Author(s)

Pravabati Guru^*

Department of Home Science, Government Women’s College, Sambalpur, India.

Legal awareness is a sine qua non to combat violence against women. India is the first country to introduce the Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act-2005 and a number of other laws to empower women. “Are women really legally aware” is a critical question. All the national news- papers are embedded with news about violence against women, which include both domestic and professional front. Though Government of India has enacted a number of laws to empower and protect women from violence, these laws are not that effective due to lack of awareness among women of the country. The present study explored the level of legal awareness among women of different professions, education, and income and its impact on their real life as it related to violence. The findings showed that a positive relationship existed between education, income, professional work and legal awareness. It was also observed that legal awareness and victimization of women were inversely related.

Women, Violence, Legal Awareness, Education, Income, Profession

Guru, P. (2015) Legal Awareness—Hubris for Women to Combat Violence. Open Journal of Social Sciences, 3, 223-231. doi: 10.4236/jss.2015.39030.