Reports of BBC news states that in every 5 minutes a complaint of domestic violence is raised, in every 69 minutes a bride is murdered and in every 15 minutes a rape is reported. The problem of female feticide and infanticide is also prevalent, leading to a problematic sex ratio. Similarly, are men not vulnerable? Only women are the victims not the men? Men do not face any kind of discrimination.
Women Rights Groups often stresses on the point that cases of harassment are underreported, but how many of such groups say the same about men. Our society laughs on a man if he says he is a victim of domestic violence or even a victim of a heinous crime like rape. How can someone expect men to come forward with their problems if the very society in which he lives treats him in this way.
Feminism in India has taken a wrong turn. Feminism in simple words means advocating women rights on the grounds of equality. Equality here stands for all sexes including males. However, wrongly understood feminists and our society thinks that men can only commit heinous crimes like rape but cannot be the victim in these types of crimes. Women by help of some unethical law agents often files false cases under provisions like Section 498A and 375 of the Indian Penal Code. Offences under these sections are non bailable and police can arrest a man and even his family without any warrant. Bails are subjected to the discretion of courts in these cases. The honorable Supreme Court has termed these instances where misuse of law takes place as ‘legal terrorism.’
There are many such instances like the Amity case, where two girls asked a group of 25-30 boys to beat up two boys over a trivial parking issue. And after that the girls filed a false molestation complaint against those two boys. Another such incident took place in the case of Sarvjeet Singh Bedi when he was falsely accused of sexual harassment and shortly after the claims by the women he was arrested. After four long years he was acquitted. The most recent case is where a Class 12th boy committed suicide due to public shaming and mental harassment which was ignited when a girl made allegations of sexual harassment against him without any proof or any circumstantial evidence.
It is clearly evident from these examples that the voice of women carries more weight than the voice of men, which is completely wrong. Women also falsely accuse their husbands and his family members of domestic violence and the demand of dowry. Most of these complaints are filed over trivial issues.
The only way to stop these false accusations is to rigorously prosecute anyone who makes false accusation and police should adopt to measures like arrest only when there is significant amount of proof to support the allegations when one is making irrespective of the gender. One could list not just the above-mentioned problems but many other including the child custody in divorce cases, male suicides, limited resources for male domestic violence victims, lack of education for male child and lack of paternity leaves. It is high time now that we realize the problem accept these issues publicly.
The gender advantage. Is it a myth or it is our reality
Dhruv Tomar
Lexcliq
