Post-mortem diagnosis of “Battered women syndrome”

Over the last two decades, awareness in the community has significantly increased towards the domestic violence and due to that various legal and other agencies are coming forward to help the victims of domestic violence by means of legislation and other social means. Since the inception of the various laws to protect the women, a great deal of controversy and confusion has surrounded the term “Battered women syndrome”, that how it is used and on what basis the action can be taken to minimize the problem furthers. Battering of women is one of the well-recognized crimes in India, and most of the cases are settled in the home surroundings as rarely they reach to the police station or courts. Detection of such cases during the post-mortem examination is very unusual. One such case was brought to the mortuary of Medical College, Rajkot, in which we could conclude that the deceased was a victim of “Battered women syndrome”, with findings of consistent and repetitive physical torture in the form of different types of injuries of different duration, ultimately terminating into the death. This casereport is an attempt to provide an overview of Battered women syndrome, which makes a question that are we really advancing and our laws are really safeguarding or protecting the interest of the women in India?