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Men seek cover under domestic violence law
NEW DELHI: Two years after women were brought under the protective umbrella of the Domestic Violence Act, men are feeling left out.
Men’s organisations have written to the minister for women and child development (WCD) Renuka Chowdury demanding cover under the Act. They also want women who file false cases against the husband and in-laws to be punished.
The government is under the process of reviewing the Protection of Women from Domestic Violence (PWDV) law which was enacted in October 2006 and the WCD ministry had called for suggestions. Men’s organisations promptly shot off a letter to the ministry suggesting an amendment to the Act. They say the Act should be made gender neutral and the words ‘husband’ and ‘wife’ replaced with ‘spouse’ and ‘men’ and ‘women’ be substituted with ‘person’.
Bolstering their case, Swarup Sarkar of Save Family Foundation says there is no evidence to prove that the domestic violence faced by men is any less than what women undergo. “If we go through suicide statistics of men, especially after marriage, it is clear that a man’s life can become hell too,” says Sarkar.
“According to 2005 crime bureau data, 52,000 married men committed suicide as compared to 28,000 women. Yet there is no law to protect them. In 2006, 55,452 married men ended their lives compared to 29,869 women,”
says Sarkar.
According to the National Family Survey on domestic violence only 25% of the violence is caused by men and husbands form a very small percentage of this, while 75% of the violence is perpetrated by the women, he adds.
The NGOs shelter homes and other facilities for men too, besides family courts without lawyers.
They are of the view that domestic disputes should be resolved in family courts only.
Another of their demands is that women should be prevented from filing multiple maintenance cases. “This is in total violation of Article 20 of the Constitution which lays down that an accused can’t be punished twice for the same offence,” added Sarkar.
Harbouring fears that the fair sex may not be fair after all, they want representatives of men’s NGOs and retired judges on MCWD review committees. “The committees comprise only women with extreme views. We want to ensure a balance and sanity in the review of the law,” Sarkar said.
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Thanks for the information on domestic violence.
We recently wrote an article on domestic violence at Brain Blogger. It’s extremly common to hear about violence against women and about male batterers rather than about violence against men and about female batterers. But hear about it happening the other way around?
We would like to read your comments on our article. Thank you.
Sincerely,
Kelly
Thanks for the information.
I was ignorant about Domestic Violence against Men till I came face-to-face with it 8 months ago.
My friend was brutally battered (physically, emotionally and financially) by his wife for 30 years. He did not know how to come up with his trauma and fight against it. I was shocked to hear his story which actually reached me accidentally.
I jumped to help him fight it out. Of course, he was thrown out of his Govt. accomodation at the first instance of his protest. Now he commutes 40 km everyday to reach his office and his wife lives comfortably in well furnished house next to his office. By the way, his wife is highly educated but never wanted to do any job or involve in any social work. The wife very conveniently managed to make stories and tarnish his character. She has even floated the story that she was harassed for dowry although she is a joint owner in all his deposits as well as has major chunk of his money in her sole name. If a woman had been in a similar situation then the sensitivity towards the victim is very humane. But here he is trying to reconcile and fight for a human life for himself just with my support. Somehow he is now getting victimized by the society and stoic approach of judiciary. The sad part of this story is that his 21 year old daughter believes that either one has to beat or will get beaten.
I was a feminist but this incident made a human being out of me. Now I understand violence is just violence perpetuated by sadist and deranged people. We are not looking for a society were one gender has to oppressed.
So I deeply appreciate your effort to make a point that men also needs to be protected against domestic violence. Praying such change in law comes soon so that my friend can also get some relief and finally gets to live his old age peacefully.