Often battered and abused husbands have been falsely implicated in harassment cases by 'designing' wives. So, while the Centre takes its own time to frame rules for the Domestic Violence Act, Haima Desshpande examines whether there is a need of gender neutrality in the provisions of the Act.
Case 1
For nearly a decade, 50-year old Chetan Diwane has been doing the rounds of police stations and courts, battling against complaints and cases filed by his estranged wife and her relatives. Each time he extricates himself from one case, another one crops up. "I will not give up. Let me see how many false complaints and cases she can file. No one believes in me. I will fight till my last moment. God will give me justice," is his matter-of-fact summation of the situation.
Case 2
For the Sinhas, life came to a full stop when they were arrested after a complaint of harassment was filed by their son Sunil's wife. Their memories of spending time in a police lock up are still fresh. Though police investigations later revealed that the complaint was false, for the Sinhas the humiliation and loss of face could never be compensated. They have moved away from the city where generations of their family have lived. "If I talk about it I relive the pain, when all I want is to forget it. I have filed a defamation case against that family but since I am a man there is no sympathy," said Sunil Sinha.
As the central government delays in framing the rules of the Domestic Violence Act, 2006, those like Diwane and Sinha have been demanding amendments to the Act and the introduction of clauses that will protect men against "false complaints and abuse" from wives and in-laws. Though the demand is not new, the greater outcry and the formal structure gatherings have now acquired are new. The staunch opposition to this demand by women's groups has only intensified the activities by men's groups to achieve what they term as "an equal footing in the Domestic Violence Act."
The Mumbai-based Protect India Family, an organisation for aggrieved men by aggrieved men, is campaigning aggressively to ensure that abused husbands get a fair footing in the yet to be implemented Domestic Violence Act. Their 24-hour helplines, set up across various cities, are jammed, revealed Mohanlal R Gupta, one of the founders.
The group takes up a case after carefully checking that the man is not making "unnecessary or false allegations". "The group was founded to help aggrieved husbands get justice from false complaints. So we are very careful that no one who comes to us uses the organisation for something else," said Gupta.
While women's groups have said that the promulgation of this Act was long overdue and was a step towards tackling domestic violence, its provisions have caused concern amongst the male fraternity. Under this Act, a case of domestic violence can be filed against a husband and his family on the basis of a mere complaint of insult, verbal abuse or ridicule. Once the case is filed, if the wife complains for a second time, the husband can be thrown out of his house and won't have access to his children.
"The law does not say anything about women and their relatives who abuse or harass husbands," said 28-year old Nitin Datar who has three complaints of harassment filed against him by his estranged wife.
"One month after I got married, I returned to my job abroad. My wife and I communicated via email and telephone. I returned for a holiday and stayed for a fortnight. The next thing I knew, I was slapped with multiple complaints of harassment. I have shifted back to India so that I can fight the allegations," said Datar, a merchandising manager with an MNC.
Though many elected representatives strongly believe that this Act, when implemented, will convert innocent husbands into offenders and criminals, vote bank politics have forced them to stay silent on the issue of gender neutrality in the Domestic Violence Act.
"I strongly believe that this Act is strongly inclined towards women, but I will not say it loudly. The Centre needs to make it a gender neutral Act," said a MP from Mumbai.
Congress MP and Supreme Court advocate Abhishek Singhvi had earlier remarked that the structural realities of India cannot be ignored. He had stated that the use of wide, imprecise and subjective legislative language coupled with a venal and malleable enforcement machinery could spell doom for any law-abiding male citizen of India.
Singhvi had also cautioned that a motivated or malafide invocation of the Act would end up with a remedy much worse than a disease.
Dismissing the claim for gender neutrality in the Domestic Violence Act, former chairperson of the Maharashtra State Women's Commission, Nirmala Samant Prabhavalkar said, "Domestic violence occurs mainly due the patriarchal society we live in, and chauvinism. When a woman's position is that of a subordinate, violence and violations are part of her daily life."
"This Act is necessary to safeguard the interests of abused women. Since there is a provision for counselling in this Act, wherein men can speak up, it is a gender neutral Act. If men feel they are being harassed, they can seek recourse from the general law. There should be no amendments to the Domestic Violence Act," added Prabhavalkar.
Though statistics and research studies point to rising instances of domestic violence against women, an increasing number of men have dismissed these as false and motivated complaints.
Vishal Gupta, a computer engineer, said, "Ninety-nine per cent of complaints of domestic violence are false cases. Women want everything fast -- cars, houses and materialistic things. Living with in-laws is termed mental torture. This Act will definitely be misused, if it is not gender neutral."
Jai Vaidya, a family law advocate, feels that while examining the demand by men's groups, the lawmakers must have a larger overview of social dynamics. "A majority of
women face domestic violence as against the number of men who claim so. Their demand should be backed by research and not individual cases. Men cannot be on par with women in cases of domestic violence. As long as there is no equality between genders... legislature is empowered to pass laws such as the Domestic Violence Act," stated Vaidya.
Set up in 1993, Men Against Violence and Abuse (MAVA) is the only male organisation working against gender-based violence against women. However, for the last three years, the organisation has been 'involved in giving space to aggrieved men to vent their voice in a non-threatening atmosphere'. MAVA founder and Harish Sadani said that in the last five years, a significant percentage of men have asked them for help. "It is a reality that there is no place for aggrieved men either in the Dowry Act or in the Domestic Violence Act. The number of harassed men in households is significant and increasing," said Sadani Yet he is not for gender neutrality in the Act. "The number of men who are harassed and abused by their spouses is much less compared to women who face domestic violence. Women still need the support of the law. We do not think any amendment to the Domestic Violence Act is required," he said.
However, members of Protect India Family insist that the gender neutral provision is required as today's women are empowered and are at par with men. "Women's organisations are responsible for this situation. Instead of understanding acase, they support women who file false complaints. The women who are truly suffering get left behind," is Mohanlal Gupta's verdict.
What the cops say
Top police officials confirm, albeit reluctantly, that cases of false complaints of domestic violence by women are indeed on the rise. "There is not much we can do. By the time we reach the conclusion, husbands and their families have suffered. We have to arrest them when there is a complaint of harassment. If we don't, we will be harassed by women's groups. We fear greater misuse of the Domestic Violence Act as it isn't too precise," said a high-raking police officer.
The problem
Though the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government's Domestic Violence Bill came to be a law on October 26, 2006, it is yet to be implemented due to the inordinate delay in framing the rules.
According to sources lack of budget is also a reason for the slow progress towards implementation.
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