that domestic violence correlates with a range of socio-economic factors, including household income, educational attainment, and exposure to intergenerational violence.

However, the data also shows that no demographic group is entirely insulated.Urban centers such as Delhi present a complex pattern. Higher literacy rates and greater institutional access contribute to increased reporting relative to rural areas, yet the underlying incidence remains substantial.

NCRB data suggests that metropolitan areas account for a disproportionate share of registered cases, reflecting both higher population density and relatively greater access to law enforcement mechanisms.

A senior official at a Delhi-based women’s helpline, speaking on condition of anonymity, stated that psychological abuse and economic control are frequently underreported compared to physical violence.

This aligns with findings from NFHS-5, which notes that non-physical forms of abuse often go unrecognized within both legal and social frameworks.

Government and civil society responses have focused on expanding reporting mechanisms and support infrastructure. The Delhi government operates dedicated helplines and has increased funding for one-stop crisis centres, which provide medical, legal, and psychological assistance.

These centres are part of a broader national initiative supported by the Ministry of Women and Child Development.At the national level, policy discussions have increasingly emphasized the need for integrated responses that combine legal enforcement with social support systems. Experts argue that addressing domestic violence requires coordination across police, judiciary, healthcare providers, and community organizations.

Data sharing and standardization of reporting practices have also been identified as areas requiring improvement.The economic implications of domestic violence have drawn attention in recent policy debates. Studies by multilateral institutions, including the World Bank, have highlighted the broader impact on workforce participation and productivity.

Women experiencing domestic violence are more likely to face disruptions in employment, contributing to wider economic costs.

Despite these initiatives, enforcement gaps remain a persistent concern. Advocacy groups point to the need for greater accountability in implementing existing laws, rather than introducing new legislative measures.

Training for law enforcement personnel and judicial officers has been identified as a critical factor in improving case outcomes.

In Delhi, the woman whose case is currently under judicial consideration continues to navigate the legal process while residing in temporary accommodation arranged through a local support organization.

Her case reflects patterns documented in official data, where legal remedies exist but their accessibility and timeliness remain inconsistent across jurisdictions.

Waheedullah Hashimi, a senior figure in the Taliban who is close to the leadership, told Reuters the group would fully implement its version of sharia, or Islamic law, despite pressure from the international community to allow women the right to work where they want.

Since the movement swept to power last month, Taliban officials have said women would be able to work and study within the limits laid down by sharia.

But there has been widespread uncertainty about what practical effect that will have on their ability to keep their jobs. When the Taliban last ruled Afghanistan from 1996-2001, women were barred from employment and education.

The issue is of major importance to the international community and could impact the amount of aid and other assistance that is given to Afghanistan, which is in the throes of economic crisis.

“We have fought for almost 40 years to bring (the) sharia law system to Afghanistan,” Hashimi said in an interview. “Sharia … does not allow men and women to get together or sit together under one roof.

“Men and women cannot work together. That is clear. They are not allowed to come to our offices and work in our ministries.”

It was unclear to what extent Hashimi’s comments reflected the new government’s policies, although they appeared to go further than public comments made by some other officials.

In the days following the Taliban’s conquest of Kabul, Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid told reporters that women were an important part of the community and they would work “in different sectors”.

He also specifically included women employees in a call for government bureaucrats to return to their jobs.

All-Men Cabinet

However, the cabinet appointments announced on Sept. 7 did not include any women and there have been widespread reports of women being sent back home from their workplaces.

Hashimi said the ban on women would also apply to sectors like media and banking, where women have become increasingly prominent since the Taliban fell in 2001 and a Western-backed government was installed.

Contact between men and women outside the home will be allowed in certain circumstances, for example when seeing a male doctor, he added.

Women should also be allowed to study and work in the education and medical sectors, where separate facilities can be set up for their exclusive use.

“We will of course need women, for example in medicine, in education. We will have separate institutions for them, separate hospitals, separate universities maybe, separate schools, separate madrassas.”

On Sunday, the Taliban’s new education minister said women could study at university, but must be segregated from men.

Women have staged several protests across Afghanistan, demanding that the rights they won over the last two decades be preserved. Some rallies have been broken up by Taliban gunmen firing shots into the air.

Improved women’s rights – more noticeable in urban centres than deeply conservative rural areas – were repeatedly cited by the United States as one of the biggest successes of its 20-year operation in the country that officially ended on Aug. 31.

The female labour participation rate stood at 23% in 2020, according to the World Bank, up from effectively zero when the Taliban last ruled.

Several teachers said there was uncertainty over what rules would be imposed under the Taliban.

Students across Afghanistan have started returning to university for the first time since the Taliban stormed to power, and in some cases females have been separated from their male peers by curtains or boards down the middle of the classroom.

What happens in universities and schools across the country is being closely watched by foreign powers, who want the Islamist militant movement to respect the rights of women in return for vital aid and diplomatic engagement.

When it last ruled from 1996-2001, the group banned girls from school and women from university and work.

Despite assurances in recent weeks that women’s rights would be honoured in accordance with Islamic law, it is unclear what that will mean in practice.

Teachers and students at universities in Afghanistan’s largest cities – Kabul, Kandahar and Herat – told Reuters that female students were being segregated in class, taught separately or restricted to certain parts of the campus.

“Putting up curtains is not acceptable,” Anjila, a 21-year-old student at Kabul University who returned to find her classroom partitioned, told Reuters by telephone.

“I really felt terrible when I entered the class … We are gradually going back to 20 years ago.”

Even before the Taliban took over Afghanistan, Anjila said female students sat separately from males. But classrooms were not physically divided.

A document outlining guidelines for resuming class circulated by an association of private universities in Afghanistan listed measures such as the mandatory wearing of hijabs and separate entrances for female students.

It also said female teachers should be hired to teach female students, and that females should be taught separately or, in smaller classes, segregated by a curtain.

It was unclear if the document, seen by Reuters, represented official Taliban policy. The group’s spokesperson did not immediately comment on the document, on photographs of divided classrooms or on how universities would be run.

The Taliban said last week that schooling should resume but that males and females should be separated.

A senior Taliban official told Reuters that classroom dividers such as curtains were “completely acceptable”, and that given Afghanistan’s “limited resources and manpower” it was best to “have the same teacher teaching both sides of a class.”

Keep Studying

Photographs shared by Avicenna University in Kabul, and widely circulated on social media, show a grey curtain running down the centre of the classroom, with female students wearing long robes and head coverings but their faces visible.

Several teachers said there was uncertainty over what rules would be imposed under the Taliban, who have yet to form a government more than three weeks after they seized Kabul with barely a shot fired in anger.

Their return to power has alarmed some women, who fear they will lose the rights they fought for in the last two decades, in the face of resistance from many families and officials in the deeply conservative Muslim country.

A journalism professor at Herat University in the west of the country told Reuters he decided to split his one-hour class into two halves, first teaching females and then males.

Of 120 students enrolled for his course, less than a quarter showed up at school on Monday. A number of students and teachers have fled the country, and the fate of the country’s thriving private media sector has suddenly been thrown into doubt.

“Students were very nervous today,” he said. “I told them to just keep coming and keep studying and in the coming days the new government will set the rules.”

Sher Azam, a 37-year-old teacher at a private university in Kabul, said his institute had given teachers the option of holding separate classes for men and women, or partitioning classrooms with curtains and boards.

But he was worried about how many students would come back, given the economic crisis the Taliban’s victory has triggered.

“I don’t know how many students will return to school, because there are financial problems and some students are coming from families who have lost their jobs”.