Aman Verma[1] , Kashish Bhardwaj[2]
India is a country where the values of men and women are equal. Genders were equivalently respected and raised perfectly for being polite and honest towards each other. There was complete harmony pertaining to gender justice. But as of now, here comes an evolution where we look up to a man as hunters, but hunters get hunted so it is not always the man who is wrong, but the society today looks up to a man questionably and never straight”. As seen, domestic violence is always discussed when it is committed against a woman, not in a man. Man is always seen as a perpetrator to society. In This article, we will talk about the society behavior, Laws and remedies for a man which he gets after being wrongfully blamed and also will give the idea of the current scenario of the image or replica that lives in the mindsets of the society at present and is being nurtured every day.
KEYWORDS
Genders, Harmony, Gender Justice, evolution, wrong, questionably, domestic violence, perpetrator, scenario, replica
INTRODUCTION
A woman has a choice to claim she isn’t wrong,
do men have that liberty[3]???
Indian poet said that “The whole world celebrates women’s day, but even google doodle fails to wish us on men’s day”. Domestic violence is described as a pattern of behavior in a relationship that is used to retain or gain dominance over an intimate partner. It is also known as Domestic abuse or Family violence in which one of the people in an intimate relationship against the other person, and who can take place in the heterosexual or same-sexual relationship. In the broader sense, the term domestic violence does involve the violence against children, teenagers, parents or the elders. Domestic abuse victims are all wonderful women, especially those who have been subjected to more severe kinds of violence
There are some countries in which domestic violence may be seen as justified or legally permitted. Domestic Violence frequently occurs when the perpetrator believes that the abuse is a right, that it is normal or justified, or that it is unlikely to be reported. Domestic violence can be mental, physical, and also economic and sexual in nature. The cause of it may be serious physical injury, mental disorder or Death.
HISTORY
In the 1800s, most legal systems accepted wife-beating as a husband’s right over his wife. Following the topic of domestic violence, a matter named MENISM, came into the eyes of the people of India. Menism or (Meninism) is a belief system for various groups, including the men’s rights movement, comprising men’s rights, equal rights for men and women or we say gender justice. The term menism was coined in the early 2000s to characterize a man who fought sexism and supported women’s right to equality in politics, society, and the workplace. With the increase in time, the meaning of menism changed in which the term menism was used on social media to make jokes which criticized radical feminism. In the Early 2013s, the BBC posted a report that the Hashtag #MININISTTWITTER was being used to post on Twitter, first to make or share jokes about feminism, but later it became a serious concern about difficulties facing modern men.
MEN’S RIGHTS MOVEMENT
“When I demand equality, I am reminded that there’s no word like menism![4]”
The ‘Men’s Rights movement’ is basically composed of an organization for various independent men’s rights in India. This movement is made for the introduction of gender-neutral legislation and revocation of laws that they consider are biased against men. But due to the rapid increase of anti-dowry laws, which is somehow controversial for their frequent misuse, just for the harassment and extortion against husbands and this misuse has increased the high suicide rate among married men in India (this record is almost twice that of women). Even some of the men’s rights activists have also considered that India’s rape reporting laws and sexual harassment laws in India to be biased against men.
Earlier, In the 2000s, The Men’s Rights movement began as an organization named as “Misused dowry act”. Further, in 2002, another leading member Mr. Gokul Pador joined the organization to help all the husbands from being falsely imprisoned in dowry cases. Subsequently, this was the beginning of the “Save Indian Family” helpline which was founded on 9th March, 2005 by the number of family’s rights organizations across all over India.
In 2008s, people started betraying the actions which were creating domestic violence and were against men. A Chennai-based organization INDIYA KUDUMBA PATHUKAPPU IYAAKAM, had filed a complaint against a Pond’s advertisement which labelled men as wife-beaters and also a commercial by the ICICI prudential Insurance was allegedly portrayed verbal and economical abuse against men. In the year 2009, An NGO named “Child’s Right and Family Welfare ” was formed which demanded a fairer law system for men too, which includes betterment of child custody and access of law. Moreover, in 2009, Ms. Renuka Chowdhury (head of the Ministry of Women and Child Development) agreed to meet the Men’s rights activists to talk about their concerns for biased legislation against men. In the meeting, the ministry officials had announced that they were “unwilling to accept any flaws in current laws’ ‘. This statement of the officials made all activists angry and which resulted in a large number of complaints to the Indian Government.
In the month of September 2012, The Ministry of Women and Child Development smt. Krishna Tirath proposed a bill in which she made it mandatory for the husbands to pay a salary to their wives. This move had been criticized by the men’s rights groups and further sought this matter in front of the Prime Minister Shri Manmohan Singh. In the same year, a TV show called “ Satyamev Jayate ” hosted by actor Aamir khan was criticized by men’s rights activists and stated that the show had portrayed men negatively and projected only one side of the domestic violence issues. In the late 2012s, around 15000 men pledged to boycott khan’s film Talaash.
In present time, the Mumbai-based Vaastav Foundation has released a calendar called “malender” in which they have marked all make-oriented days such as Father’s Day, International Men’s Day etc. The founder of Vaastav Foundation, Mr. Amit Deshpande, said that they are trying to raise awareness these days for showing positive images of men.
AMENDMENT FOR THE PROTECTION OF MEN’S RIGHTS IN INDIAN LEGAL SYSTEM
“More than Feminists and Menists,
All we Need Right now is People who consider People as People[5]”
There were so many proposals from men’s rights activists towards the nation for the protection of men’s rights. Some of them have been mentioned here: –
- Marriage laws (Amendment) Bill, 2010
This amendment was done in the Hindu Marriage Act in 2010, which allows courts to decide compensation to wife and children from the husband’s inheritable Properties. This bill has included the provisions for “irretrievable breakdown” of marriage which both the parties have to live apart for 3 years before filing for divorce and also allowed the wife to oppose the dissolution of a marriage if the husband leaves her in financial hardship.
This Amendment was opposed by the SIFF president Mr. Rajesh Vakharia stating that this bill would encourage divorce and would be costly to husbands. He named the bill as a Regressive move and said that it endangers the financial and social security of a man. After this, the member of the All-India Trinamool congress political party argued that this law only empowers women at the expense of men and suggested that this law is supposed to be made Gender Neutral by using the term “Spouse” and not “Wife” or “Husband”.
- Sexual harassment laws
The Sexual harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act, 2013 is not just a gender neutral in nature and applies only to the protection of women. The Member of SIFF, Mr. Rajesh Vakharia, has pointed out that the bill was originally introduced as gender neutral until the Ministry of Women and Child Development and some NGOs stepped in and changed the name. He also stated that this was an outdated concept which shows that only women are suffering sexual harassment.
MISUSE OF SECTION 498A
The Section 498A of The Indian Penal Code is basically states that whoever, as a woman’s husband or a relative of a woman’s husband, subjects to her cruelty shall be punishable[6]. Section 498A of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) was introduced in 1983 for safeguarding the rights and empowerment of women. Additionally, extortion of any property by subjecting a woman to cruelty is punishable under Section 498A of the IPC. The Indian Penal Code 1860 has been amended by the Government of India by way of Criminal Law (Second Amendment) Act, 1983 and has inserted a new Section 498A under chapter XX-A of Cruelty against a married woman by the husband and his relatives.
The Term ‘Cruelty’ has been described in extended sense for including any cause of physical or mental harm to the body or health of a woman or any kind of harassment with a view to coerce her for the sake of unlawful demand of any property.
But as per the recent records, this law has been misused for wrongfully punishing a man or his family by the wife itself. For an Instance, this Section 498A of IPC was designed and inserted by the lawmakers with a point of protecting women from cruelty, harassment and other offences. But when the cross-investigations are performed in any related case to test the validity of these laws, the number of acquittals relative to convictions was greater. The body (Supreme Court of India) who brought the Section 498A in the legal system, conceived it as a shield against cruelty for women, is now considering this law as legal terrorism. Further that, in 2010, The Supreme court, in a case, criticized the Section 498A of IPC by stating that “It is generally known that a big majority of complaints are based on exaggerated interpretations of the incidents”. In 2014, The Supreme Court claimed that section 498A has been used by women as a weapon, and not a shield nowadays.
FAMOUS CASE
“SOCIAL ACTION FORUM FOR MANAV ADHIKAR V. UNION OF INDIA”
FACTS
The petition was filed under Article 32 of the constitution. The petitioners contented that it’s untrue that there are several women suffering from violence at the hands of husband and his relatives or extended family and that accusation that Section 498A is being misused is not supported from any concrete date on such misuse. It was further said that the social purpose of the section 498-A IPC is being lost as the rigor of the said provision has been diluted and the offence has practically been made balance by reason of various qualifications and restrictions prescribed by various decisions of this court including Rajesh Sharma V. State of U.P.
DECISION
The court concluded that the directions with respect to family welfare committees and their duties are not in accordance with any provision of Code of Criminal Procedure,1973. The offence of cruelty is non- bailable and cognizable offence but due to the directions making it impossible to arrest before the report of such committee has made this ineffective. Thus, the directions given in Rajesh Sharma case has been modified by Court as-:
- The direction with respect to constitution and duties of Family Welfare Committee has been declared impermissible.
- Further, direction pertaining to the settlement has been modified to include that if a settlement is arrived at, the parties can approach the High Court under Section 482 of code of criminal procedure. The High Court, keeping in view the law laid down in Gian Singh V. State of Punjab [14], shall dispose of the same.
CURRENT MINDSETS OF THE SOCIETY
The men’s right movement rejects the concept that men are privileged more or even relative to women. The movement is divided into two groups: those who consider men and women to be harmed or treated equally by sexism, and those who believe that society condones men’s degradation and upholds what they call “female privilege”.
Not all men stand again women or wanting to cause any harm but still get blamed for being a man earlier society needed feminism because women were considered to be burden and damaging and were not duly respected or accepted but why is it feels the same for today’s men as if being a man or being a ‘HE’ in this society is not a pronounce but a criminal or wrongful identity. Men need to be treated wisely as well. They need legal remedies too, they get assaulted in many ways that one can’t even imagine because society portrays men to be strong and fierce and reluctant but they are victims to society. Is criminalizing victims just because of pronouns, they hold us fair? That we barely or nearly have any legal remedies for men but 100s of remedies when it comes to a woman even animals have animals right but where do the men stand? We need to empower men so for good we need a strong legal system where men can feel the comfort of coming forward, cutting down and seizing the society’s hypocritical image and patriarchal identity and state their issue, their feelings and their traumas get justice.
CONCLUSION
“To Achieve Gender Equality,
We must change our Own Mindset[7].!!!”
As Seen, the term “Men’s Rights” have been going through a long journey to get legal recognition in the Constitution of India. Many committees, movement were started for the securities of Men from wrongfully or illegally convicted in the misuse of section 498A, but somehow, all of them have failed to do so. It is very much clear that there are so many laws and legal norms that are made in the Indian Legal System only for the protection of women rights but deep down the truth is, there is not a single law regarding men’s rights protection. A man is always considered a perpetrator by society, but unfortunately nobody wants to know the truth that a man too is being harassed by his wife and his in-laws.
By misusing this section, the women set down a false charge against her husband, however there is no law, using which, Men can protect themselves from women’s false allegations. These ladies, nowadays, are scamming and using Section 498A just to collect some cash from their husband’s. It is a harsh reality that, though section 498A is a right for the protection of women against domestic abuse, but now this is actually used to harass the husband’s and in-laws by the wives.
This concern must be recognized as a public health and social issue, and appropriate planning and proper interference should be implemented by the Government of India. Men too need help in domestic violence and protection from wrongful conviction. Domestic abuse against men must be included as a Penal Offence in laws and legislation. We are all aware of this that both the Men and Women are the Pillars of the society, they should be equally and legally treated. At last, the Government’s Centre of attention is highly required to offer protection to both the spouses from spousal violence.
DECLARATION OF CONFLICTING INTERESTS
In relation to the research, authoring and/or publication of this work, the author reported no potential conflicts of interest.
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Author’s Name – Aman Verma
Co-Author’s Name – Kashish Bhardwaj
College- Bharati Vidyapeeth (Deemed to be university), New Delhi, India
[1]. Author is a Student at Bharati Vidyapeeth (Deemed to be University), New Delhi, India
[2]. Co-Author is a Student at Bharati Vidyapeeth (Deemed to be University), New Delhi, India
[3]. Sneha kala, Best menism Quotes, Status, Shayari, Poetry & Thoughts | YourQuote, posted on 12 apr, 2018
[4]. Aniket Patel, Best menism Quotes, Status, Shayari, Poetry & Thoughts | YourQuote, posted on 9 Jan, 2018
[5]. Sumanta Talukdar, Best menism Quotes, Status, Shayari, Poetry & Thoughts | YourQuote, Posted on 11 Mar, 2017
[6]. India Code, India Code: Section Details, visited on 7th Aug, 2021
[7]. Aishwarya Dubey, SWE member, To Achieve Gender Equality, We Must Change Our Own Mindset – All Together (swe.org), visited on 7th Aug, 2021.