Abstract
On a warm October day in 2005, I attended a state level conference on preventing violence against women in Mumbai. The speakers included state (Maharashtra) and national level administrative officials, representatives of the United Nations and the United Nations Population Funds (UNFPA), social workers and members of several NGOs. One of the speakers, a high-ranking bureaucrat in the Ministry of Family Welfare, in a fiery speech condemning all forms of violence against women, urged service providers to follow a "zero tolerance policy." In other words, no form of violence against women should be tolerated. She recommended that women be urged to resist and leave their husbands if they are being subjected to physical violence. As is customary, everyone praised her commitment to women's causes. However a few of the members of non-governmental organizations were skeptical about her approach, and though careful not to voice their objections in public, privately criticized her approach for its impracticality and lack of understanding of poor women's needs.
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