Title: Domestic violence in Indian women: lessons from nearly 20 years of surveillance
Version: 1 Date: 17 Jan 2022
Reviewer's report:
Thank you for the opportunity of providing a review for this paper.  The topic being domestic
violence in India is an important one worthy of further research.
Your publication is interesting based on 20 years of surveillance although as you state in your
paper the reporting and collection of data is far from consistent and the issue of domestic violence
continues to be under reported and hidden.
I am glad you included a list of acronyms in full at the end of the paper as it can be distracting
having to keep looking up the meaning of same. Please add meaning of crime heads to this list
(I assume you mean head of the police departments or does it mean the main areas that data is
collected on eg dowry deaths etc  - this is not stated and needs to be clarified)
I would suggest you need to  elaborate on the background to your research - outline how the
Domestic Violence Act aims to protect women from domestic violence (explain what are the
objectives of the legislation) please outline DV in India for readers not from India.
Ensure you are consistent when reporting on statistics and clearly state the prevalence or
incidence rate each time eg line 29 you state the rate of reported cruelty by husband or relatives
in India was 28.3 (I assume this is 28.3 per 100,000 women etc but not stated and no reference
provided). Line 40 you state in the results section of the abstract that ....'could inform more
contextual and nuanced multi pronged policy action' but this is not discussed any where else in
the paper and it is unsure how you reached this result? This is definitely worth further discussion
in your paper.
There are several grammatical errors  eg Line 71 'variability within country' that detract the
reader but I sure the publisher can assist to correct these before any possible publication?
Please further explain the statistical analysis used to utilise the First Information Reports from
the NCRB data. What information does this FIR collect?
Line 79 - 'Four crime heads corresponding to domestic violence related crimes against women
were considered after consultation with legal experts who dealt with domestic violence cases
—cruelty by husband or his relatives, dowry death, abetment of suicide of women, and cases
registered under PWDVA . ' please provide a bit more information about why these were chosen
to be collected. It would be good to define the PWDVA and the NCRB reports based on the
principle offence rule at line 90 in the background/introduction.
Line 107 the number of legal cases filed for these crimes and their current status in the judicial
system is very interesting  and why this system remains slow and not able to act against
perpetrators  quicker requires a bit more explanation that that provided in the discussion.  I note
line 261 onwards regarding lack of action unless evidence of injury extreme (what does extreme
mean in India?) at line 270 re poor response of formal systems including the legal system to DV.
It would be good to posit some  additional reasons why reports have declined in some states and
not others eg line 140 re Cruelty by husband reported in Mizoram.
Why have the rates stagnated or decreased in several states - is the legislation effective against
DV or is other action apart from surveillance noted at Line 205 required? What are some
suggestions based on the current research?  I also think your discussion should include DV in the
context of Covid-19 given this pandemic has impacted on DV internationally including India?
Line 215 and 216 very interesting and the difference in police records and self reporting by
women has  been found in research in other countries also. Section 218 to 224 very telling about
reasons for low/under reporting of DV.  The lack of social support you mention several times eg
line 230 is important - what is India doing about this? Perhaps some additional recommendations
could be made in your paper re same?
The high rate of suicides 238 on by Indian women is a well written section and highly important.
Section 248 re 2010 Amendment (amendment to which Act?) and why was this Act amended
then?
You only mention US sustainable goal no 5 in the conclusion - suggest you discuss this earlier
in your paper.
Interesting paper but needs a bit of tweaking for clarity.