Exploring alternative conceptions of justice: Voices of disabled women victim-survivors of domestic violence

This article explores how disabled women who have survived domestic violence in India conceptualise and understand justice. Despite existing legislation on disability and domestic violence, systemic barriers and limited policy efforts leave disabled women invisible, with inadequate support resources addressing their unique experiences and justice needs. Intersectional factors such as caste, class, religion, education, geographic location, and type of disability further shape their lived experiences of violence and their pursuit of justice. Through interviews with 18 women with physical disabilities, the study seeks to capture their perceptions of justice, providing critical insights into how they interpret and construct justice within the context of their experiences of violence, impairment, and socio-economic conditions. Using reflexive thematic analysis and a feminist narrative approach, the study reveals that disabled women’s conceptualisations of justice extend beyond legal frameworks, highlighting systemic failures to accommodate their lived realities. These conceptualisations include notions of accountability, agency, resilience, divine justice, and social change, all of which are influenced by factors such as violence duration, impairment type, access to support services, and socio-economic conditions. By centring the voices of disabled women, this article underscores the need to reimagine justice frameworks to account for the lived experiences of survivors.